People, Locations, Episodes

Jeni Le Gon, Dancer, and Actress born

*Jeni Le Gon was born on this date in 1916. She was an African American dancer and actress.

Born and raised near the south side of Chicago, her musical talents were developed on the street in neighborhood bands and musical groups. At the age of thirteen, buoyed by her brother who got a job touring as a singer and exhibition ballroom dancer, she landed her first job in musical theatre, dancing as a soubrette in pants, not pretty skirts. Le Gon trained at Mary Bruce’s School of Dancing.

Alice Childress, Playwright, and Actress born

On this date in 1920, Alice Childress was born. She was an African American playwright, novelist, and actress. She was known for her realistic stories about the lasting optimism of Black Americans.

She was born in Charleston, SC, and grew up in Harlem, New York City, where she studied drama with the American Negro Theater in the 1940s. There she wrote, directed, and starred in her first play, “Florence” (1949), a dramatic piece about a black woman who, after meeting an insensitive white actress in a railway station, comes to respect her daughter’s attempts to pursue an acting career.

The Samba (Afro Brazilian Expression), a story

*The Samba is celebrated on this date in 1916.  Also known as samba Urbano Carioca, it is an Afro Brazilian music and dance genre becoming public in the early 20th century.   It originated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; it has roots in the cultural expression of West Africa and Brazilian folk traditions, especially those linked […]

Ulysses Kay, Musician born

*Ulysses Kay was born on this date in 1917. He was an African American musician and composer.

Sandman Sims, Dancer born

*Sandman Sims was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black tap dancer. Howard “Sandman” Sims was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, one of 12 children. The family soon relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he was raised. Describing his childhood, Sims said, “It was just a whole big dancing family.” He learned […]

Janet Collins, Prima Ballerina born

*Janet Collins, an African American ballet dancer and painter, was born on this date in 1917.

From New Orleans, Louisiana, she moved with her family to Los Angeles as a young girl, attending Los Angeles City College and the Los Angeles Art Center School. As an accomplished painter, she was able to finance her relocation to New York to pursue a career in dance. In 1941, she performed with the new, but world-renowned Black dance troupe formed and directed by Katherine Dunham.

Raymond Steth, Graphic Artist born

*Raymond Steth was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black graphic artist. Raymond Ryles was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and his parents were Lulu Mann and Charles Ryles, a working-class farming family. He spent much of his childhood on a large farm in North Carolina, which would later influence his artwork. Rolando […]

Lena Horne, Singer, and Actress born

This date marks the birthday of Lena Horne in 1917. She was an African American singer and actress whose refusal to be cast in stereotypical roles helped transform the popular image of Black women.

Earl Cameron, British Actor born

*Earl Cameron was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black Afro Caribbean British actor. Earlston Jewett Cameron was born in Pembroke, Bermuda, and grew up on Princess Street, Hamilton, UK. His father was a stonemason who died in 1922, after which Cameron’s mother took on various jobs to support the family. As […]

Claudia McNeil, Actress born

*Claudia McNeil was born on this date in 1917. She was an African American actress.

Isabel Sanford, Actress born

*On this date in 1917 Isabel Sanford was born. She is an African American actress.

From New York City, Sanford’s life story is the type that those in show business enjoy because it gives the struggling artist hope. After education in New York, she joined the Star Players (later the American Negro Theater) in the 1930s. Sanford worked with them until World War II started and the theater temporarily split up. After the war, Sanford had home obligations that put her career on hold. But her husband’s death was inspiration for Sanford’s dream.

Jacob Lawrence, Artist and Educator born

Jacob Lawrence, an African American artist and educator, was born in this date in 1917. Lawrence was among the best-known 20th century African American painters, a distinction he shared with Romare Bearden.

Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, NJ, and was 13 when he moved with his family to New York City. Lawrence was only in his 20s when his “Migration Series” made him nationally famous. The series depicted the epic Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the 20th century.

Rose Piper, Artist born

*Rose Piper was born on this date in 1917.  She was a Black painter best known for her semi-abstract, blues-inspired paintings of the 1940s. Rose Theodora Piper was born Rose Theodora Sams in New York. She grew up in the Bronx, where her father taught Latin and Greek as a public school teacher. She attended Hunter College, majoring in art and […]

Beryl McBeurnie, Dancer, and Instructor born

*Beryl McBurnie was born on this date in 1917. She was a Trinidadian dancer, instructor and administrator.

Butterbeans and Susie, Vaudeville Pioneer Performers

*Butterbeans and Susie are celebrated on this date in 1917. They were a Black 20th-century comedy Vaudeville team. They were comprised of Jodie Edwards and Susie Edwards (née Hawthorne). They married in 1917 and performed together until the early 1960s. Their act, a combination of marital quarrels, comic dances, and racy singing, proved popular on the Theatre Owners Booking […]