1976— Author Ali, Hana Yasmeen, photograph. Peter Kramer/Getty Images Hana Yasmeen Ali, the daughter of boxing great Muhammad Ali, helped her father write The Soul of a Butterfly, Reflections on Life's Journey. Published in 2004, the tome is less a recap of the three-time world heavyweight champion's dramatic career than a collection of inspirational anecdotes, spiritua…
1942— Boxer Three-time world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, known for his lyrical charm and boasts as much as for his powerful fists, has moved far beyond the boxing ring in both influence and purpose. Ali won an Olympic gold medal in 1960 and later tossed it into a river because he was disgusted by racism in America. As a young man he was recruited by Malcolm X to join the Natio…
1980— Singer Amerie, photograph. Wenn/Landov. Amerie (pronounced A-Marie) burst onto the music scene at the age of 22 with her chart-topping debut album All I Have. A dedicated singer and student of dance since childhood, she graduated from Georgetown University before launching herself into a music career. "It sounds like a cliché," she said in the biography on Am…
1979— Professional basketball player Artest, Ron, photograph. AP/Wide world Photos. One November night in 2004, forward Ron Artest of the National Basketball Association's Indiana Pacers went into the stands at the Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit. He started throwing punches after being hit in the chest by a drink cup a Detroit Pistons fan had thrown. The incident, repl…
1943— Organization executive, entrepreneur As founder and president of Annapolis, Maryland's Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation, Leonard Blackshear shepherded the creation and development of one of the most distinctive monuments of African-American history in the United States. The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, visited annually by crowds estimated to be in excess of one million peo…
1937— Executive Robert D. (Bob) Blackwell, Sr. could very well have settled into an early retirement at the end of his first career. As a consulting director at computer giant IBM, Blackwell was one of the highest ranking African Americans in the information technology (IT) business. Born into a family of domestics barely a generation out of slavery, Blackwell had excelled beyond all expect…
1963— Journalist Boyd, Suzanne, photograph, Peter Kramer/Getty Images. Magazine editor Suzanne Boyd launched Suede, a fashion magazine aimed at African-American women, in 2004. Unfortunately, Suede struggled financially through five issues before its parent company put it on indefinite hiatus. Future career prospects for Boyd—a Canadian of West Indian background—were un…
1878-1962 Critic, poet Though in his lifetime William Stanley Braithwaite was termed the "Boston Dictator" for his formidable authority as an arbiter of taste in the world of American poetry, his influence later waned, and literary history seems to have forgotten him after his 1962 passing. An editor, anthologist, critic, and published poet himself, Braithwaite was a key figure in th…
1976— Professional hockey player Brown, Sean, photograph. Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images. New Jersey Devils defenseman Sean Brown, one of just a handful of players of African descent in the National Hockey League (NHL), brings to the minds of many fans an earlier, more physical era of professional ice hockey. He is big (six-feet three-inches tall, 210 pounds), powerful, and a bit…
1954-2004 Prime Minister of Dominica Charles, Pierre, photograph. UN photo by Michelle Poire. Reproduced by permission. On October 1, 2000, Roosevelt "Rosie" Douglas, prime minister of the Caribbean island-nation of Dominica, died of a heart attack after less than a year in office. Two days later Pierre Charles—popularly known as Pierro and deputy leader of the Dominica…
1964— Actor, director, writer, musician Don Cheadle has carved as unique niche for himself in Hollywood. He is, as Esquire dubbed him, "the thinking man's character actor." Cheadle selects his roles with care, relishing the opportunity to try new things. Cheadle has won extensive critical acclaim for his vast array of characters, including his turns as a district attorn…
1914-2005 Psychologist, educator, writer Kenneth Bancroft Clark will remain among the most prominent black social scientists of the twentieth century. For many years a professor of psychology at City College of New York (now City College of the City University of New York), Clark achieved national recognition when his work was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1954 ruling that racially segreg…
1907-2005 YWCA President A staunch advocate of racial equality and a life long supporter of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), Helen Claytor spent her career working tirelessly and courageously to ensure minority rights. The first black president of the National YWCA, she dedicated her talents to the organization and to the cause of betterment for all. Also active in the Urban …
1937-2005 Lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. led the winning team of lawyers in what has been known as the "trial of the century," and in the process became arguably the most famous lawyer in the world. Cochran's successful defense of former football great O. J. Simpson against charges of murder in the televised trial was followed by millions of Americans. Although his trial tacti…
1982— Model Darego, Agbani, photograph. Yoav Lemmer/AFP/Getty Images. Nigeria's Agbani Darego was crowned Miss World in 2001, making her the first black woman from an African country ever to win the pageant. Darego spent much of her Miss World year making public appearances around the globe and serving as an unofficial ambassador for her country, and even her continent. …
1934— Novelist, poet, critic, professor Dathorne, O.R., Photograph. Courtesy of O.R. Dathorne. Reproduced by permission. Author and educator O.R. Dathorne earned an international reputation for his work exploring and illuminating the experience of colonized cultures. Born and raised in the complex and diverse society of colonial Guyana, Dathorne was quite young when he began to learn…
1870-1909 Boxer Known as "Little Chocolate" or "The Chocolate Drop," Canadian-born boxer George Dixon became the first black boxer to hold a world championship when he defeated British fighter Nunc Wallace in 1890 to take the bantamweight crown. He later won the world featherweight championship as well, becoming the first boxer of any ethnicity to hold two championships…
1939— Historian, educator, curator Howard Dodson, Jr., has committed his professional life to the retrieval, preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of the history and culture of African and African American peoples. Since 1984, he has served as chief of the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the world's leading and most prestigio…
1963— Football coach One of just a few African-American head football coaches serving at Division I college programs in the mid-2000s, Karl Dorrell faced doubters on a variety of fronts when he took the helm for the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins in the fall of 2003. Dorrell was not yet 40 years old at the time, and the plum UCLA post was his first head coaching job. …
1970— Violinist, organization leader Dworkin, Aaron, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. From the first time he heard a violin, Aaron P. Dworkin has been in love with classical music. He attended a prestigious music academy and earned a master's degree in music. He swooned over orchestral performances and gave several of his own. Yet, there was something wrong. He told the New Y…
1937-2005 President of Togo General Gnassingbé Eyadéma was one of the world's longest-serving national leaders, having run the West African nation of Togo from 1967 to his death in 2005. Eyadéma's hold on presidential power in Togo was consolidated by both force and by political machination in a career that included military coups, suspicious murders, assassination att…
1956— Comedian, commentator, actor Performer and writer Aaron Freeman has been a fixture of Chicago arts and entertainment ever since he created his satirical Council Wars stage show in the early 1980s. He has developed and starred in other one-man shows, including the acclaimed Do the White Thing, written commentaries for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, and releas…
1965— Actor Harewood, David, photograph. Will Conran/Getty Images. British actor David Harewood starred in Babyfather, a hit British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television series that followed the exploits of a quartet of black men and their struggles with romance, fidelity, and parenthood. Harewood played Augustus "Gus" Pottinger across eight episodes in 2001 and 20…
1958— Comedian, actor, "Comic Relief" campaigner Naming him one of the 50 funniest people in Britain in 2003, the Observer newspaper described Lenny Henry as "a comic genius with a highly effective social conscience." Henry is one of the most successful British comedians of the "alternative comedy" generation that emerged in the 1980s, enjoying a 30…
1927-1989 Scholar In the New York Times obituary of his death, a fellow historian called Nathan Irvin Huggins, "an extraordinary teacher who cared deeply about his students." Huggins not only spent a quarter of a century imparting knowledge to budding American historians, he also helped define the emerging field of African-American studies. Reared and educated against the backdrop of…
1938— Singer Etta James may have surprised herself by living long enough to become a big star. Her singing career, more than 50 years long, has included more highs and lows than her vocal range. For decades she subverted her own success by maintaining a reckless lifestyle that included serious drug abuse and a number of questionable love-life decisions. At various career stages she has been…
1961— Children's writer With over 40 books to her name Ohio-based Angela Johnson is one of the most prolific and celebrated children's writers. She began working full-time as a writer in 1989 and her work includes award-winning picture books, board books, poetry, stories, and novels for young adults. She has become well known for her realistic characters, many of whom carry ov…
1922-2004 Baseball pitcher Right-hander Connie Johnson was part of the pitching staff that made the fabled Kansas City Monarchs the most feared team in baseball's Negro Leagues in the 1940s. Later in his career he played for the major-league Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles, having lost the fastball of his youth and learned a repertoire of pinpoint-control pitches in its place. Like …
1746-1818 Minister The transformation of Absalom Jones from slave into one of the founders of the black Episcopal church in America and a leading figure among Philadelphia's African-American community shows the great strides made by blacks during this eventful period of early American history. Jones bought his own freedom as well as that of his wife's through years of hard work, and …
1932-2004 Playwright South African writer Gibson Kente single-handedly made the "township musical," a form of popular theater in black South African culture during the repressive apartheid era, into a dominant means of expression and exuberance. He died of acquired immune-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 2004 after a career that spanned nearly 50 years, and his impact on South African c…
1955— Legislator The first black woman from the state of Georgia ever to fill a Congressional seat, Cynthia McKinney has proven a maverick presence on Capitol Hill. A liberal Democrat, McKinney first represented Georgia's 11th district, which encompassed 22 counties and parts of suburban Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah, before redistricting moved her to the 4th district. McKinney�…
1970— Singer Haydain Neale, charismatic lead singer of Canadian super group jacksoul, has made a name for himself with intelligent lyrics served up with a deep side of soul. His songs exalt love, kindness, and joy—decidedly un-cool traits in an urban music market defined by guns, gangstas, and gratuitous sex. Neale is unrepentant. "This is the world that I bought into and this…
1941— Actor Ntshona, Winston, photograph. Evening Standard/Getty Images. One of the most widely acclaimed plays internationally during the last decades of the twentieth century was The Island, which began its theatrical life in secret performances held in apartheid-era South Africa in 1973. The play was partly the creation of Winston Ntshona, one of the actors who appeared in it. The…
1968-2004 Rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. After rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard died of cardiac arrest in a Manhattan recording studio in 2004, an autopsy revealed a dangerous mixture of cocaine and prescription drugs in his system. To some who had followed career the career of a man often known as ODB, his death seemed an unsurprising outcome to a notorio…
1975— Baseball player Ortiz, David, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Lots of baseball players shine early, struggle a bit as they make the transition to the majors, then blossom and lead their teams to World Series glory. Few, however, do it with the charisma and drama of David Ortiz. Known almost as much for his appealing personality as for his lethal bat, Ortiz played a key role i…
1970— Actor Parker, Nicole Ari, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Stage and screen veteran Nicole Ari Parker is best known for her role as the icy attorney Teri on the acclaimed Showtime original series Soul Food. She and her real-life partner, fellow actor and Soul Food alumnus Boris Kodjoe, landed their own sitcom, Second Time Around, which made its debut on the UPN in the fall of …
1925— Jazz pianist Peterson, Oscar, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Canadian-born Oscar Peterson is generally acclaimed as one of the most spectacularly talented musicians ever to play the piano in the jazz genre. In the words of Scott Yanow of the All Music Guide, Peterson "plays 100 notes where other pianists might use ten"—and, Yanow contended in response to…
1941— Physician, public health official, president and CEO of the D.C. Developing Families Center When Linda Randolph was only three years old, she turned to her mother as they left her pediatrician's office and announced that someday she, too, would become a doctor. Brought up in a family that valued education and creativity, Randolph grew to love learning and to believe in her…
1930— Politician, activist Congressman Charles Rangel of New York is one of the most influential and respected men in Washington, D.C. Since his legislative career began in 1970, he has been recognized as a dedicated, hardworking individual with a personality that is uniquely suited to political productivity. He expresses his opinions forcefully and stands by them steadfastly, but he is als…
19??— Actor Reddick, Lance, photograph. Peter Kramer/Getty Images. Renowned for his depictions of hard-edged characters on the television crime dramas Oz and The Wire, Lance Reddick has earned a reputation as a versatile and gifted actor. From his Shakespearean stage performances to his depictions of gritty urban street characters in contemporary television and film, Reddick has brou…
1958— Investor, business executive Once his father gave him shares of stock as a 12th birthday gift, John W. Rogers, Jr., was hooked on Wall Street. He secured the services of his own broker at age 18 and four years later, in 1980, became a broker himself. Raising $180,000 from family and friends, Rogers started his own investment firm, Ariel Capital Management, with one other employee in 1…
1944(?)— Vocalist, composer, keyboardist, producer Russell, Brenda, photograph. Wenn/Landov. Singer, songwriter Brenda Russell's talent has earned her new fans and the respect of industry peers since she sang her way through the Age of Aquarius in the rock musical Hair. During this time of the Beatles, hippies, campus unrest, love-ins, and the Vietnam War, youth culture took i…
1924-2005 Singer Short, Bobby, photograph. Frank Micelotta/Getty Images. After he took up residence in the lounge of New York's elegant Hotel Carlyle in the late 1960s, vocalist and pianist Bobby Short became an icon of New York and American cultural life. Short called himself a saloon singer, but actually he roosted at the top of the hierarchy of entertainers who perform in cocktail…
1975(?)— Singer Among the most versatile new performers in the world of opera in the late 1990s and early 2000s has been N'kenge Simpson-Hoffman, whose talents encompass musical theater, jazz, and popular song as well as traditional operatic repertory. She has performed at the White House and the United Nations, has taken lead roles in operas by composers ranging from Mozart to Pucci…
19??— Comedian Slocumb, Jonathan, photograph. Chris Graythen/Getty Images. In an era when it is common for comics to use four-letter words and make sexual innuendos, Jonathan Slocumb is known as "Mr. Clean." "Mixing comedy with gospel messages and music is certainly a unique approach," wrote Janine Coveney in Billboard, "and that's the road t…
1954-2005 Choreographer, dancer, master teacher Spears, Warren, photograph. Courtesy www.warrenspears.com. Reproduced by permission. A highly regarded dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Warren Spears created a variety of modern ballets. After spending his early years with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Spears went on to dance and choreograph for numerous companies in the United St…
1951— International fraternity president, attorney, activist Arthur Ray Thomas, Esq. is the thirty-first International President of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, a 125,000 member black fraternity with chapters in the United States, St. Thomas, Japan, Germany, and the Bahamas. He is an accomplished attorney who has worked tirelessly on behalf of political and social issues affecting young A…
1978— Actor Kenan Thompson has been making people laugh ever since he was a school boy impersonating Bill Cosby. Since then he has spent nearly half his life entertaining people—from wacky sitcom antics on Nickelodeon to grown up gags on Saturday Night Live to a real-life portrayal of cartoon biggie Fat Albert. Is there a secret to his hilarious success? "I'm a happy pe…
1969— Actress Torres, Gina, photograph. Vince Bucci/Getty Images. Learning her craft through appearances in high-quality live theater, New York City-born actress Gina Torres became known for the well-crafted characterizations she brought to a series of television and film roles in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Those roles brought Torres before the public in some of the most stylish…
1972(?)— Vocalist, instrumentalist, comedian The musical activities of Seattle, Washington's Reggie Watts are so diverse that they are difficult to classify. His lyrical and wide-ranging baritone voice has drawn comparisons with those of various classic soul stylists of the 1970s, most often Al Green. As lead singer of the Seattle band Maktub, Watts has partnered with musicians from …
1908-2003 Singer Welch, Elisabeth, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Elisabeth Welch enjoyed a long and esteemed career as a cabaret singer and London stage star over several decades of the mid-twentieth century. A New York City native, Welch had her earliest successes in the all-black musical revues on Broadway in the 1920s. After a hiatus of nearly fifty years, she returned to perform in …
1977— Rapper, producer West, Kanye, photograph. Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images. The double-platinum, triple-Grammy award success of Kanye West's debut album, The College Dropout, was a surprise to many in the industry, but not to West himself. The young rapper and producer had confidently touted the classic status of his work, shaped creatively during a harrowing period of recove…
1940— Blues vocalist, guitarist, actor White, Josh Jr., photograph. John Fraser/Toronto Winterfolk III. Reproduced by permission. The son of one of the most famous performers the blues tradition ever produced, Josh White Jr. has patterned his music after his father's and has devoted part of his musical life to carrying on his father's legacy. Yet he has never been simpl…
1962— Corporate executive Woods, Jacqueline, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. As vice president for global marketing and pricing at software giant Oracle, Jacqueline Woods has been responsible for guiding the company through a rapidly changing market for database sales and licensing. Database licensing is considered by IT industry executives to be one of the most complex and challen…
1918-2005 New York State Supreme Court justice, writer "Black judges in this country are a very lonely caucus," New York State Supreme Court justice Bruce McMarion Wright told Les Payne in a 1991 interview for Essence. A highly controversial figure dubbed "Turn-Em-Loose Bruce" during his career on the bench of New York City's criminal court, Wright devoted his li…