January 25, 1974 Nora Douglas Holt, singer, composer and music critic, died. Holt was born Lena Douglas on May 26, 1885 in Kansas City, Kansas. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in 1917 from Western University and her Master of Music degree in 1918 from Chicago Musical College, the first African American woman to […]
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December 26th in African American History – Jackie Ormes
December 26, 1985 Jackie Ormes, the first African American female cartoonist, died. Ormes was born Zelda Mavin Jackson on August 1, 1911 in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. Ormes started in journalism as a proofreader for the Pittsburgh Courier. In 1937, her one-panel comic strip “Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem” first appeared in the Courier. Ormes moved […]
February 29th in African American History – Robert Sengstacke Abbott
February 29, 1940 Robert Sengstacke Abbott, lawyer and newspaper publisher, died. Abbott was born November 24, 1870 in Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia. From 1892 to 1896, Abbott studied the printing trade at Hampton Institute. In 1898, he earned his law degree from Kent College of Law. However, due to racial prejudice, he was unable […]
January 6th in African American History – Louis Emanuel Martin, Jr.
January 6, 1997 Louis Emanuel Martin, Jr., journalist, publisher, and civil rights activist, died. Martin was born November 18, 1912 in Shelbyville, Tennessee, but grew up in Savannah, Georgia. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Michigan in 1934 and in 1936 was hired as a reporter for the […]
November 19th in African American History – Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (Stepin Fetchit)
November 19, 1985 Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (Stepin Fetchit) died. Perry was born May 30, 1902 in Key West, Florida. He began entertaining in his teens as a comic character. Stepin Fetchit was his stage name and Perry parlayed his persona as “the laziest man in the world” into a successful film career, appearing […]
July 30th in African American History – Louis E. Lomax
July 30, 1970 Louis E. Lomax, author and the first African American television journalist, died in a car accident when the brakes failed on his car near Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Lomax was born August 16, 1922 in Valdosta, Georgia. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Paine College in 1942, his Master of Arts degree […]