March 28, 1923 Thaddeus Joseph “Thad” Jones, jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, was born in Pontiac, Michigan. Jones was a self taught musician and began playing professionally at the age of 16. He served in the United States Army band from 1943 to 1946. In 1954, Jones joined the Count Basie Orchestra where he contributed […]
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March 28th in African American History – Cumberland Willis “Cum” Posey
March 28, 1946 Cumberland Willis “Cum” Posey, basketball and baseball hall of fame Negro League player, manager and team owner, died. Posey was born June 20, 1890 in Homestead, Pennsylvania. In his early years, basketball dominated Posey’s life. From the early 1900s through the mid-1920s, Posey was considered the best African American basketball player of his time […]
March 22nd in African American History – Fred Anderson
March 22, 1929 Fred Anderson, jazz tenor saxophonist, was born in Monroe, Louisiana. Anderson taught himself to play the saxophone as a teenager and moved with his family to Evanston, Illinois in the 1940s. In 1965, he was one of the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians which was a collective […]
March 18th in African American History – Willie King
March 18, 1943 Willie King, blues guitarist, composer, and singer, was born in Prairie Point, Mississippi. Prior to recording, he worked at many occupations. King later became active with the Civil Rights Movement which inspired him to write socially conscious blues songs. He described his music as struggling blues because of its focus on the […]
March 17th in African American History – Bayard Rustin
March 17, 1912 Bayard Rustin, civil rights leader and the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1942, Rustin assisted in the founding of the Congress of Racial Equality. A declared pacifist, he was imprisoned from 1944 to 1946 for violating the Selective […]
March 16th in African American History – Charlaine Vivian Stringer
March 16, 1948 Charlaine Vivian Stringer, hall of fame college basketball coach, was born in Edenborn, Pennsylvania. In high school, Stringer sued her school for not allowing her to be a cheerleader because of her race. She won the case and was given a spot on the cheerleading squad. Stringer earned her Bachelor of Arts […]
March 5th in African American History – Charles Henry Fuller, Jr.
March 5, 1939 Charles Henry Fuller, Jr., playwright and novelist, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fuller attended Villanova University before serving in the United States Army from 1959 to 1962. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from La Salle College in 1967 and was a co-founder of the Afro-American Arts Theater in Philadelphia that […]