People, Locations, Episodes

Willie Best, Actor born

*Willie Best, sometimes known as Sleep n’ Eat, was born on this date in 1916. He was a Black television and film actor. A native of Sunflower, Mississippi, William “Willie” Best came to Hollywood, California, as a chauffeur for a vacationing white couple. He decided to stay in the region and began his performing career with a traveling show in southern California. He […]

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.

Ossie Davis, Actor, and Activist born

Ossie Davis was born on this date in 1917. He was an African American actor, writer, producer, director, and a “giant of civil rights.”

Raiford Chatman Davis (his birth name) was the oldest of five children born to Laura Cooper and Kince Davis in Cogden, GA. He picked up his nickname others mistook his mother’s articulation of his initials, “R.C” as “Ossie.” He headed for Howard University, where he studied under drama critic Alain LeRoy Locke, the first black Rhodes Scholar. Davis began his career as a writer and an actor with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem in 1939.

Pearl Bailey, Actress, and Entertainer born

*On this date, Pearl Bailey was born in 1918. This African American singer, actress and entertainer, known for her comedic timing and charm, was honored for her service to American troops, and named as special delegate to the United Nations (UN).

Hilda Simms, Actress, and Media Talent Advocate

This date in 1918 marks the birth of Hilda Simms. She was an African American stage and film actress.

Born Hilda Moses in Minneapolis, MN she graduated from South high school. Sims joined the American Negro Theater at Harlem, NY, in 1943, and was given the title role in Anna Lucasta. When the production moved to Broadway in 1944, it became the first all-Black production to be performed on Broadway without a racial theme. It had a run of over 950 performances.

Vernon Jarrett, Journalist born

*Vernon Jarrett was born on this date in 1918.  He was a Black broadcast and print journalist.  Vernon Daurice Jarrett was born in Tennessee; both of his parents were schoolteachers. He attended Knoxville College in Tennessee on a football scholarship and graduated with a bachelor’s in history and sociology in 1941.  He moved to Chicago in […]

The Homesteader Film Debuts

*On this date in 1919, The Homesteader (film) was shown.  This is a lost black-and-white silent film by Black author and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.  The Homesteader involves six principal characters, the leading one being Jean Baptiste (Charles Lucas), a homesteader far off in the Dakotas, the lone Black living in the area. Jack Stewart, a Scotsman, arrives in this wilderness with his motherless daughter, […]

The Norman Film Studio Opens

*On this date in 1919, we celebrate the founding of the Norman Film Manufacturing Company.  Norman Studios was an American film studio in Jacksonville, Florida. Richard Edward Norman founded them, and the studio produced silent films featuring African American casts from 1919 to 1928. The only surviving studio from early film-making in Jacksonville, its facilities […]

Lloyd Richards, Media, and Stage Producer born

Lloyd Richards was born this date in 1919. He was an African American film, theater, and video director.

He was born in Toronto, Canada, but at an early age his family moved to Detroit. Lloyd Richards was only nine years old when his father died, leaving his mother to raise five children during the Depression. To make matters worse, soon after his mother became blind. At 13, young Lloyd went to work to help support the struggling family.

Kathleen Livingstone, Broadcaster born

*Kathleen “Kay” Livingstone was born on this date in 1919.  She was a Black Canadian social activist, actress, and broadcaster.   The daughter of James and Christina Jenkins, she was born Kathleen Jenkins in London, Ontario. Her father was an assistant judge in the local juvenile court, and her parents founded a newspaper, Dawn of […]

Hazel Scott, Singer, Actress, and Musician born

Hazel Scott was born on this date in 1920. She was an African American singer, actress, and musician.

Beah Richards, Actress born

The birth of Beah Richards in 1920 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American actress and poet.