Utilizing the research of Professor Dominique-René de Lerma of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, historian William J. Zick in the article below provides vignettes which comprise an overview of various composers and musicians of African ancestry who performed in Europe, North America, and Latin America … Read MoreBlack Composers and Musicians in Classical Music History
Howard Thurman was one of the most influential theologians of the 20th Century. Born on November 18, 1900 in Daytona Beach, Florida, Howard Thurman was raised by his grandmother who had been a slave. Thurman completed high school in Jacksonville, Florida and entered Morehouse College. … Read MoreHoward Thurman (1900-1981)
Mervyn Malcolm Dymally, an African American politician from Los Angeles, California who has served in the California Assembly, the State Senate and as a U.S. Congressman. He is also the first African American Lt. Governor of California. Dymally is now once again in the California … Read MoreMervyn Dymally (1923- )
Captain Hezekiah Ford Douglas was born in Virginia in 1831 to a white man named William Douglas, and an enslaved mother named Mary. He escaped from slavery sometime after his fifteenth birthday, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Working as a barber, the self-educated Douglas was … Read MoreH. Ford Douglas (1831-1865)
On July 10, 1889, the musician and lyricist, Noble Sissle, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, a minister and organist, shared his passion for music with his son. In 1906, the family moved to Cleveland where young Sissle sang on a vaudeville circuit. In … Read MoreNoble Sissle (1889-1975)
Born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio to parents George and Ella Ramah Wofford, novelist Toni Morrison grew up in a working-class family. She received a B.A. from Howard University after majoring in English and minoring in the classics. Wofford earned … Read MoreChloe Anthony Wofford “Toni” Morrison (1931-2019)
Best known as the inspiration for Toni Morrison’s award winning novel, Beloved, The Margaret Garner Incident of 1856 contains one of the most ground breaking fugitive slave trials of the pre-Civil War era. Margaret Garner was born into slavery on June 4, 1834 on Maplewood … Read MoreMargaret Garner Incident (1856)
Danny K. Davis was born in Parkdale, Arkansas on September 6, 1941, the son of a sharecropper. He received a B.A. in history from Arkansas A.M. & N. College in 1961 and then moved to Chicago. In 1968 he earned an M.A. from Chicago State … Read MoreDanny K. Davis (1941- )
Jimmy Winkfield, born on April 12, 1882, was a professional jockey and horse trainer who became famous in the early twentieth century. Winkfield, the youngest of seventeen children, was born in Chilesburg, Kentucky, a town just outside of Lexington. As a child, he had a … Read MoreJimmy Winkfield (1882-1974)
Fannie Jackson was born a slave in Washington D.C. on October 15, 1837. She gained her freedom when her aunt was able to purchase her at the age of twelve. Through her teen years Jackson worked as a servant for the author George Henry Calvert … Read MoreFannie Jackson Coppin (1837-1913)
