Gilbert Edward Noble was a pianist, producer, professor, news anchor, television host, and documentarian. His entry into media was largely due to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. Born in Harlem, New York on February 22, 1932 to Jamaican parents Iris Villiers Noble, a … Read More … Read MoreGil Noble (1932-2012)
“Image Ownership: Hegor” Harlem Désir is currently a socialist politician and Foreign Affairs Under-Secretary for Europe in the government of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. His career began in the 1980s when he was a leftist student who protested racism and the leader of “Touche … Read More … Read MoreHarlem Désir (1959- )
James Arthur Baldwin, fiction writer, essayist, dramatist, and poet, was born on August 2, 1924 in Harlem, New York during the Harlem Renaissance. After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx in 1942, he began his formal career as a writer. Baldwin […] … Read MoreJames Baldwin (1924-1987)
Opened in 1923, the Cotton Club on 142nd St & Lenox Ave in the heart of Harlem, New York was operated by white New York gangster Owney Madden. Madden used the Cotton Club as an outlet to sell his “#1 Beer” to the prohibition crowd. … Read More … Read MoreCotton Club of Harlem (1923- )
Harlem Renaissance writer Festus Claudius McKay was born on September 15, 1889, in Sunny Ville, in the Clarendon Hills of Jamaica, to peasant farmers Hannah Ann Elizabeth Edwards and Thomas Frank McKay. Young Claude was tutored by his elder schoolmaster brother, Uriah Theodore McKay, who […] … Read MoreClaude McKay (1889-1948)
Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West was born on June 2, 1907 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the only child of Rachel Pease Benson and Isaac Christopher West. Isaac West was a former slave from Virginia whose small-business success afforded his daughter a childhood of […] … Read MoreDorothy West (1907-1998)
[…] of his earnings to humanitarian enterprises. He financed dormitories at Southern black colleges and supplemented the income of a number of Harlem Renaissance artists and supported impoverished Harlem children. His lottery profits also helped establish a Baptist school in Liberia, create a museum in […] … Read MoreCasper Holstein (1876-1944)
John Raymond Jones, also known as the Harlem Fox, was a Harlem politician and the first African American to lead New York City, New York’s Tammany Hall. Jones was born on November 19, 1899, in Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas. At the … Read More … Read MoreJohn Raymond Jones (1899–1991)
Anita Scott Coleman was a relatively unknown but important western contributor to the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico in 1890, Coleman’s mother, Mary Ann, met her father, William Henry Scott, near Fort Elliott, Texas where he served as a buffalo soldier. He […] … Read MoreAnita Scott Coleman (1890-1960)
Roy Rudolph DeCarava was the first African American to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship. Born on December 9, 1919 in Harlem Hospital, New York City, New York, DeCarava was the only child of a Jamaican mother and American father, who separated when he was young. In 1938 DeCarava … Read More … Read MoreRoy DeCarava (1919-2009)
