African American artist and dancer Thelma Johnson Streat was born in Yakima, Washington on August 29, 1912, the second of Gertrude Beatrice Carson and James A. Johnson’s five children. Streat’s artistic ability was evident at a young age. She graduated from Washington High School in … Read MoreThelma Beatrice Johnson Streat (1912-1959)
Ambassador Gail Dennise Mathieu, ca. 2008 “Image Ownership: Public Domain” Gail Dennise Mathieu, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, was appointed United States Ambassador to Niger by President George W. Bush in 2002. She remained in Niamey, the capital until 2005. In 2007 … Read MoreGail Dennise Mathieu (1951?- )
Sylvia Stanfield, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, took up her post as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Brunei in November 1999. President William J. Clinton appointed Ambassador Stanfield to the … Read MoreSylvia Gaye Stanfield (1943- )
Larry Steele’s touring production review, Smart Affairs, was the largest black entertainment touring group in the United States from the 1940s through the early 1960s. Steele’s review, headquartered in Atlantic City, New Jersey, featured up to 40 entertainment acts. The revue performed in major venues … Read MoreLarry Steele’s Smart Affairs (1946-1971)
Concert bass-baritone singer, actor, and teacher William Caesar Warfield was born on January 22, 1920, in West Helena, Arkansas, to a family of sharecroppers. When Warfield was a young child, his family moved to Rochester, New York, where his father served as a pastor for … Read MoreWilliam Warfield (1920-2002)
Charles Dean Dixon, a conductor, was born January 10, 1915, in New York, New York, to West Indian parents Henry Charles Dixon and McClara Rolston Dixon. Dixon’s parents exposed him to classical music at an early age, and his mother taught him to play the … Read MoreCharles Dean Dixon (1915-1976)
Today the phrase “Uncle Tom” evokes a powerfully negative image in American society. It depicts a weak, subservient, cringing black man who betrays his race and its struggle for liberation. David Reynolds, an English professor in the Graduate School of the City University of New … Read MoreUncle Tom Revisited: Rescuing the Real Character from the Caricature
Born Robert Todd Duncan in Danville, Kentucky in 1903, Todd Duncan was the first African American to perform in an otherwise all-white cast in the New York City Opera’s production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. He began his professional stage career in 1933 in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria … Read MoreTodd Duncan (1903-1998)
William “Bill” Pinkney is the first African American, and only the fourth person in the world to circumnavigate the globe alone by boat. Pinkney was born on September 15, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois to Marion Henderson Pinkney and William Pinkney, Sr. He attended Tilden Tech … Read MoreWilliam “Bill” Pinkney (1935- )
Richard Wayne Penniman, also known as Little Richard, is considered one of the most influential artists in the early years of rock and roll. This singer, songwriter, and pianist was born in 1932 in Macon, Georgia, the son of Charles “Bud” Penniman and Leva Mae … Read MoreLittle Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman) (1932-2020)
