People, Locations, Episodes

Fire (The Magazine) is Published

*The first publication of Fire, the magazine is celebrated on this date in 1926. This black literary publication exerted a marked impact on the Harlem Renaissance. It was read in the 1920s and early ’30s despite its demise after the first issue (November 1926). The idea for the apolitical Negro literary journal was conceived in Washington, D.C., […]

Paul Robeson Jr., Author, and Activist born

*Paul Robeson Jr. was born on this date in 1927. He was an African American author, activist and translator.

Dolly Rathebe, South African Entertainer, and Columnist born

*Dolly Rathebe was born on this date in 1928. She was a Black South African musician, columnist, and actress. Dolly Rathebe was born in Randfontein, South Africa but grew up in Sophiatown, which she describes as having been “a wonderful place.” She was discovered around 1948 after singing at a picnic in Johannesburg. A talent […]

Maya Angelou, Writer, and Activist born

*Maya Angelou was born on this date in 1928. She was an African American poet, historian, author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director.

Sylvia Wynter, Novelist and Philosopher born

*Sylvia Wynter was born on this date in 1928. She is a Black novelist, dramatist, critic, philosopher, and essayist. Sylvia Wynter was born in Cuba to Jamaican parents, actress Lola Maude (Reid) Wynter, and tailor Percival Wynter. At the age of two, she and her brother Hector and their parents returned to their home country of Jamaica. […]

Ted Joans, ‘Spoken Word’ Artist born

Ted Joans was born on this date in 1928. He was an African American painter, trumpeter, and a jazz poet.

From Illinois, He studied trumpet, sang bebop, and earned a B.A. in Fine Arts from Indiana University before moving to Greenwich Village in New York City in 1951. He was one of the first Beat poets, and authored over 30 books of poetry, prose, and collage, including Black Pow-Wow, Beat Funky Jazz Poems, Afrodisia, Jazz is Our Religion, Double Trouble, Wow, and Teducation.

The Saturday Evening Quill is Published

*The publication of the Saturday Evening Quill is celebrated on this date in 1928. It was a short-lived Black literary magazine of the Harlem Renaissance. It was founded by the journalist Eugene Gordon. In 1925, Boston-based journalist Eugene Gordon organized a Black literary group, the Saturday Evening Quill Club (also known as the Boston Quill Club). Its […]

Lerone Bennett Jr., Author, and Historian born

Lerone Bennett, Jr. was born on this date in 1928. He is an African American author, historian, and journalist.

He was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the son of the Lerone and Alma (Reed) Bennett. He and his family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where he attended public schools. Bennett graduated from Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949. That same year, Bennett attended Atlanta University for graduate study. Bennett became a journalist for the Atlanta Daily World in 1949, continuing until 1953 and he worked as city editor for JET magazine from 1952-53.

Evelyn Fairbanks, Minnesota Author born

*On this date in 1928, Evelyn Fairbanks was born. She was an African American writer, educator, and administrator.

Sarah Elizabeth Wright, Author born

*Sarah Elizabeth Wright was born on this date in 1928. She was a Black writer and social activist. Sarah Elizabeth Wright was born in Wetipquin, Maryland, and began writing poetry at eight. She attended Salisbury Colored High School and, in 1945, entered Howard University. At Howard, she was mentored by Sterling Allen Brown and Owen Dodson […]

Paule Marshall, Educator, and Writer born

*Paule Marshall was born on this date in 1929. She was a Black poet and prose writer, and professor. She was born Valenza Pauline Burke in Brooklyn, New York, to Adriana Viola Clement Burke and Sam Burke. Marshall’s father had migrated from Barbados to New York in 1919 and, during her childhood, deserted the family […]

Eloise Greenfield, Author born

Eloise Greenfield, an African American writer, was born on this date in 1929.

Walter Scott Sr., Publisher born

*Walter Scott was born on this date in 1929.  He was a Black author, historian, and self-publisher.  Walter R. Scott Sr. was born in Greenville, Mississippi, the son of George and Cozy Grossley Scott. His father was also related to Baseball’s George Scott of the Kansas City Royals. As a young boy, he moved to […]

Raymond R. Patterson, Harlem Poet born

On this date in 1929, Raymond R. Patterson was born. He was an African American poet, writer, and professor.

Derek Walcott, Poet born

*Derek Walcott was born on this date in 1930. He is an Afro Caribbean poet, playwright and educator.

He was born in Castries, Saint Lucia; one of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. Both his grandmothers were descendants of slaves. His father, a Bohemian watercolorist, died when Walcott and his twin brother, Roderick, were very young and his mother ran the town’s Methodist school. After studying at St. Mary’s College in Saint Lucia and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, Walcott moved to Trinidad in 1953, where he has worked as theatre and art critic.