1945-2004 Actor, singer Carlton Earl Anderson, known as Carl to his friends and family, became famous for his portrayal of Judas Iscariot in the stage and screen production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's 1970s rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. Possessed of high energy and an upbeat attitude, Anderson was also a highly respected jazz vocalist, who released nine solo albums and appear…
1938— Secretary General of the United Nations Annan, Kofi, photograph by Jeff Christensen. Reuters/Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission On December 18, 1996, the clink of raised champagne glasses rang through the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York City. The celebration was to honor incoming Secretary General Kofi Annan, the first black African ever to have held the diff…
1957— Singer Baker, Anita, photograph. Jo Hale/Getty Images. Anita Baker's rich and entirely distinctive alto voice has invited comparisons that range beyond the world of contemporary pop to include mention of such legendary jazz figures as Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson. One of the leading performers in the field of sophisticated black adult pop in the late 1980s and early 19…
1951-2003 Actor Fred Berry, the portly actor best known for his comic turn as "Rerun" on the hit ABC sitcom What's Happening!! in the late 1970s, died in 2003 at the age of 52 in Los Angeles. Berry never returned to the stardom he attained early in his career, but became a minister and motivational speaker later in his life. One of his last roles was a cameo in the 2003 David …
1926— Economist Brimmer, Andrew F., photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission. The first black man to be named a governor of the Federal Reserve System, Andrew F. Brimmer is a noted economist who heads his own successful Washington consulting firm, Brimmer & Co., Inc., and is considered a specialist in federal reserve monetary policy. He is also a frequent com…
1957(?)— Police chief Bully-Cummings, Ella, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission. Detroit Police Department veteran Ella Bully-Cummings became the first woman to serve as chief of police in her city, long known for its high crime rate. Bully-Cummings was named to the post in November of 2003 after a spate of recent troubles on the force, and immediately won high…
1949— Educator, university administrator When Dr. Mickey L. Burnim was appointed chancellor of North Carolina's Elizabeth City State University, the 105-year-old campus was struggling with auditing problems, slipping enrollment, and an aging infrastructure. Burnim immediately set about turning the historically black university around. He hired three new vice chancellors who helped hi…
1913— Writer, politician Césaire, Aimé, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission The West Indian playwright and politician Aimé Césaire emerged as one of the leading voices in the négritude movement in the 1930s. Searching for a way to unite the peoples of the African diaspora, Césaire and future Senegalese President Léopold Sé…
1930-2004 Musician, singer, composer, arranger Charles, Ray, photograph. Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images. Above all his many talents, singing great Ray Charles had the ability to interpret and sing songs in such a way as to fill the words from the depths of his own heart, carrying this emotion to the listener. "I sing the songs for what they mean to me," Charles was quoted in Joe…
195(?)— Women's health advocate, association executive Much of Lorraine Cole's professional life has been devoted to the service of people, causes, and not-for-profit organizations. Inspired by the strength, integrity, and creativity of her mother and father, she not only became the first in her family to finish college, but she also earned her doctorate and went on to hold hi…
1946— Poet, critic Coleman, Wanda, photograph. © Christopher Felver/Corbis. "Others often use the word 'uncompromising' to describe my work," poet Wanda Coleman told Contemporary Poets. "I find that quite pleasing." Coleman, who has claimed to be the most prolific African-American poet of all time, has written thousands of poems and ha…
1951— College dean, physician Dr. PonJola Coney serves as the dean of the School of Medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Meharry is a respected professional training ground among historically black colleges in America, and Coney is one of just a handful of women to head a medical school in the United States. Born on New Year's Eve in 1951, Coney was one of sev…
1956— Poet, novelist, and critic Award-winning poet, novelist, and critic David Dabydeen writes about his native Guyana and the experiences of colonialism and migration. He makes particular use of Guyanese Creole, a dialect that blends African, French, Spanish, and Indian languages with English and contributes a great deal to the rhythms, rhymes, and emotional power of his work. The languag…
1918-1981 Literary critic, scholar Charles T. Davis made a name for himself as an influential literary critic and scholar. His early work was on American poetry of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but later in his career Davis began to focus more on black literature, culture, and history. His work boosted the study of black American literature and helped bring it to the fore as a sign…
1939-1963 Professional football player Davis, Ernie, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission. Ernest R. Davis, commonly known as Ernie, was one of the best running backs ever to play college football. He followed the legendary Jim Brown to Syracuse University, where he led the Orangemen to a national championship in 1959, and in 1961 he became the first African American t…
1966— Fashion designers, entrepreneurs On the cutting edge of men's fashion design since the late 1990s, twin brothers Ronald and Rony Delice have become known for creating fine suits that incorporate bold color combinations with edgy styling. Their Ron & Ron menswear label, worn by such celebrities as Will Smith and Samuel L. Jackson, has brought the brothers both critical ac…
1944— Professor of microbiology, research scientist Born into a working class African-American family in the segregated southern United States, Georgia Dunston had little reason to believe that her life and career would be very different from those of her parents or grandparents. She was motivated to pursue higher learning, however, by the inspiration of encouraging teachers at every level …
1928-2003 Organization president, advocate, lawyer "All of my adult life has been heavily laden with the things and the kind of work that would advance Black life," recounted Christopher Edley, former president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), in Jet magazine. Under Edley's tutelage, the UNCF became one of the most widely recognized charitab…
1953— Law school dean Christopher F. Edley Jr., a longtime Harvard law professor and public-policy expert on affirmative action, became dean of the renowned Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 2004. His appointment made him the first African American to head a major U.S. law school. "I chose him because he is absolutely outstanding," a Black…
1951(?)— Entrepreneur It was the early 1960s and society had her pegged as another sad statistic: a poor African-American teenager from the inner city, a high school dropout, and, at the age of 16, an unwed mother. But Gladys Edmunds didn't believe in statistics. "I was shocked the day I heard someone say 'Inner-city teen-age mothers have become an epidemic.' I d…
1928-1979 Poet Well ahead of the connections that grew between music and poetry during the hip-hop era, several generations of African-American poets drew on musical influences in their works. The writers associated with the politically oriented Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 1970s were especially active in this regard, joining spoken words with blues and jazz in an attempt to create a disti…
1909-1993 Cartoonist, illustrator, writer Award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, and writer Elton Fax enjoyed a 60-year career as one of America's most celebrated black artists. He taught in colleges and universities, gave one-off lectures around the world, and became famous as a "chalk-talk" artist, illustrating his stories with spontaneous sketches; he was especially success…
1985— Track athlete Felix, Allyson, photograph. © 2004 Landov LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission. American sprinter Allyson Felix became one of the star athletes of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. A record-breaking sprinter in the 200-meter event, Felix is also the first American track athlete to enter professional ranks straight out of high school.…
1945— Poet, scholar "Much like Tennyson's Ulysses I would like to think that I am a part of all that I have met," Raymond Fleming told Contemporary Authors Online. The remark was a revealing one, for Fleming has been a border-crossing figure in many ways, comfortable in many realms but at the same time not quite at home in any of them. As an African-American scholar who…
1917-2003 Voting rights activist Foster, Marie, photograph. © Flip Schulke/Corbis. The civil rights movement is known for its great leaders more than for its foot soldiers. The movement came to national attention through a series of dramatic events, but those events emerged out of pressures that had been building for years, thanks to the work of large numbers of generally unheralded …
1967— Comedian, actor, singer Foxx, Jamie, photograph. © 2004 Landov LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission. In the ever-shifting, multimedia world of Hollywood entertainment, the art of juggling talents has always paid off. Comedian, actor, singer, and producer Jamie Foxx has helped to affirm this, scoring successes on the stage, the screen, on television, and in …
1948— Grand Basileus, Omega Psi Phi; corporate executive Having learned hard work and teamwork as a young man, George H. Grace, Grand Basileus (or chief executive) of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, understands well what a brotherhood of African Americans can accomplish. "To succeed you need a team," Grace told Contemporary Black Biography (CBB), "with everyone committed …
1902-1989 Author In the 1930s, when Lorenz Graham began writing stories, black characters in children's literature were typically portrayed in negative stereotypes. Graham changed that. In a writing career that spanned more than 50 years, Graham introduced authentic black characters into literature for children and young adults. His collection of biblical tales, How God Fix Jonah, written i…
1930— Writer, broadcaster Best known for his novels The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1969) and Baghdad Blues (1976), Sam Greenlee is a controversial writer and political activist. His work has always faced opposition because of its confrontational style and troubling imagery, but it has also attracted a large audience of activists, rebels, and radicals. Greenlee makes commercial publishers ne…
1927— Actor, singer, producer Guillaume, Robert, photograph. © Trapper Frank/Corbis Sygma. Before Robert Guillaume became a popular television actor and Broadway musical star, he was Robert Williams from St. Louis, Missouri: a young man with a golden voice and a future in the accounting field. Fortunately for all his fans, the young man threw caution to the wind and opted for …
1946— Government official Jackson, Alphonso, photograph. © 2003 Landov LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission. Alphonso R. Jackson heads the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Appointed to the job by President George W. Bush in 2004, Jackson is the nation's top housing chief and one of the few African Americans in Bush's cabinet. …
1955(?)– Pastor, denominational leader The Rev. Major Lewis Jemison, Senior Pastor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma's St. John Missionary Baptist Church, has emerged as one of the key religious leaders of recent years. A political activist, an innovative church leader, and a bridge-builder between African-American denominations, he has addressed a great variety of issues that are central t…
1950— Professional football player A key member of the powerful Detroit Lions squads of the 1970s, Levi Johnson delighted National Football League (NFL) fans with his agile feats at the defensive positions of cornerback and safety. Johnson's career was prematurely ended by injury in the late 1970s. Since he had been named the Lions' most valuable player in 1974 and had followe…
1949(?)— Executive, philanthropist, musician, horse farmer Those who never took the trouble to find out more might have heard of Sheila Crump Johnson as the former wife of longtime Black Entertainment Television (BET) chief executive Robert L. Johnson. That designation, however, ignores Sheila Crump Johnson's long and varied record of accomplishments of her own, before, during, and a…
1914-2003 Dermatologist John A. "Jack" Kenney Jr. was a distinguished dermatologist and pioneer in the study of skin diseases afflicting non-white populations. One of the first black doctors trained in dermatology, he was a prominent member of the dermatology department at Howard University's medical school for more than 40 years. Kenney became an inspirational figure to sever…
1976— Professional hockey player Laraque, Georges, photograph. Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images. Georges Laraque is the first black hockey player from French Canada to play in the National Hockey League (NHL). From Montreal, Quebec, he was drafted in 1995 by the Edmonton Oilers. Working as his team's enforcer, Laraque is charged with retaliating against anyone who tries to intimidate…
1954— Physician A specialist in geriatrics, Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey has made significant contributions to health care policy in the United States. In addition to maintaining a clinical practice and a teaching career, she has served on numerous committees and has advised the federal government on health care reform. In 2003 she assumed leadership of the country's largest health care p…
1950— Scientist, entrepreneur Ghanaian-born materials scientist Thomas Mensah has had a high-flying career, first as a scientist and then as an entrepreneur. Mensah has at least 14 patents to his name, has edited two books and authored several articles, and has been involved with several of the fastest-growing fields in engineering, notably fiber optics and superconductor technology. Late i…
1936-2003 Treasurer of the United States, civil servant Azie Taylor Morton is distinguished as the only African American ever to hold the post of Treasurer of the United States. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter on September 12, 1977, Morton served as the United States' 36th Treasurer until January 20, 1981. Along with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Treasurer must sign Federal Reserve…
1968— Motion picture talent agent Nelson Meigs, Andrea, photograph. Courtesy of Andrea Nelson Meigs. Named in 2003 to Black Enterprise magazine's "Hot List" as one of its "fifty under forty" members of "generation exceptional," Andrea Nelson Meigs is a talent agent at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), arguably the largest and most inf…
1945– Newspaper publisher In the world of African-American newspaper publishing, John J. Oliver Jr. is both a figure rooted in tradition and an innovator who has revitalized a vital strand of black community discourse. The publisher and chief executive of Baltimore, Maryland's Afro-American newspapers, Oliver inherited the mantle of family tradition: his great-grandfather, a former s…
1937— Principal, educational consultant, community activist Although Helen Owens spent her first 12 years of life as the child of sharecroppers in Tennessee, she has since become an educated, caring, and committed professional well known for her devoted community service. The long list of honors and awards Owens has received indicate not only her achievements, but also her passion for impro…
1946— Lawyer Attorney John Payton has defended some of the most important civil rights cases in the United States in recent years. He has also served on several professional boards and committees. According to a profile from Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr, the prestigious Washington, D.C., law firm where Payton is a partner, he "has been recognized as one of the premier lit…
1973— Political activist The civil rights movement of the 1960s spawned great social changes and the emergence of a large group of African-American political leaders, put in power as a direct result of newly safeguarded black participation in the electoral process. For many years, though, no new generation of activists materialized to take the place of the heroic figures who initiated the c…
1949— Mayor, lawyer Schmoke, Kurt, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission. Kurt L. Schmoke made history in 1987 when he became the first black man elected mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. At that time he was considered a rising star in American politics, with some mentioning him as a potential Senate or even vice-presidential candidate. The promise of his early caree…
1925— Jazz and rhythm-and-blues singer A jazz and rhythm-and-blues (R&B) singer with a distinctive high-pitched voice, Jimmy Scott is admired by singing stars as diverse as Madonna and Lou Reed. His heyday was the 1950s and 1960s, when he was known among jazz fans as a vocalist with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, and his most acclaimed album is 1962's Falling in Love Is Wonderf…
1917-2003 Tap dancer Howard "Sandman" Sims was a tap dancer, a practitioner of a style of dance in which a beat is loudly, clearly tapped out by a dancer sporting specially-made hard-soled shoes with metal plates, or taps, on their heels or toes. He developed his own distinctive dance style, in which he tapped on sand, and he was among the legendary black American entertainers whose …
1929-2003 Artist In a career that spanned half a century, painter Vincent Smith documented in brilliant color some of the most compelling events in twentieth-century America. From the be-bop-fueled improvisation of 1940s Harlem jazz clubs, to the visceral tug of civil rights workers confronting deep-seated hate with soul-clearing hope, to the creative militancy of the Black Arts Movement, Smith wa…
1969— Actor St. Patrick, Mathew, photograph. Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images. When Mathew St. Patrick was a boy, he escaped from the rough streets of his neighborhood by watching film after film in the all-night theater near his home. Watching the actors on the screen, he often thought, "I can do that." Although all too often he felt that no one else had confidence in his abi…
1964— Comedian, actor Sykes, Wanda, photograph. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images. Wanda Sykes has been doing standup comedy since the late 1980s. Known for her sharp, edgy wit, she has become a regular on Comedy Central and HBO as both a writer and a performer. In 2003 she starred in Fox Television's short-lived Wanda at Large, and in 2004 she debuted in Wanda Does It on Comedy…
1951— Singer, songwriter, producer Vandross, Luther, photograph. © 2002 Landov LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission. For many years, Luther Vandross was the vintage Cadillac among the banged-up jalopies in the used car lot of male pop singers. With a sound that echoed the smooth soul stylings of the 1960s, Vandross was a fixture on the rhythm and blues charts fro…
1933— Baseball player, coach There will be no plaque for Ozzie Virgil in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The statistics he compiled during his nine-year major league career simply do not qualify him for baseball's great honor. But there is no doubt that Virgil deserves acknowledgement for the firsts that he achieved, even if it is just an asterisk next to his name in the baseball record b…
1933?— Baseball player, broadcaster, league executive White, Bill, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission. When Bill White was named president of baseball's National League in 1989, he became the highest-ranking black executive in all of professional sports. With a salary of $250,000 per year in a demanding administrative position that requires resolution, …
1931— Politician, lawyer Wilder, L. Douglas, photograph. © Tim Wright/Corbis. On January 14, 1990, L. Douglas Wilder was sworn in as governor of Virginia, joining a line that includes Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and Harry F. Byrd. Wilder became Virginia's 66th governor and the nation's first elected black governor. In 2004, Wilder became the first mayor of t…
1932— Politician, civil rights activist Young, Andrew, photograph. © 1989 Landov LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission. As a civil rights activist in the turbulent 1960s and one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s most trusted lieutenants, Andrew Young earned a reputation for tact and diplomacy. As an outspoken ambassador to the United Nations (UN) under the admini…