*Jennifer Beals was born on this date in 1963. She is a Black actress and photographer. Early life Beals was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, in the Bronzseville community. She’s the daughter of Jeanne Anderson, an elementary school teacher, and Alfred Beals, who owned grocery stores. Beals’ father was Black, […]
learn more*Lynn Whitfield was born on this date in 1953. She is a Black actress. From Louisiana, Whitfield made her film debut in Dr. Detroit in 1983. Three years later, she played the title character in the fact-based TV movie Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI, the story of the first Black female FBI agent. After gaining recognition […]
learn more*Snoop Doggy Dogg was born on this date in 1971. He is a Black rapper, songwriter, media personality, actor, and entrepreneur. He was born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. in Long Beach, California, to Vernell Varnado and Beverly Tate. His father, a Vietnam War veteran, singer, and mail carrier, left the family only three months after […]
learn more*Gilbert Moses was born on this date in 1942. He was a Black activist, theater, television, and film actor and director. Gilbert Moses III was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and began acting as a child at Karamu House. He studied at Oberlin College and spent a year at Sorbonne University in Paris before leaving college […]
learn more*Roscoe Orman was born on this date in 1944. He is a Black actor, writer, artist, and child advocate. Orman was born in The Bronx, New York. While a student at New York City’s High School of Art and Design, Orman made his theatrical debut in the 1962 topical revue “If We Grow Up.” He […]
learn more*The birth of Chester Higgins Jr. is celebrated on this date in 1946. He is a Black photographer. Higgins was born in Fairhope, Alabama, and grew up in New Brockton, Alabama. He attended Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), where he met the school’s official photographer, Prentice H. Polk. He graduated in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in business […]
learn more*Rashida Jones was born on this date in 1976. She is a Black Jewish actress, director, writer, and producer. Rashida Leah Jones was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother was actress Peggy Lipton and her father, musician/record producer Quincy Jones. She is the younger sister of actress and model Kidada Jones. Jones’s father is Black, […]
learn more*Sue Jorge was born on this date in 1970. He is an Afro Brazilian musical artist, songwriter, and actor. Jorge Mário da Silva (his birth name) was the firstborn of four children in Belford Roxo, Rio de Janeiro. According to a DNA test, Seu Jorge is 85.1% African, 12.9% European, and 2% Amerindian. He belongs to haplogroup […]
learn more*Carole Simpson was born on this date in 1941. She is a Black media broadcast journalist, news anchor, and author. Carole Estelle Simpson was born in Chicago, Illinois. At a young age, she became involved in drama in elementary school and high school, training her to articulate and project her voice for media. In […]
learn more*Dolly Rathebe was born on this date in 1928. She was a Black South African musician, columnist, and actress. Dolly Rathebe was born in Randfontein, South Africa but grew up in Sophiatown, which she describes as having been “a wonderful place”. She was discovered around 1948 after singing at a picnic in Johannesburg. A talent […]
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