Charles Gordone was born Charles Edward Fleming on October 12, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio to parents William and Camille Fleming. He took his stepfather’s surname of Gordon when his mother remarried when he was five years old. The family moved to Elkhart, Indiana, his mother’s … Read MoreCharles Gordone (1925-1995)
Born into poverty, the grandson of a former slave, business executive Stanley O’Neal rose through the ranks of corporate America to become the first African American to head a major firm on Wall Street when Merrill Lynch named him chief executive officer in 2002. In … Read MoreStanley O’Neal (1951- )
A pioneer playwright and moralistic philosopher of constructive thinking, Garland Anderson was the first African American known to have a serious full-length drama produced on Broadway in New York. Active in the theatre for over 10 years during the 1920s and 1930s, he achieved national … Read MoreGarland Anderson (1886-1939)
The New Rochelle, New York annulment trial of Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander and his wife, Alice Jones Rhinelander, was a much-publicized issue in the 1920s which highlighted white America’s definitions of race, class, and marriage. Alice Jones was the daughter of working-class English immigrants. Her mother … Read MoreLeonard “Kip” Rhinelander Trial (1925)
Willie Howard Mays Jr. was born May 6, 1931, in Westfield, Alabama to Ann and William Howard Mays. Both of his parents had been athletes. Ann Mays was a high school track star while William Howard Mays had played semi-professional baseball in Birmingham’s Industrial League … Read MoreWillie Mays (1931- )
Romare Bearden was a twentieth century African American artist who specialized in paintings and collages and also produced works in the performing arts and literature. Romare Howard Bearden was born on September 2, 1911, to Howard and Bessy Bearden in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bearden grew … Read MoreRomare Bearden (1912-1988)
Jazz pianist Thelonious Monk became one of the 20th Century’s most influential and innovative jazz musicians. Born on October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, young Thelonious Monk grew up in New York City after the family … Read MoreThelonious Monk (1917-1982)
Public Enemy, the rap group from Long Island, New York, is one of the most influential groups in the emerging genre of rap music. Borrowing heavily from the rhetoric of black power, a generation earlier, the group achieved both commercial and critical success. Public Enemy … Read MorePublic Enemy
Def Jam Records, created by hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons, is one of the most successful black-owned record labels in the history of the United States. Its success and influence on music and popular culture are paralleled only by Motown Records in the 1960s and 1970s. … Read MoreDef Jam Records (1984- )
Rap Music, and the culture that surrounds rapping itself, hip-hop, is a genre of music and a lifestyle which originated in the housing projects of New York City, New York in the late 1970s but which now has global influence. While not without controversy and … Read MoreRap/Hip Hop
