People, Locations, Episodes

Pigmeat Markham, Comedian born

On this date we mark the birth of Pigmeat Markham in 1904. He was an African American comedian.

From Durham, North Carolina, Dewey Pigmeat Markham began his long career in 1917, dancing in traveling shows. He traveled the southern ‘race’ circuit with blues singer Bessie Smith and later appeared on burlesque bills with Milton Berle, Red Buttons, and Eddie Cantor. By the 50s, Markham was one of Black America’s most popular entertainers through his shows at the Regal in Chicago, the Howard in Washington, and in particular, New York’s famed Apollo.

Undine Moore, Composer, and Teacher born

On this date in 1904, Undine Smith Moore was born. She was an African American composer, pianist, choir director, and educator.

Joseph Delaney, Artist born

*Joseph Delaney was born on this date in 1904.  He was a Black artist. Delaney was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, one of ten children of a Methodist minister.  He was the younger brother of Beauford Delaney, with whom he shared an interest in drawing. In his late teens and early 20s, Delaney spent years without […]

Miguel Covarrubias, Artist born

*Miguel Covarrubias was born on this date in 1904.  He was a Mexican painter, caricaturist, illustrator, ethnologist, and art historian. He captured the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance in much of his work and his book, Negro Drawings.  José Miguel Covarrubias Duclaud was born in Mexico City. After graduating from the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria at […]

Olufela Sowande, Musician, and Composer born

*Olufela Sowande was born on this date in 1905.  He was a Black Nigerian musician and composer.   Olufela (Fela) Obafunmilayo Sowande was born in Abeokuta, near Lagos, Nigeria; he was the son of Emmanuel Sowande, a priest and pioneer of Nigerian church music. As a child, he sang in the Choir of the Cathedral Church of Christ. […]

The Pekin Theatre (Chicago) Opens

*The Pekin Theatre was established on this date in 1905.  Located in Chicago, Illinois, it was one of the first Black-owned musical and vaudeville stock theatres in the United States.   Between 1905 and 1911, the Pekin Club and its Pekin Theatre served as a training ground and showcase for Black theatrical talent, vaudeville acts, and musical comedies. Additionally, the theatre […]

Frederick O’Neal, Stage, and Media Arts Advocate born

Frederick Douglass O’Neal was born on this date in 1905. He was an African American stage, film, and TV actor/director who also organized and led theater and arts groups.

Lois M. Jones, Artist, and Educator born

On this date, Lois Mailou Jones, an African American painter and educator, was born in Boston in 1905.

James A. Porter, Artist, and Historian born

James Amos Porter was born on this date in 1905. He was an African American painter and art historian, instrumental in the development of the scholarly study of African American art.

Josephine Baker, Entertainer, and Activist born

Josephine Baker, an African American French expatriate dancer and singer, was born on this date in 1906.

Leonard Reed, Dancer, and Composer born

*Leonard Reed was born on this date in1907. He was an African American, Native American dancer, composer, choreographer and showman.

Mae Barnes, Stage Entertainer born

The birth of Mae Barnes in 1907 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American dancer and singer whose basic swinging approach fell between jazz and middle-of-the-road pop music.

Canada Lee, Actor born

This date marks the birth of Canada Lee (Lionel Cornelius Canegata, his name at birth) in 1907. He was an African American actor and one of the leading Black actors of the 1940s and 1950s.

His film credits include Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” and Robert Rosen’s “Body and Soul.” He was known for his dignified presence, a rare image for black screen actors of that time.

Gladys Bentley, Singer born

*Gladys Bentley was born on this date in 1907. She was an African American singer and entertainer.

She was the oldest of 4 children born to a Trinidad born mother, Mary Mote (Bentley) and an American born father, George L. Bentley. She left home at 16 and ended up in Harlem New York, the capital of “The New Negro.” For Bentley, her lesbianism and the large Homosexual population in the 1920s made her need to strike out on her own all the more urgent. In Harlem this great creative outpouring was also a celebration of optimism about the future of Black America.

Rudolph Dunbar, Clarinetist and Conductor born

Rudolph Dunbar was born on this date in 1907. He was a Guyanese conductor, clarinetist, and composer.

Dunbar was born in Nabaclis, British Guyana. He was 14 when he joined the British Guiana Militia Band as a clarinet-playing apprentice. He immigrated to the United States five years later, and began studying at the Institute of Musical Art, (now the Juilliard School) in New York, where he was also involved with the Harlem jazz scene. During this time, he was a recording artist, playing clarinet solos. He also established a friendship with Black composer William Grant Still.