*Lester Melrose was born on this date in 1891. He was a white-American talent scout and producer of Chicago blues music. Lester Franklin Melrose was born in Sumner, Illinois, the second of six children of Frank and Mollie Melrose, who owned a small farm. He relocated to Chicago around 1914 and tried unsuccessfully as a catcher […]
learn more*’Big Joe’ Williams was born on this date in 1903. He was a Black Delta blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Born in Oktibbeha County, a few miles west of Crawford, Mississippi, Joseph Lee’ Big Joe’ Williams began wandering across the United States busking and playing in stores, bars, alleys, and work camps as a youth. […]
learn more*Bobby Bland was born on this date in 1930. He was a Black blues singer. He was born Robert Calvin Brooks in the small town of Barretville, Tennessee. His father, I. J. Brooks abandoned the family not long after his birth. He later acquired the name ‘Bland’ from his stepfather, Leroy Bridgeforth, who was also […]
learn more*Smokey Robinson was born on this date in 1940. He is a Black singer, songwriter, record producer, and former executive director. William Robinson Jr. was born to an African American father and African American and French descent mother. His family lived in the North End area of Detroit, Michigan. Robinson’s ancestry includes Nigerian, Scandinavian, Portuguese, […]
learn more*Barrett Strong Jr. was born on this date in 1941. He was a Black singer and songwriter. He was born in West Point, Mississippi, the only boy in a family of six children born to Barrett Strong Sr., a minister. When he was four years old, his family moved to Detroit, Michigan, and his father […]
learn more*The first performance of the Afro-American Symphony is celebrated on this date in 1931. Also known as Symphony No. 1. It is the first symphony written by an African American and performed for a United States audience by a leading orchestra. “Afro-American” and Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major is a 1930 composition by William Grant Still. It […]
learn more*Suzanne De Passe was born on this date in 1946. She is a Black media entrepreneur. De Passe was born in New York City to a Harlem-born mother of Jamaican descent and a father of Haitian and French descent. Raised in Harlem, she attended Manhattan High School and later Syracuse University. De Passe began her […]
learn more*Stormé DeLarverie was born on this date in 1920. She was a Black singer, butch lesbian, fashion designer, and LGBT activist. She was born in New Orleans to a black mother and a white father. DeLarverie’s father was wealthy, and her mother worked as a servant for his family. According to DeLarverie, she was never given a […]
learn more*Cleo Laine was born on this date in 1927. She is a Black British jazz and pop singer and an actress. Laine was born Clementine Laine in Southall, London, to Alexander Sylvan Campbell, a black Jamaican building laborer, and Minnie Bullock, a white English farmer’s daughter from Swindon, Wiltshire. She attended the Board School there on Featherstone Road, sent […]
learn more*”Mickey” Stevenson was born on this date in 1937. He is a Black songwriter and former record producer. He was born William Stevenson in Detroit, MI. His mother was a singer and entertainer who worked with a big orchestra. When he was 7, she wanted me and my brothers to perform at the Apollo Theater in New […]
learn more
