September 7, 1944 Earl Manigault, street basketball player known as “The Goat”, was born in Charleston, South Carolina and raised in Harlem, New York. Manigault grew up playing basketball and set the New York City junior high school record by scoring 57 points in a game in the late 1950s. Manigault was famous on the […]
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Jacob Lawrence – September 7th in African American History
September 7, 1919 Jacob Lawrence, painter and educator, was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Lawrence attended classes at the Harlem Art Workshop and earned a scholarship to the American Artist School. In 1943, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and served with the first racially integrated crew. Throughout his artistic career, Lawrence […]
Mathis James “Jimmy” Reed – September 6th in African American History
September 6, 1925 Mathis James “Jimmy” Reed, blues musician and songwriter, was born in Dunleith, Mississippi. After spending several years performing in Mississippi, Reed moved to Chicago in 1943. By the 1950s, Reed had established himself as a popular performer and from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s he had a string of hits, including […]
Anika Noni Rose – September 6th in African American History
September 6, 1972 Anika Noni Rose, stage, film and television actress and singer, was born in Bloomfield, Connecticut. After graduating from Florida A&M University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre, Rose made her professional stage debut in 1998 in “Valley Song”. In 2001, she won an OBIE Award for her performance in the off-Broadway production […]
Frank Garvin Yerby – September 5th in African American History
September 5, 1916 Frank Garvin Yerby, novelist, was born in Augusta, Georgia. Yerby earned a B. A. degree in English from Paine College in 1932. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In the 1940s, he embarked on a series of best selling historical novels ranging from the Athens […]
Claudette Colvin – September 5th in African American History
September 5, 1939 Claudette Colvin, civil rights pioneer, was born in Montgomery, Alabama. On March 2, 1955 while returning from high school on the bus, Colvin refused to give up her seat to a White person, in violation of local law. As a result, she was removed from the bus by two police officers and […]
Richard Nathaniel Wright – September 4th in African American History
September 4, 1908 Richard Nathaniel Wright, author, was born in Roxie, Mississippi. At the age of 15, Wright penned his first story, “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre” which was published in the local Black paper. In 1937, Wright won first prize from Story Magazine for his short story “Fire and Cloud” and in 1938 gained […]