*On this date in 1980, Radio One, Inc.is celebrated. Formerly Radio One, is a Silver Spring, Maryland-based American media conglomerate. It is the largest Black owned broadcasting company and as of 2014, it was the ninth highest-earning Black owned business in the United States. It is operating 55 radio stations and majority-owning the syndicator Reach […]
learn more*Cathy Hughes was born on this date in 1947. She is a Black entrepreneur, radio and television personality and business executive. Born Catherine Elizabeth Woods to Helen Jones Woods and William Alfred Woods. Her mother Helen Woods, was a trombonist with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and her father was the first Black to earn an accounting degree from […]
learn more*On this date in 1919, The Homesteader (film) was shown. This is a lost black-and-white silent film by Black author and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. The Homesteader involves six principal characters, the leading one being Jean Baptiste (Charles Lucas), a homesteader far off in the Dakotas, the lone Black living in the area. To this wilderness arrives Jack Stewart, a Scotsman, with his motherless daughter, […]
learn more*Robb Armstrong was on this date in 1962. He is a Black artist and cartoonist. Armstrong was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; his mother, Dorothy was a seamstress. He has four siblings. He started drawing sketches of Charlie Brown at age five, and he lists Charles M. Schulz as one of his influences and heroes. […]
learn more*George Olden was born on this date in 1920. He was a Black graphic designer. George Elliott Olden was born in Birmingham, Alabama as the grandson of a slave and the son of a Baptist preacher. In his youth he attended Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., then Virginia State College, before dropping out shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor to work as a graphic designer for […]
learn more*On this date in 1971, Soul Train airs on television. This was an African American music-dance television program which aired in syndication until March 27, 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featured performances by R&B, Soul, dance/pop, and hip-hop artists, although funk, jazz, disco, and gospel artists also appeared. The series was created by Don Cornelius, who also served as its […]
learn more*On this date in 1978, thee movie The Wiz opened theaters globally. The Wiz was an American musical adventure fantasy film produced by Universal Pictures and Motown Productions. It was a reimagining of L. Frank Baum’s classic 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz featuring an all-Black cast, the film was loosely adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name. It follows the adventures of Dorothy, a […]
learn more*Thelma Carpenter was born on this date in 1922. She was a Black jazz singer and actress. She was born in Brooklyn, NY, the only child of Fred and Mary Carpenter and attended Girls’ Commercial High School. As a child performer, Carpenter had her own radio show on WNYC in New York and won an amateur night at the Apollo Theatre in 1938. […]
learn more*Billy Dee” Williams was born on this date in 1937. He is a Black actor, voice actor, and artist. William December Williams Jr. was born in New York City, the son of Loretta Anne a West Indian-born elevator operator at the Lyceum Theatre and aspiring performer from Montserrat, and William December Williams, Sr., a Black and Native American caretaker from Texas. He grew up in Harlem. He used to go to Central Park to see the Negro […]
learn more*Mabel King was born on December 25, 1932. She was a Black film, stage, and television actress, and singer. She was born Mabel Elizabeth Washington in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of Rosalie Washington and Joseph Washington. She was raised in Harlem, New York where she eventually became a gospel and nightclub singer. She did not start acting until her mid-thirties, in […]
learn more
