*Tyler Perry was born on this date in 1969. He is a Black actor, filmmaker, and playwright. Perry was born Emmitt Perry Jr. in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Willie Maxine Perry (Campbell) and Emmitt Perry Sr., a carpenter. He has three siblings. In contrast to his father, his mother took him to church each week, where […]
learn more*Carl Weathers was born on this date in 1948. He was a Black football player and actor. From New Orleans, LA., Weathers started performing in plays as early as grade school. In high school, athletics took him down another path, but he would reunite with his first love later in life. Weathers played college football […]
learn more*Matthew Beard Jr. was born on this date in 1925. He was a Black child actor. Beard was born near Los Angeles, California, to Matthew Beard Sr. and Johnnie Mae Beard (née Clay). His father was the founding pastor of the Beloved Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles. Beard previously played baby parts […]
learn more*Allen Hoskins was born on this date in 1920. He was a Black child actor and rehabilitation counselor. Allen Clayton Hoskins was born in Boston, but his parents, Clayton H. Hoskins and Florence A. Fortier Hoskins, moved the family to Los Angeles, and in 1922, his acting career began. His younger sister Jannie also appeared […]
learn more*Norman Lear was born on this date in 1922. He was a white Jewish-American screenwriter, producer, and progressive activist. Norman Milton Lear was from New Haven, Connecticut; his parents were Jeanette (née Seicol) and Hyman “Herman” Lear, a traveling salesman. He had a younger sister, Claire Lear Brown. Both parents were of Russian-Jewish descent. When Lear […]
learn more*Andre Braugher was born on this date in 1962. He was a Black actor. Andre Keith Braugher was born in Chicago, the youngest of four children born to Sally, a postal worker, and Floyd Braugher, a heavy equipment operator. He lived in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago’s West Side. He attended St. Ignatius College Prep […]
learn more*Peggy Cooper Cafritz was born on this date in 1947. She was a Black art collector, educator, activist, philanthropist, and socialite. Born Pearl Alice Cooper, Peggy Cafritz belonged to one of Mobile, Alabama’s wealthiest black families. She later changed her name legally to her childhood nickname, “Peggy.” The Cooper family gained their wealth through Peggy’s […]
learn more*Michael DeMond Davis was born on this date in 1939. He was a Black journalist and a pioneer in African American journalism, opening the doors for many African American writers. Michael Davis was born in Washington, D.C., the son of John P. Davis and Marguerite DeMond Davis, and grew up in a black middle class […]
learn more*John P. Davis was born on this date in 1905. He was a Black journalist, lawyer, and activist administrator. John Preston Davis was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Dr. William Henry Davis and Julia Davis. In the 1920s, his father was Secretary to the Presidential Commission investigating the economic conditions in the Virgin […]
learn more*Georg Stanford Brown was born on this date in 1943. He is an Afro Cuban actor and director. Brown was seven years old and born in Cuba when his family moved from Havana to Harlem, N.Y. At 15, he formed The Parthenon singing group. Brown quit high school at 16 and left New York to move to […]
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