People, Locations, Episodes

James Earl Jones, Actor born

*James Earl Jones was born on this date in 1931. He is an African American actor.

Carol Millard, Singer and Actress born

*Carol Maillard was born on this date in 1951. She is a Black vocalist and actress. Maillard is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and originally attended the Catholic University of America on scholarship as a Violin Performance major. She began writing music and performing with the Drama Department and eventually changed her major to Theater. This passion […]

Ivan Dixon, Actor, and Director born

*Ivan Dixon was born on this date in 1931.  He was a Black actor, director, activist, and producer.   Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III was born in Harlem, the son of a grocery store owner. When he was young, Dixon lived at 518 West 150th Street in Harlem, on the same block with Josh White, Ralph […]

Shirley Verrett, Opera Singer born

Shirley Verrett was born on this date in 1931. She is an African American opera singer and one of the leading sopranos in the world.

She was born New Orleans to Leon Solomon, a building contractor, and Elvira Harris Verrett; she had four brothers and a sister. She had and her parents were passionate members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, an affiliation that would play a role in the development of Verrett’s career. When Verrett was five, the family moved to Oxnard, CA, where her father established the Verrett Construction Company.

Philippa Schuyler, Composer, and Writer born

On this date, Philippa D. Schuyler was born in 1931. She was an African American concert pianist.

Adrienne Kennedy, Playwright born

Adrienne Kennedy, an African American playwright, was born on this date in 1931.

Thomas Carey, Vocalist born

*Thomas Carey was born on this date in 1931.  He was a Black operatic baritone vocalist.  Born in Bennettsville, South Carolina, he served in the United States military during the Korean War.   After leaving the service, he studied singing at the Henry Street Settlement and City College of New York. In 1970, he performed […]

Reri Grist, Classic Vocalist born

*Reri Grist was born on this date in 1932. She is an African American classical vocalist and educator.

Otis Young, Actor, and Teacher born

Otis Young was born on this date in 1932. He was an African American actor, minister, and educator.

R.I., Young was one of 14 children. He joined the Marine Corps at 17 and after serving in the Korean War, enrolled in acting classes at New York University on the GI Bill. He studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Drama in New York City in 1960 and appeared in numerous theater productions there and in Los Angeles. Young was the first Black actor to co-star in a television Western series, “The Outcasts” in the late 1960s.

Mabel King, Actress born

*Mabel King was born on December 25, 1932.  She was a Black film, stage, and television actress and singer.   She was born Mabel Elizabeth Washington in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of Rosalie Washington and Joseph Washington.  She was raised in Harlem, New York, where she became a gospel and nightclub singer.  She did not start acting until her mid-thirties, in […]

Nichelle Nichols, TV, Actress born

*Nichelle Nichols was born on this date in 1932. She was a Black actress, singer, and dancer. Grace Dell Nichols was the third of six children born in Robbins, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Her father was Samuel Earl Nichols, a factory worker elected both town mayor of Robbins in 1929 and its chief magistrate, […]

Godfrey Cambridge, Stage, and Screen Actor born

*On this date in 1933, Godfrey Cambridge was born. He was an African American actor and comedian, one of the most unique comics of the early 1970’s.

Born to parents who emigrated from British Guiana, he attended public schools in Nova Scotia while living with his grandparents. After finishing his education in New York at Flushing High School and Hofstra College, he began to study acting.

Eugene E. White, Artist born

*Eugene E. White was born on this date in 1933. He is an African American artist.

Camille Billops, Artist born

*Camille Billops was born on this date in 1933. She is an African American artist.

From Los Angeles, in 1960, Billops graduated from Los Angeles State College (California State University, Los Angeles), where she majored in education for physically handicapped children. She collaborated with photographer James Van Der Zee and poet, scholar, and playwright Owen Dodson on the Harlem Book of the Dead, which was published in 1978 with an introduction by Toni Morrison. Her primary medium is sculpture and recently, has turned her eye to filmmaking.

Arthur Duncan, Tap Dancer born

*Arthur Duncan was born on this date in 1933.  He is a Black Tap Dancer.   Born in Pasadena, California, Duncan entered show business at age 13, when he was a dance quartet member performing at McKinley Junior High School in Pasadena, California.  He later entered Pasadena City College to study pharmacy but left to pursue a career in show business. Duncan started touring with The Jimmie […]