Andre Watts is the subject of one of the more memorable stories in American music. In 1963, the 16 year old high school student won a piano competition to play in the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concert at Lincoln Center, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. … Read MoreAndre Watts (1946- )
George Dixon, also known as “Little Chocolate,” was born on July 29, 1870 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Standing only 5’ 3 ½” and weighing no more than 118 pounds over the bulk of his career, “Little Chocolate” was described as long armed and skinny legged, … Read MoreGeorge “Little Chocolate” Dixon (1870-1909)
With the birth name of Claudia Cumberbatch, Claudia Jones was born on February 21, 1915 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Her family migrated to the United States in 1924 and became residents of Harlem, New York. Claudia’s mother was a garment worker and due to the effects … Read MoreClaudia Jones (1915-1964)
John Edward Bruce was born into slavery in Piscataway, Maryland in 1856. When Bruce was three years old his father was sold away to Georgia prompting young Bruce and his mother to escape to Washington, D.C. in fear of losing each other. Bruce and his … Read MoreJohn Edward Bruce (1856-1924)
As a generation of young African Americans broke new artistic and political ground in the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s, three thousand miles away in Los Angeles, Fay Jackson helped to fuel a similar, if less well known movement. Jackson and her friends, including future … Read MoreFay Jackson (1902-1988)
Alexander Crummell, an Episcopalian priest, missionary, scholar and teacher, was born in New York City in 1819 to free black parents. He spent much of his life addressing the conditions of African Americans, urging an educated black elite to aspire to the highest intellectual attainments … Read MoreAlexander Crummell (1819-1898)
Born a slave in 1819 in Natchez, Mississippi, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield had little reason to dream of the life that would eventually become her own. Because of a series of unlikely circumstances and her own relentless efforts she would eventually become known as the first … Read MoreElizabeth Taylor Greenfield (1819-1876)
Eldrick “Tiger” Woods was born on December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California to parents Earl and Kultida Woods. His mother was a native of Thailand. Woods was given the nickname Tiger after a Vietnamese soldier and friend of his father’s. He grew up watching his … Read MoreEldrick “Tiger” Woods (1975- )
Amy Ashwood Garvey was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, but spent most of her childhood in Panama where her father supported the family as a businessman. She returned to Jamaica as a teen and attended Westwood High School in Trelawney, where she met her future … Read MoreAmy Ashwood Garvey (1897-1969)
Born on August 15, 1875 to a physician from Sierra Leone and an Englishwoman, musical composer and conductor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor grew-up in Holborn, England. He revealed his musical talents at the age of five, began studying the violin at the age of seven, and entered … Read MoreSamuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
