October 4, 1942 Bernice Johnson Reagon, singer, composer, scholar and social activist, was born in southwest Georgia. Reagon was an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s as a member of the Freedom Singers, organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She is a specialist in African American oral history, performance, […]
Archive | October 4, 2010
October 4th in African American History – Russell Wendell Simmons
October 4, 1957 Russell Wendell Simmons, record producer and entrepreneur, was born in Queens, New York. In the mid-1970s, Simmons enrolled in City College of New York but quit to begin promoting rap music. In 1984 he co-founded Def Jam Records and within three years the companies albums such as the Beastie Boys’ “Licensed to […]