Image Ownership: John Matthew Smith (CC BY-SA 2.0) Actress Phylicia Rashad was born June 19, 1948 in Houston, Texas to Andrew Allen, a dentist, and Vivian Ayers, a Pulitzer Prize nominated poet and playwright. Rashad’s siblings are also entertainers; her brother “Tex” Arthur Allen Jr. … Read MorePhylicia Rashad (1948- )
Stage performer Richard B. Harrison found his passion for acting as a child. He devoted his life to pursuing this passion in the face of Jim Crow, finally becoming nationally acclaimed in the last years of that life. Harrison was born on September 28, 1864 in … Read MoreRichard B. Harrison (1864-1935)
Actress Pam Grier is best known for her portrayal of tough and sexy crimefighters in the 1970s genre of “blaxploitation” films. Her later work in the 1998 film Jackie Brown earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Pamela Suzette Grier was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina … Read MorePam Grier (1949- )
Best remembered for the role of Reverend Sykes in the film classic To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), William Walker was born in Pendleton, Indiana in 1917. The son of a freed slave, Walker was the first African American graduate of Pendleton High School. After graduating, … Read MoreWilliam Walker (1917-1992)
Eartha Mae Kitt was born on January 26, 1928, in the city of North in South Carolina. Her sharecropper parents abandoned Kitt and her half-sister as young children, forcing them to live with a foster family until they moved to New York City, New York … Read MoreEartha Mae Kitt (1928-2008)
Jazz pianist and popular singer Nathaniel Adams Coles was born into a musical family in Montgomery, Alabama on March 17, 1919. His mother Perlina was a choir director in his father Edward’s Baptist church. His three brothers, Edward, Ike, and Freddy, became professional musicians. Cole … Read MoreNat “King” Cole (1919-1965)
The physical presence that black British actor Harry Baird brought to the movie screen was largely a consequence of the United Kingdom going through the birthing pain of racism during the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Guyana, this premier black actor was no Paul Robeson, … Read MoreHarry Baird (1931-2005)
