February is Black History Month. Although we celebrate the contributions of African Americans every day, in February we take the time to acknowledge those contributions and lift up the names of those brave, innovative, creative and inspirational leaders and common folk among us.
All too often the contributions of same gender loving people are overlooked. When acknowledged, our love for our same gender partners is often portrayed in negative ways. NBJC is proud to offer you the following people of note in Black history who knew the joy and experienced the challenges of same gender love and affection. Some of these names will be familiar, others may be new. We hope their stories will fill you with a sense of pride.
The achievements of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have often been omitted . We offer this small token of appreciation and homage to those who made our world beautiful, saved lives, advocated for justice, created music, art and culture that endures.
Civil rights activist Bayard Rustin is today remembered as one of the most influential political and civil rights strategists of his time. Rustin was born in 1910 and grew up in a poor section of West Chester, Pennsylvania.In the 1930s and 1940s, according to Gay and Lesbian Biography, Rustin worked with and recruited for the Communist Party, labor unions and the War Resisters League.In 1942, Rustin was hired by radical reformer AJ Muste to head the Fellowship for Reconciliation's Department of Race Relations; out of this came the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).Also in 1942, Rustin worked in California on behalf of the interned Japanese.In 1943, as a conscientious objector, rather than performing hospital duties he was sentenced to three years in Lewisburg Penitentiary. When he was released in 1946 he resumed his CORE duties and went to India as chairman of the Free India Committee and as a guest of Mohandas Gandhi's Congress Party. In 1947, he served 22 days on a North Carolina chain gang for joining one of the first Freedom Rides through the South.
In the 1960s he worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a confidant, advisor and speech-writer until King was assassinated in 1968.In 1960, after the black congressman Adam Clayton Powell threatened to expose Rustin's personal life and political past with the Party, he resigned from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he had helped create. He made a comeback when A. Philip Randolph made Rustin his official march deputy for the historic 1963 March on Washington.
As his life neared its end, he often spoke to gay and lesbian groups, urging them "to follow his example and embrace their role in furthering social equality for all minorities."
He died in 1987 at age 77.
Hatshepsut:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born in the 15th century BC, Hatshepsut, daughter of Tuthmose I and Aahmes, both of royal lineage, was the favorite of their three children. When her two brothers died, she was in the unique position to gain the throne upon the death of her father. To have a female pharaoh was unprecedented, and probably most definitely unheard of as well.
As a favorite daughter of a popular pharaoh, and as a charismatic and beautiful lady in her own right, she was able to command enough of a following to actually take control as pharaoh.
Hatshepsut, as a female, had many obstacles to overcome. Using propaganda and keen political skills, she deftly jumped each hurdle she faced. To quell the fears of her people, she became a "king" in all statuary and relief during her reign. She even dressed in the traditional garb of male rulers: the shendyt kilt, the nemes headdress with its uraeus and khat headcloth, and the false beard. Because of her penchant for “cross dressing, she is widely believed to be transgendered.
These expeditions are well documented in the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls of her temple. With these inscriptions are included incised representations of the journey, including humorous images of the Puntites and their queen.
She ruled for about 15 years, until her death in 1458 BC, and left behind more monuments and works of art than any Egyptian queen to come.
Peter Gomes:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1942, Rev. Peter Gomes is the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the MemorialChurch at HarvardUniversity. He has degrees from BatesCollege and HarvardDivinitySchool, and he has honorary degrees from nine American colleges.
Rev. Gomes, who is openly gay is a prolific scholar, his best known book is “The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart”.
Rev. Gomes shocked the university and many in the Harvard Community when he "came out of the closet" and openly acknowledged that he is gay. He is one of the most published gay authors in America.
Named Clergy of the Year in 1998 by Religion in American Life, Professor Gomes participated in the presidential inaugurations of Ronald Wilson Reagan and of George Herbert Walker Bush and presented the Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching, in Yale Divinity School.
His New York Times and national best-selling books, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, (1996) and Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living (1998) were published by William Morrow and Company, Inc; and he has published seven additional volumes of sermons as well as numerous articles and papers.
In 2000, he delivered The University Sermon before The University of Cambridge, England, and preached The Millennial Sermon in Canterbury Cathedral, England. In 2001, he served as Missioner to Oxford University, preaching a series of talks in the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin.
Alain Locke:
Profile in Courage for Black History Month
Alain Leroy Locke was born in 1886 and became the first Black Rhodes Scholar. It was a remarkable achievement for anyone, not to mention an African American during this highly segregated era. While many white American scholars were seeking to prove the intellectual inferiority of African Americans to justify racial segregation, Locke became a symbol of achievement and a powerful argument for offering African Americans equal opportunity at white educational institutions.
Pliny Locke and Mary Hawkins were engaged for 16 years, not marrying until they were middle-aged. Alain, their only child, was born in 1886 and nurtured in an urbane, cultivated home environment. Six years later his father died, and his mother supported her son through teaching. Young Alain contracted rheumatic fever early in his childhood. The disease permanently damaged his heart and restricted his physical activities. In their place, he spent his time reading books and learning to play the piano and violin.
Locke entered Harvard in 1904 and graduated in 1907 with a distinguished academic record (magna cum laude), and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduating from Harvard, he studied for three years at Oxford University in England as the first black Rhodes Scholar. Upon his graduation from Oxford, he spent one year pursing advanced work in philosophy at the University of Berlin. Returning to the United States in early 1912, Locke was faced with an unusual dilemma. Given his academic training and intellectual experiences, he was more qualified than many white college professors. But because of his race, he was unable to teach at a white college. Yet this same level of achievement set him vastly apart from his fellow African Americans.
Locke embarked upon an illustrious teaching career at Howard University. This allowed him to nurture, encourage and mentor many young flourishing writers and artists. His teachings led him to New York and the Harlem Renaissance.
Though Locke practiced much more discretion than many of his Harlem Renaissance cohorts, he was still a prominent figure in the thriving gay scene at the time.
One of his bios sums up the difficulty of quantifying his accomplishments by stating: “An intellectual steeped in the realities of color in 20th century America, Locke possessed a range of interests that makes chronicling and interpreting his career in adult education challenging.”
Locke was most known for his work in the New Negro Movement of the 1930’s. He died in 1954 after a long and distinguished career in adult education.
For his triumph over adversity and his courage in the face of discrimination we celebrate Alain Leroy Locke’s contribution to the education of a generation of African Americans leaders and scholars.
The Honorable Deborah A. Batts:
Profile in Courage for Black History Month
Born in Philadelphia on April 13, 1947, Judge Batts earned a. B.A. in government from RadcliffeCollege in 1969.
Attending Radcliffe undoubtedly had a significant influence on the rest of her life. Radcliffe, associated with Harvard University, was one of the Seven Sisters Colleges, a group of prestigious northeastern liberal arts institutions founded in the nineteenth century to educate women. Graduates of the Seven Sisters differed from women at coeducational schools. Seven Sisters alum were known for their high levels of self-esteem and often pursued diplomas in traditionally male fields. Judge Batts displayed both qualities. Once she completed her studies at Radcliffe, Batts obtained a J.D. from HarvardLawSchool in 1972. Harvard, while known widely for its excellent education, was not known for its diversity.
In 1984, Batts accepted an offer to join the faculty of FordhamUniversity in New York City as an associate professor. She became the first African American member of the faculty of the FordhamLawSchool and remained with the university until 1994. In June of 1994, Deborah Batts was sworn in as a Federal District Judge for Manhattan, becoming the nation's first openly lesbian, African-American federal judge.
Judge Batts has been low-key about her sexuality but has not hidden it. A member of the Lesbian and Gay Law Association of Greater New York, she once urged a graduating class at FordhamLawSchool to enact laws to protect against anti-gay discrimination.
Little is known about Batts' personal life. Divorced with two children, she has refused to discuss much of her life in an attempt to avoid becoming known as the "gay judge." She has described being a lesbian as "definitely an important part" of her life, but has added that it is only one of many important parts of her life: "I am also a very devoted mother, I'm an attorney, a former prosecutor, and I'm an African American."
Judge Batts' achievements have helped to elevate the status of gay men and lesbians, especially since she has earned wide respect for the way in which she performs her job. Still, it is worth noting that she remains the only openly gay person on the federal bench.
A portrait of the judge now hangs at Harvard. It is the first portrait of an African-American woman or an out person to be displayed at the school.
Harriet Tubman:
Profile in Courage for Black History Month
Born Harriet Ross in either 1819 or 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland.Raised in abject slavery, she was seriously injured at the age of 12 by an overseer for refusing to bind up a captured slave who had attempted escape. The overseer hit her in the head with a two pound weight. This injury would cause her to suffer blackouts for the rest of her life.
She married John Tubman at age 25. He was a free man, but she could be sold at any time.When the master of her plantation died, Harriet was amongst the possessions to be sold.It was then that she escaped from slavery, telling no one but her sister.
She moved to Pennsylvania and began her career as a Conductor with the Underground Railroad which led many thousands to freedom in Canada. She completed over 19 missions, rescuing most of her family, but not her husband who chose to remain behind.
During the Civil War she became a spy and nurse. She was fearless. At the close of the Civil War, Ms. Tubman returned to Auburn, NY. There she married Nelson Davis, and lived in a home they built on South Street. This house still stands on the property, and serves as a home for the Resident Manager of the Harriet Tubman Home.
Only twelve miles from Seneca Falls, Tubman helped Auburn to remain a center of activity in support of women's rights. With her home literally down the road, Tubman remained in contact with her friends, William and Frances Seward. Here she worked, and herself was cared for in the period before her death in 1913.
One of her many honors was a ship, christened by Eleanor Roosevelt, the Liberty Ship Harriet Tubman. In 1995, she was honored by the federal government with a commemorative postage stamp. Many historians have written hints of Ms. Tubman as a same gender loving woman and in the book “Black Lesbians” the authors write that Ms. Tubman “let some of her lesbian leanings be known.”
A true shero, we celebrate her courage which helped her free so many.
Alvin Ailey:
Profile in Courage for Black History Month
Alvin Ailey founded the world famous Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. He was born January 5, 1931, in the Central Texas town of Rogers, in BellCounty.
Alvin was the only child of his 17-year-old mother, Lula. His father abandoned them when Alvin was six months old. Mother and son moved to Navasota, eventually settling in Los Angeles. To get by, they picked cotton and did domestic work.
Ailey showed an early interest in art, drawing pictures during much of his childhood. He discovered dance while on a junior high school field trip to see the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Eventually, he took dance classes from choreographer Katherine Dunham. But his most important influence would come from choreographer Lester Horton, who taught dance in Los Angeles.
Horton's troupe was racially mixed and included American Indian and Japanese influences. Ailey began studying with Horton in 1949, leaving behind his romance language studies at UCLA. In 1953, the year Ailey made his performance debut, Horton died and Ailey took over the company.
His Broadway debut came the next year in Truman Capote's House of Flowers. Staying in New York after the play closed, Ailey studied ballet, modern dance and acting. One of his teachers was choreographer Martha Graham. Over the next ten years, Ailey appeared on and off Broadway and on film as a dancer, choreographer, actor, and director.
Ailey's choreography for Blues Suite (1958), his first financial and critical success, marked the beginning of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. World fame quickly followed. In 1965, Ailey left dancing to concentrate on choreography and running his company. The group was the resident company of the Brooklyn Academy of Music for three seasons starting in 1969. It became the first American dance company to tour the USSR in fifty years. The Leningrad performance in 1970 received an ovation lasting more than twenty minutes.
Alvin Ailey received honorary doctorates from PrincetonUniversity, BardCollege, and AdelphiUniversity. In 1979, he was awarded the Spingarin Medal of the NAACP. He racially integrated his formerly all-black dance company in 1963 after encountering reverse racism.
Although Ailey gave numerous interviews throughout his career, he was decidedly private about his personal life. He described himself as "a bachelor and a loner" to writer John Gruen and hardly ever allowed outsiders into his most private thoughts. In 1980 Ailey was briefly hospitalized for stress-related conditions. His death followed a long, solitary struggle that had taken him out of the limelight for some time. Ailey's legacy to the dance world was to foster a freedom of choice--from ballet, modern, and social dance performance -- to best express humanity in movement terms suited to the theatrical moment.
Ailey’s legacy to the LGBT community was one of innovator, pioneer and provocateur.Although Ailey did not openly live his life as a same gender loving man, he worked quietly against homophobia in the African American community and sought to combat the many faces of racism.
He died in New York December 1, 1989, of “blood dyscrasia,” a result of a long battle with AIDS. It was fitting that his star faded on what would become to be known as World AIDS Day.It is also, not by chance that his profile is featured on African American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
Alvin Ailey, though lauded and praised for his artistic and societal contributions, was reluctant to publicly acknowledge that he had AIDS.HIV/AIDS continues to disproportionately affect and infect black same gender loving men.
NBJC is committed to honoring the legacy of so many fallen heroes by working to eliminate the shame, discrimination and bigotry surrounding HIV and AIDS, decreasing the number of new infections and working to support the exploration for a cure.
Lorraine Hansberry:
Profile in Courage for Black History Month
America's foremost black playwright and author of A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry was born May 19, 1930, in Chicago. Hansberry enjoyed a privileged upbringing, and among the family friends were Paul Robeson, WEB Du Bois and Langston Hughes.
She graduated from high school in 1948 and went on to the University of Wisconsin, where her attraction to theater increased.
In 1951, she joined Freedom magazine, a journal founded by Paul Robeson. She began work on A Raisin in the Sun and in 1957 read the first draft to publisher Philip Rose. That same year, in a letter to the Ladder, she wrote that "It is time that 'half the human race' had something to say about the nature of its existence." She called for a new approach to combat a sexist society, "as per marriage, as per sexual practices, as per the rearing of children, etc.," adding that: "In this kind of work there may be women to emerge who will be able to formulate a new and possible concept that homosexual persecution and condemnation has at its roots not only social ignorance, but a philosophically active anti-feminist dogma." This stance, notes Gay and Lesbian Biography, was "at once far-sighted and, in 1957, extremely courageous," marking Hansberry's "strong commitment as feminist and pro-lesbian spokesperson," which, "only in recent years has this contribution been noted."
According to the book Completely Queer, Hansberry began to identify herself as a lesbian in the 1950s and was one of the first members of the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis.
A Raisin in the Sun, which came out in 1959, brought Hansberry immediate fame, becoming the first play on Broadway by a black author; it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and her screenplay, completed in 1960, won the Cannes Film Festival Award in 1961. She continued writing in the 1960s, and became increasingly involved in supporting the civil rights movement.
On Oct. 15, 1964, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (which included a gay character) opened on Broadway; it was the last of her works to appear in her lifetime. Three months later, on January 10, 1965, Lorraine Hansberry died at age 35.Hansberry's ex-husband, Robert Nemiroff, completed and published Les Blancs, which appeared on Broadway in 1970 and which also featured a gay couple. Raisin, the musical adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, was staged in 1973, winning a Tony Award for best Broadway musical.
It is fitting that the theater named in her honor, The Lorraine Hansberry Theater in San Francisco, CA is the creation of Stanley E. Williams who serves as the theater’s Artistic Director and his life partner, Quentin Easter the theater’s Executive Director.
NBJC salutes Hansberry for her foresight, vision and courage. Her strong commitment is an inspiration to us all.
George Washington Carver:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born July 12, 1864 in Diamond Grove, Missouri, George Washington Carver was a scientific genius. Sometimes known as “God’s gift to peanut farmers” Carver revolutionized Southern agriculture through his research and inventions. He and his mother were kidnapped by Confederate slave raiders when he was an infant, and his father had died in an accident shortly before his birth.
From humble beginnings, George Washington Carver showed an active interest in the natural world. He studied plants as a youth, which led to a lifelong study of horticulture. A man of many talents including music, poetry and art, Carver settled on changing the world through botanical and agricultural discoveries. He was the first African American faculty member at IowaState. He went on to get a Masters Degree and joined the faculty at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Carver is Tuskegee’s most famous alumni and on tours of Tuskegee, it has been reported that the voice recordings of Carver’s high pitched voice, available to tourists, is a source of embarrassment. Some tour guides have gone out of there way to claim that Carver was not a gay man. But he was. He shared his life and his home with Austin Curtis, Jr. and Carver never had a known romantic relationship with any woman.
Believing that nature is the best teacher, Carver gained an international reputation in research and teaching. Carver discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and over a hundred uses for sweet potatoes, soybeans and pecans. Although he only obtained three patents, he is credited with inventing recipes and improvements for: linoleum, mayonnaise, chili sauce, shaving cream, synthetic rubber, wood stain, adhesives, bleach, axle grease, meat tenderizer, shoe polish, talcum powder, ink, instant coffee, fuel briquettes, pavement, paper, and plastic.
Carver’s achievements were especially great because so much of what he did improved and provided a foundational purpose for the economy of the agricultural South, which suffered from soil depletions after growing mainly cotton and tobacco.
His research, discoveries and recommendations helped the South recover after the Civil War.
Carver did not work for profit or fame but freely gave his gifts to the world. He is quoted as saying, “God gave them (ideas) to me, how could I sell them to someone else?” Honor after honor came to Carver including the Springarn Medal from the NAACP, a medal from President Roosevelt for restoring southern agriculture, and a national monument, another first for an African American.
His epitaph states: “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.” He died in Tuskegee from an accidental fall in 1943.
For his genius and generosity NBJC salutes George Washington Carver an African American same gender loving man of invention.
Alice Walker:
Profile in Courage for Black History Month
Alice Walker was born on Today, February 9 in 1944.She was the 8th child of Georgia sharecroppers. After a childhood accident blinded her in one eye, she went on to become valedictorian of her local school, and attend SpelmanCollege and SarahLawrenceCollege on scholarships, graduating in 1965.
She volunteered in the voter registration drives of the 1960s in Georgia, and went to work after college in the Welfare Department in New York City.
She married in 1967 (and divorced in 1976); her first book of poems came out in 1968 and her first novel just after her daughter's birth in 1970.
Her early poems, novels and short stories dealt with themes familiar to readers of her later works: rape, violence, isolation, troubled relationships, multi-generational perspectives, sexism and racism.
When The Color Purple came out in 1982, Walker became known to an even wider audience. Her Pulitzer Prize and the movie by Steven Spielberg brought both fame and controversy. She was widely criticized for negative portrayals of men in The Color Purple, though many critics
"Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."
admitted that the movie presented more simplistic negative pictures than the book's more nuanced portrayals.
Walker also published a biography of the poet, Langston Hughes, and worked to recover and publicize the nearly-lost works of writer Zora Neale Hurston. She's credited with introducing the word "womanist" for African American feminism.
In 1989 and 1992, in two books, The Temple of My Familiar and Possessing the Secret of Joy, Walker took on the issue of female circumcision in Africa, which brought further controversy: was Walker a cultural imperialist to criticize a different culture?
Her works are known for their portrayals of the African American woman's life. She depicts vividly the sexism, racism, and poverty faced by many women, as well as, the strength gained from family, community, a sense of self-worth, and spirituality.
Many of her novels depict women in other periods of history than our own. Just as with non-fiction women's history writing, such portrayals give a sense of the differences and similarities of women's condition today and in history.
As the topics of feminism and same gender eroticism are prevalent in Walker’s writing, they are also prevalent in her personal life. A self-described Womanist, Walker readily admits to having sexual relations with both women and men.
Alice Walker continues to challenge America’s views of race and gender and uses her outstanding literary gifts to advocate for the environment, feminist/womanist causes, and economic justice. For her triumphs, NBJC salutes Alice Walker as woman of courage and wishes her a Happy Birthday.
Billy Strayhorn:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
The history, of the family of William Thomas Strayhorn (his mother called him "Bill") goes back over a hundred years in Hillsborough. One set of great grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George Craig, lived behind the present Farmer's Exchange. A great grand-mother was the cook for Robert E. Lee. Billy, however, was born in Dayton, Ohio on November 29, 1915. His mother, Lillian Young Strayhorn, brought her children to Hillsborough often. Billy was attracted to the piano that his grandmother, Elizabeth Craig Strayhorn owned. He played it from the moment he was tall enough to reach the keys. Even in those early years, when he played, his family would gather to listen and sing.
His father enrolled him in the Pittsburgh Musical institution where he studied classical music. He had more classical training than most jazz musicians of his time.
The young pianist and composer Billy Strayhorn was introduced to Duke Ellington, already a major international star and leader of one of the world's most popular bands, for the first time backstage at an Ellington Orchestra performance at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh in December 1938.After a brief audition, which consisted of Strayhorn playing a few of his own compositions as well as interpretations of Ellington numbers, Duke hired him on the spot. The partnership between these two immensely talented musicians would continue for the next twenty-five years.
While Strayhorn, who rarely performed in public and recorded infrequently, has long been respected in jazz circles as an arranger and as the composer of such classic songs as “Take the 'A' Train,” “Chelsea Bridge,” “Lotus Blossom,” and “My Little Brown Book,” he has never really received his due as an independent artist.In his book “Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn,” David Hajdu goes a long way towards remedying this historical oversight by focusing long overdue attention on this shy, modest man who always shunned the spotlight during his lifetime.
“Ellington,” wrote Hajdu, “projected an air of Continental polish that meshed exquisitely with Strayhorn's own infatuation with townhouse culture: jazz and cocktails in the very gay places on the wheel of life.Strayhorn quickly became a stylish fixture in the world of New York nightlife, moving easily between high society parties and Harlem nightclubs like Minton's Playhouse, where he impressed early beboppers like Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach with his piano skills.
Openly homosexual, Strayhorn, says Hajdu, was a triple minority: “he was black, he was gay, and he was a minority among gay people in that he was open about his homosexuality in an era when social bias forced many men and women to keep their sexual identities secret.” If American society was barely prepared to accord a black man like Ellington, with all his charisma, poise, and flair for self-promotion, the respect he deserved as a world-class creative artist, it was far from ready to show that same respect for a gay black artist like Strayhorn. Had he sought a higher profile, perhaps leading a band of his own, Hajdu suggests, he would have had to keep his sexual orientation closeted. “Forsaking public prominence, Strayhorn sought personal freedom in service to the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Now there might not be a Billy Strayhorn Orchestra. But there was a Billy Strayhorn.”
In 1946, Strayhorn received the Esquire Silver Award for outstanding arranger. In 1965, the Duke Ellington Jazz Society asked him to present a concert at New York's New School of Social Research. It consisted entirely of his own work performed by him and his quintet. Two years later Billy Strayhorn died of cancer. Duke Ellington's response to his death was to record what the critics cite as one of his greatest works, a collection titled "And His Mother Called Him Bill," consisting entirely of Billy's compositions. Later, a scholarship fund was established for him by Ellington and the Julliard School of Music.
NBJC Salutes a musical legend who lived his life openly and honestly in a time where most did not. Strayhorn's music will live on as will his bravery.
Ma Rainey:
Black History Profiles in Courage
Gertrude Pridgett was born on April 26, 1886 in Columbus, Georgia. Her parents, Thomas and Ella Pridgett, had both performed in minstrel shows and are credited with inspiring Gertrude's interest in the field of entertainment. Her stage career got its start with a song and dance troupe when she was only 14. In 1902, she heard her first blues song at a theater in St. Louis. She adopted the blues style for her shows, and quickly made it her own.
Pridgett married traveling entertainer Will "Pa" Rainey in 1904. Together they toured throughout the southern United States as "Ma & Pa Rainey and Assassinators of the Blues." Ma would later become a solo act with a number of addenda to her name, such as "Paramount Wildcat" and "Gold Necklace Woman of the Blues."
From humble beginnings, she went on to become the top recording artist for Paramount Records, and is generally credited with the rise in popularity of blues music in America at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, Ma Rainey is known as the "Mother of the Blues." Also known, though less discussed, is that she was bisexual. Rainey never shied away from her feelings in her music.
"Went out last night with a crowd of my friends, They must have been women, 'cause I don't like no men. Wear my clothes just like a fan, Talk to gals just like any old man 'Cause they say I do it, ain't nobody caught me, Sure got to prove it on me." "Prove It On Me" - Recorded by Ma Rainey in 1928
The newspaper ad that promoted the release of "Prove It On Me" featured Ma Rainey dressed in a man's suit flirting with two other women. Rainey was also outspoken on women's issues and was seen as a role model for future women entertainers who took control of their own careers.
Ma Rainey was arrested in Chicago in 1925 when police responded to a noise complaint and found a room full of naked women in "intimate" situations. Rainey spent the night in jail for hosting an "indecent party" and was bailed out the following morning by her friend and fellow blues singer Bessie Smith. Some accounts link Smith and Rainey romantically, but no one is sure. But it is clear that Ma Rainey made no secret of her bisexuality.
The period of history in which Ma Rainey lived did not provide many opportunities for success for an African American woman living in the Southern United States. Rainey didn't sign a recording contract until 1923, after 25 years of performing for her loyal fans. She released over 100 songs during a six year recording career including: "C.C. Rider" (or "See See Rider"), "Jelly Bean Blues," "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom”, and "Bo Weevil Blues." In a few short years, Rainey led the transformation of Paramount Records from a subsidiary of a furniture company into a major record label.
The popularity of the classic women blues singers declined in the 1930's. Rainey retired to her home town of Columbus after her mother and sister died in 1935. There she managed two theaters that she had purchased with her earnings. She became active in the "Congregation of Friendship" BaptistChurch where her brother was a deacon.
When Ma Rainey died on December 22, 1939 from heart disease, the obituary in the local paper listed her as a housekeeper by profession. However, her contribution to American culture and music has been honored by time.
Rainey was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 as an "early influence." Ma Rainey, "Mother of the Blues." was honored on a U.S. postage stamp in 1994.
For her giving voice to same gender loving men and women of her time and ours NBJC salutes the Mother of the Blues.
CLAUDE MCKAY:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Claude McKay was born in Jamaica in on September 15, 1890. His full name was Festus Claudius McKay and he was the youngest of eleven children of Thomas Francis McKay and HannahAnn Elizabeth Edwards.
As a blossoming scholar, McKay read voraciously and began to write poetry at the age of 10. McKay emigrated to the United States in 1912 and continued his career of writing and publishing poetry. He entered school at Tuskegee Institute and quickly learned about racism which influenced much of his writing. His mentor, Walter Jekyll gave him a gift that allowed him to invest in a restaurant in New York and he married Eulalie Imelda Lewars. He became the editor of The Liberator and wrote some very moving protest poetry including, “If We Must Die”, “The Lynching”, “The Baptism”, and “The White House”. He lived and traveled throughout Europe and published books and journalist essays that were highly acclaimed.
James Weldon Johnson summarized his literary work as follows: “Claude McKay’s poetry was one of the great forces in bringing about what is often called the “Negro Literary Renaissance’. McKay himself described his life with the statement,“I have nothing to give but my singing. All my life I have been a troubadour wanderer, nourishing myself mainly on the poetry of existence. All I offer here is the distilled poetry of my existence.”
In 1921 McKay returned to New York and became associate editor of The Liberator. Over the next year the journal published articles by McKay such as How Black Sees Green and Red and He Who Gets Slapped. He also published his best known volume of verse, Harlem Shadows (1922).
In 1922 McKay went to Moscow where he represented the American Workers Party. He stayed in Europe where he wrote Trial by Lynching: Stories About Negro Life in America (1925) and Home to Harlem (1928), a novel about a disillusioned black soldier in the US Army who returns from the Western Front to live in a black ghetto. This was followed by other novels such as Banjo (1928), Gingertown (1932) and Banana Bottom (1933).
Claude McKay (1890-1948) was a marginal figure in the Harlem Renaissance in part because he was a decade and a half older than other participants, in part because he began in Jamaica rather than the Southern United State, and in part because he was in France during the heyday (1925-29) of the Renaissance. In other ways, he fit in. These include having sexual relationships with other men and writing about lower-class characters considered unsavory by the black bourgeoisie and the Negro leaders who wanted only positive images of success and respectability written about.
McKay returned to the United States in 1934. Employment was difficult to find and for a while he worked for the Federal Writers' Project. McKay's published work during this period included his autobiography, A Long Way From Home (1937) and Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940).
McKay never returned to the homeland he left in 1912. His became a U.S. citizen in 1940. High blood pressure and heart disease led to a steady physical decline, and in a move that surprised his friends, McKay abandoned his lifelong agnosticism and embraced Catholicism. In 1944 he left New York for Chicago, where he worked for the Catholic Youth Organization. He eventually succumbed to congestive heart failure in Chicago on May 22, 1948. His second autobiography, My Green Hills of Jamaica, was published posthumously in 1979.
James Cleveland:
Black History Profiles in Courage
James Cleveland was born to Rosie Lee and Benjamin Cleveland on December 5th in 1931 in Chicago, Illinois. James’ grandmother attended PilgrimBaptistChurch, where she was a member of the choir. James had no choice but to attend these rehearsals with his grandmother and decided he would conquer the boredom through attempting to sing along with the choir. It was in one of these rehearsal that James’ singing was noticed and he was made choir mascot.
For James Cleveland, his gospel music career included achievements as a singer, composer, pianist, choir master and as a producer. He founded the Gospel Music workshop of America which became the largest gospel music organization in the world. Cleveland’s mentor was the great Thomas A. Dorsey who practically invented the gospel music genre.
Before settling in Los Angeles in 1962, Cleveland became the Minister of Music at Faith Temple COGIC in New York and worked with “The Gospelaires”. His pursuit of his musical calling took him to Detroit. Later he would return to Chicago to become the Second Assistant Pastor to Rev. Charles Craig, Sr. at Prayer Tabernacle.
James went to Los Angeles in the 60’s where he founded CornerstoneChurch which had a small congregation and grew to thousands. Cleveland enjoyed a successful career as a Savoy recording artist completing the first live gospel recording session in 1962. During his long career as a recording artist, Cleveland won 5 Grammy Awards. Cleveland was the first gospel artist to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Cleveland was a master showman who wrote “Peace Be Still”, “The Love of God”, “I Walk With God”, and many other songs. He recorded many gospel albums but his most famous was the live gospel masterpiece entitled “Amazing Grace” featuring Aretha Franklin. This was one of the best selling gospel albums ever.
Cleveland did not live his life as an openly same gender loving man, and in fact, he died in 1991 with a reported “throat condition” but others who knew him were aware of the circumstances of his death which appeared to be AIDS-related.
Cleveland was a giant whose influence on gospel singers was incalculable.NBJC salutes a gospel pioneer who forged a career based on his faith while defying homophobes and naysayers.
Benjamin Banneker:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born on November 9, 1731 in Ellicott’s Mill, Maryland, Benjamin Banneker was one of the greatest scientific minds of American history. A self-educated man, Banneker became an accomplished scientist, astronomer, writer, inventor and anti-slavery publicist.
Born a free man, Banneker worked tirelessly against the institution of slavery. Banneker was best known as a scientist and received national claim for his scientific work in the 1791 survey of the FederalTerritory, now known as Washington, DC, which would not be the District of Columbia we know without his vision. He is also known as building the first watch made in America.
His grandfather was a slave named Banna Ka which was eventually changed to Bannaky and then to Banneker. The biography of his life states that “He quickly revealed to the world his inventive nature” and “began making astronomical calculations that enabled him to successfully forecast a 1789 solar eclipse. His estimate, made well in advance of the celestial event, contradicted predictions of better-known mathematicians and astronomers.” President Thomas Jefferson was impressed with the mathematical and scientific genius of Banneker and was lobbied heavily by Banneker to get rid of ideas of racial superiority. Jefferson was not moved to end slavery but did praise Banneker for his accomplishments.
In addition to helping lay out the District of Columbia, Banneker is known for his six annual farmer’s Almanacs between 1792 and 1797. He was the first African-American appointed to the President’s Capitol commission.
Banneker never married and “is not known to have any liaisons with any women. In one of his early essays he stated that poverty, disease and violence are more tolerable than the ‘pungent stings' which 'guilty passions dart into the heart,’ causing some historians to view him as most probably homosexual.”
This First African American man of Science, died in 1806 in Boston at age 75. The US Post Office issued a Black Heritage commemorative stamp in his honor in 1980.
NBJC salutes a pioneer in science and a brother in the struggle for self-love regarding same gender attraction.
Hattie McDaniel:
Profile in Courage in Black History Month
Hattie McDaniel was born on June 10, 1895 in Wichita, Kansas. McDaniel’s career began as a singer touring the country, which lead to her becoming the first African American woman to sing on network radio in America. She made her way to Hollywood and began to appear in a number of movies. Her nickname was “Hi-hat Hattie’ and her first movie was called “The Golden West”. Criticized for playing maids roles, Hattie said she would rather play a maid than work as one considering the salary differences.
In Los Angeles, her brother found a part for her on a radio show called "The Optimistic Do-Nuts." It wasn't long before Hattie became the show's main attraction. Hattie's film debut was in 1932, and she found her first major role in the 20th Century-Fox film, Judge Priest. She sang a duet with Will Rogers in this film. She appeared in many films for the remainder of the 1930s and on through the 1940s, including Shirley Temple's The Little Colonel. Hattie was also on numerous radio shows throughout the 1930s and 40s, including the Eddie Cantor Show and Amos 'n Andy.
When she read the novel “Gone with the Wind” she related: “I naturally felt I could create in it something distinctive and unique”. And she did. She won an Oscar for her role as “Mammy” and was the first African American to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1940. When Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta in 1939, no African American stars of the movie were invited. When Hattie’s picture appeared on the back of a movie program, Atlanta society was outraged, ordering that the programs be destroyed and new ones printed.
After Gone with the Wind, and her Oscar win, Hattie went on to appear in films such as Song of the South, Since You went Away, and In This Our Life. She became a television star in the 1950’s when she appeared on “Beaulah”. “She starred in three episodes from TV’s first sitcom to feature an African American in the title role before becoming ill and was replaced.”
Hattie was married four times, but none of her marriages lasted very long. According to Katherine the Great, a novel about Katherine Hepburn, McDaniel was purported to be the lover of Talullah Bankhead. This would certainly account for the brevity of those relationships. She died of cancer on October 2, 1952.Hattie has been immortalized by her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939) and as Queenie in Show Boat (1936). But, she is most remembered for her jovial personality, her outspoken and spunky nature, and that unmistakable laugh.
Josephine Baker:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she later took the name Baker from her second husband, Willie Baker, whom she married at age 15.
Surviving the 1917 riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, where the family was living, Josephine ran away a few years later at age thirteen and began dancing in vaudeville and on Broadway. In 1925, Josephine Baker went to Paris where, after the jazz revue La Revue Nègre failed, her comic ability and jazz dancing drew attention of the director of the Folies Bergère.
Virtually an instant hit, Josephine Baker became one of the best-known entertainers in both France and much of Europe. Her exotic, sensual act reinforced the creative images coming out of the Harlem Renaissance in America.
Despite her many marriages, she was often noted in the company of women. Her sexuality was as fluid and forward as her stage shows.She was involved in sexual liaisons with both men and women throughout her career.
During World War II Josephine Baker worked with the Red Cross, gathered intelligence for the French Resistance and entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East.
After the war, Josephine Baker adopted, with her third husband, twelve children from around the world, making her home a WorldVillage, a "showplace for brotherhood." She returned to the stage in the 1950s to finance this project.
In 1951 in the United States, Josephine Baker was refused service at the famous Stork Club in New York City. Yelling at columnist Walter Winchell, another patron of the club, for not coming to her assistance, she was accused by Winchell of Communist and Fascist sympathies. Never as popular in the US as in Europe, she found herself fighting the rumors begun by Winchell as well.
Josephine Baker responded by crusading for racial equality, refusing to entertain in any club or theater that was not integrated, and thereby breaking the color bar at many establishments. In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Josephine Baker's WorldVillage fell apart and in 1969 she was evicted from her chateau which was then auctioned off to pay debts. Princess Grace of Monaco gave her a villa. In 1973 Baker married an American, Robert Brady, and began her stage comeback.
In 1975, Josephine Baker's Carnegie Hall comeback performance was a success, as was her subsequent Paris performance. Still very much a captivating performer at 69, she died quietly, in her sleep, of a cerebral hemorrhage.
The Honorable Barbara Jordan:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born February 21, 1936 in Houston, Texas, Barbara Charline Jordon received a law degree from BostonUniversity in 1959. She was the first African American woman to be elected to the Texas Senate in 1966. Jordan was also the first African American woman to be elected to Congress from a Southern state.
Jordan was a national champion debater and defeated opponents from major Ivy League universities. Majoring in political science and history, Jordan taught at Tuskegee and then took the Bar in 1960 to start her own law practice.
Jordan became both a state senator and a member of the U.S. Congress. Though it all she never forgot the poor and downtrodden. Her legislative proposals championed the causes of the poor, African Americans, and the disadvantaged. Her phenomenal work in Congress catapulted her into national prominence, which gained her the honor as being the keynote speaker for the 1976 National Democratic Convention, and again in 1972.
After leaving Congress she went to the LyndonBainesJohnsonSchool of Public Affairs where she worked as a Professor of Public Affairs.
In addition to her many firsts, Jordan is also known as the person who electrified Watergate hearings with the quote about the Constitution: “Why don’t we just take this 17th century document and put it into a 20th century shredder?” A true visionary she worked for peace, democracy and justice for all people.She and her long-time companion, Nancy Earl, were together for more than 20 years. She was awarded the Presidential Medal for Freedom in 1994, and she died from complications of pneumonia on January 17, 1996.
A true pioneer, visionary and champion for justice NBJC salutes the Honorable Barbara Jordan.
Sylvester:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Sylvester was born Sylvester James into a middle-class family in Los Angeles, California, probably in 1946, though 1944 and 1947 are sometimes given. He was raised by his grandmother, blues singer Julia Morgan, who taught him to sing and exposed him to a wide variety of music, including blues, jazz, and gospel.
At age eight he entered the gospel circuit and began building a career as a gospel singer, but as he entered adolescence he found it increasingly difficult to hide his burgeoning homosexuality.
In 1967 Sylvester moved to San Francisco and joined the Cockettes, an androgynous experimental theater troupe, with whom he made his debut on New Year's Eve, 1970. As part of the Cockettes, Sylvester took the persona "Ruby Blue" and soon embarked on a solo career before helping form the Hot Band in 1973 and signing with Blue Thumb Records.
However, a chance discovery by former Motown producer Harvey Fuqua, who recognized Sylvester's stage presence and obvious talent, led to Sylvester's exposure to a much wider audience. In 1977 Sylvester once again went solo, and aided by Fuqua, signed with Fantasy Records.
Supported by synthesizer overlays provided by remixer Patrick Cowley, two particular songs from Step II, "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" and "Dance (Disco Heat)" became instant disco classics. The standout track "You Make Me Feel" was originally a gospel song but, after being given the "disco treatment," grew into a worldwide club hit and an eventual gay anthem.
After releasing three more albums that included torchy covers of "Ooh Baby Baby" and "Cry Me a River," Sylvester, citing creative differences, split from Harvey Fuqua and joined Patrick Cowley's fledgling record label, Megatone, in 1981.
Produced by Cowley, All I Need, Sylvester's Megatone debut, featured another high energy dance classic, "Do You Wanna Funk?," which was released to thundering acclaim.
By 1986, Sylvester's work had attracted major label attention, and he soon found himself at Warner Brothers, for whom he recorded Mutual Attraction. That same year he also realized an early dream by singing backup on Aretha Franklin's album Who's Zoomin' Who?, including the hit single "Freeway of Love."
Also in 1986, Sylvester was diagnosed with AIDS. In the summer of 1987 he made his final public appearance as part of the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.
By the time Sylvester died on December 16, 1988 of AIDS-related complications, he had firmly cemented his reputation as one of the most original and talented musicians to come out of the disco arena.
For blazing trails in activism and innovation, NBJC salutes Sylvester an out successful, same gender loving man.
Me'shell Ndegeocello:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born Michelle Johnson in 1969, Me'shell Ndegéocello spent the first years of her life in Germany. The daughter of a devoutly religious mother and a strict military father, the family relocated to Virginia in the early 1970s.
Though discipline prevailed in her home life, her father's occasional gigging as a jazz saxophonist provided her with an introduction to music and set her on the path that would lead to international success. As a teenager, Ndegéocello's interest in music led her to the nightclubs of Washington, D.C., where she played bass guitar.
While embarking on her musical exploration, Ndegéocello began a simultaneous exploration of her sexuality that would eventually become an aspect of her public persona almost as prominent as her musical acumen. Though her first romantic relationship with a woman left her feeling an outsider, her musical ambitions were left unscathed.
At a New York rock protest, she captivated audiences and captured the attention of a would-be Maverick scout by taking control of the performance with improvisational material created with a bass guitar, a drum machine and a keyboard.
The first female artist signed to Madonna’s Maverick label, the release of 1994's plantation lullabies offered a unique musical perspective. Claiming as her own a fusion of rock and funk—two genres previously dominated by males—Ndegéocello presented a brazenly unapologetic resurrection of music dependent upon equal parts talent and theatrics.
Ndegéocello drew parallels between her own personal narrative and the early-American slave trade claiming, "Anywhere you feel trapped is a plantation. I wrote to soothe all this stuff that was going on in my mind." Her debut single, "If that's your boyfriend (he wasn't last night)", not only introduced the world to bass-playing talents that would earn her the distinction of being the first female "bassist of the year" to grace the cover of Bass Guitar Magazine, but also ruled the dance floors of 1994 in the form of a slickly-produced remix.
Her sultry rap-sing vocals spoke of her role as point-person in a heterosexual love triangle, Ndegéocello's lyrics set the stage for her unapologetic self-identification as an African American, bisexual, female rock star.
Blurring the lines of sexuality and musical genres, Ndegéocello posed a threat to the status quo of the music industry.
Ndegéocello's undeniable talent as both a musician and singer easily establish her as a 90s diva. However, through her railing against racism, sexism and homophobia with quiet strength, Ndegéocello contributes much more to society than just her music.
An artist and mother, Ndegéocello is a new kind of every-woman who has the respect of her peers and her fans, and has clearly redefined the term "diva" to mean bald-headed, bass-playing funkdafied soul sista.
NBJC salutes the new age of diva Me’shell Ndegéocello.
Richard Nugent:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born into a socially prominent family on July 2, 1906, Nugent grew up in Washington, D.C. Nugent was 13 when his father died and the family moved to New York City. He was introduced to author Langston Hughes in 1925, and this event signaled the beginning of Nugent's lifelong fascination with the arts and his contribution to the literary and political movements of the Harlem Renaissance.
He explored issues of sexuality and black identity in his poems, short stories, and erotic drawings. His ardent bohemianism was the inspiration for the character of Paul Arbian, an artist and writer, in Wallace Thurman's 1932 novel Infants of the Spring.
In spite of his modest literary and artistic output and the equally small amount written about his life, Richard Bruce Nugent was a principal player in the New Negro movement. His unique and unorthodox personal style and sexual conventions snubbed the established mores of the time. Nugent’s lifestyle was that of the ultimate bohemian. Because of the notoriety surrounding him, and to avoid the disapproval of and embarrassment to his family, he assumed the pseudonym of Richard Bruce. It is this pseudonym that is often attached to his writings and drawings. He has been described as a “bizarre and eccentric vagabond poet,” and “a non-conformist who refused to accept so-called middle class standards.” Other attributes used to describe him were “cutting, good-looking, great sense of humor, and intelligent.”
“Shadows,” Nugent's first published poem, was anthologized in Contee Cullen’s 1927 work Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets. A one-act musical, “Sadhji: An African Ballet” (based on his earlier short story of the same name), was published in Plays of Negro Life: A Source-book of Native American Drama (1927) and produced in 1932. This African morality tale tells of the beautiful Sadhji, a chieftain's wife, beloved by Mrabo, her stepson, who, in turn, is loved by his male friend Numbo.
In 1926 Nugent contributed two brush-and-ink drawings and the short story “Smoke, Lilies, and Jade” (published under the name Richard Bruce) to the only issue of Fire!! A quarterly devoted to the younger Negro, was published through a collaboration between Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Bennett, Richard Bruce Nugent, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas and John Davis. Due to controversy and financial constraints, only one issue of Fire!! was published. The story, which depicts a 19-year-old artist's sexual encounter with another man, was a deliberate attempt to shake up the conventional attitudes of middle-class African Americans. Although he continued to write the occasional article, Nugent supported himself first by acting, then by his involvement, during the 1930s, in the federal arts programs.
In 1952, Nugent married Grace Elizabeth Marr. He admits without any hesitation that the love he had for her was not a physical love or lust. They were married for seventeen years. Grace died of ovarian cancer in 1969 and Nugent of congestive heart failure seventeen years later in 1987. At the time of his death, he was living in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Glenn Burke:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Glenn Burke was born in Oakland, California on November 16, 1962. It is difficult to believe that there was a time in American culture when the “high-five” was not in existence. Openly gay Dodger baseball player Glenn Burke invented it, while playing a game in 1977. Baseball was his life and he was the first major league baseball player to come out of the closet. Sometimes referred to as “the next Willie Mays” Burke had a premature retirement from baseball after he was traded to another team that didn’t work out for him —Burke felt he was tradedbecause he was gay and things went downhill for Burke after that. It was reported that Al Campanis, the Manager of the Dodgers at the time (the same Campanis who was relieved of his duties for saying that the reason blacks weren’t in the front offices of baseball is because they didn’t have the wherewithal to manage) suggested that Burke should get married.
Burkes glory days were with the Dodgers where he batted over .300 and had exceptional defensive skills, but being gay was not tolerable in the 70’s and he had to go. He played in the Gay Games in 1986 but he was never again to gain the athletic performance that marked his early days as a superb athlete.
Without his beloved baseball, Burke’s life spun out of control and he could be seen wandering the streets especially in San Francisco’s Castro district. People knew not to lend him money because he wouldn’t pay them back. He is quoted as saying, “I was spoiled rotten, so I got lazy.” He began using drugs and his behavior deteriorated. Friends avoided him.He contracted AIDS and died May 30, 1995.
For his courage to live his life openly and his outstanding display of athletic abilities NBJC honors the memory of Glenn Burke. We pray that through his suffering those that come after may be judged for their contributions on the field of play.
“They can’t ever say now that a gay man can’t play in the Majors, because I’m a gay man and I did it.”
--- Glenn Burke
Angela Y. Davis:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Scholar, activist, visionary, genius are just some of the words that have been used to describe Angela Yvonne Davis.
Angela Davis grew up in the segregated South where she saw injustice at every turn, and grew to want to “alleviate the plight of the black and the poor.”
Davis is the author of many books and she is a professor at UC Davis in California. She “came out” as a lesbian when she appeared on the cover of “Out” magazine in 1999.
Angela Davis, the daughter of an automobile mechanic and a school teacher, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on January 26, 1944. The area where the family lived became known as Dynamite Hill because of the large number of African American homes bombed by the Ku Klux Klan. Her mother was a civil rights campaigner and had been active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People before the organization was outlawed in Birmingham.
Davis attended segregated schools in Birmingham before moving to New York with her mother who had decided to study for a M.A. at New YorkUniversity. Davis attended a progressive school in Greenwich Village where several of the teachers had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era.
In 1961 Davis’ intellectual prowess earned her admittance to BrandeisUniversity in Waltham, Massachusetts where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She went to Brandeis to study French. Her course included a year at the Sorbonne in Paris.
After graduating from BrandeisUniversity she spent two years at the faculty of philosophy at Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt, West Germany before studying under Herbert Marcuse at the University of California. Davis was greatly influenced by Marcuse, especially his idea that it was the duty of the individual to rebel against the system.
Soon after arriving back in the United States from Paris, Davis was reminded of the civil rights struggle that was taking place in Birmingham when four girls that she knew were killed in the Baptist church in September, 1963. In 1967 Davis joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. The following year she became involved with the American Communist Party (ACP). Davis began working as a lecturer of philosophy at the University of California in Los Angeles. When the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1970 informed her employers, the California Board of Regents, that Davis was a member of the ACP, they terminated her contract.
Davis was also active in the campaign to improve prison conditions. She became particularly interested in the case of George Jackson and W. L. Nolen, two African Americans who had established a chapter of the Black Panthers in California's Soledad Prison. While in California's Soledad Prison, Jackson and W. L. Nolen established a chapter of the Black Panthers. On January 13, 1970, Nolan and two other black prisoners were killed by a prison guard. A few days later the Monterey County Grand Jury ruled that the guard had committed "justifiable homicide."
When a guard was later found murdered, Jackson and two other prisoners, John Cluchette and Fleeta Drumgo, were indicted for his murder. It was claimed that Jackson had sought revenge for the killing of his friend, W. L. Nolan.
On 7th August, 1970, George Jackson's seventeen year old brother, Jonathan, burst into a Marin County courtroom with a machine-gun and after taking Judge Harold Haley as a hostage, demanded that George Jackson, John Cluchette and Fleeta Drumgo, be released from prison. Jonathan Jackson was shot and killed while he was driving away from the courthouse.
Over the next few months Jackson published two books, Letters from Prison and Soledad Brother. On 21st August, 1971, George Jackson was gunned down in the prison yard at San Quentin. He was carrying a 9mm automatic pistol and officials argued he was trying to escape from prison. It was also claimed that the gun had been smuggled into the prison by Davis.
Davis went on the run and the FBI named her as one of its "most wanted criminals". She was arrested two months later in a New York motel but at her trial she was acquitted of all charges. However, because of her militant activities, then California Governor Ronald Regan urged that Davis never be allowed to teach in any of the state-supported universities.
Davis worked as a lecturer of African American studies at ClaremontCollege (1975-77) before becoming a lecturer in women's and ethnic studies at San FranciscoStateUniversity. In 1979 Davis visited the Soviet Union where she was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize and made an honorary professor at MoscowStateUniversity. In 1980 and 1984 Davis was the Communist Party's vice-presidential candidate.
For her outstanding intellect and her unflinching commitment to the cause of human rights, NBJC honors our sister Angela Y. Davis.
James Baldwin:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York City, August 2, 1924 as the son of a domestic worker. Illegitimate, he never knew his own father and was brought up in great poverty. When he was three, his mother married a factory worker, a hard and cruel man, who also was storefront preacher. Baldwin adopted the surname from his stepfather, who died eventually in a mental hospital in 1943. In his childhood Baldwin was a voracious reader.
The eldest of nine children, at age 14, Baldwin became a preacher at the small FiresidePentecostalChurch in Harlem. After he graduated from high school, he moved to Greenwich Village. In the early 1940s, he transferred his faith from religion to literature. Critics, however, note the impassioned cadences of Black churches are still evident in his writing. Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), his first novel, is a partially autobiographical account of his youth. His essay collections [Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), and The Fire Next Time (1963)] were influential in informing a largely white audience.
It became a national bestseller, and Baldwin was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Critic Irving Howe said that The Fire Next Time achieved "heights of passionate exhortation unmatched in modern American writing." In 1964 Blues for Mister Charlie, his play based on the murder of a young black man in Mississippi, was produced by the Actors Studio in New York. That same year, Baldwin was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and collaborated with the photographer Richard Avedon on Nothing Personal, a series of portraits of America intended as a eulogy for the slain Medger Evers. A collection of short stories, Going to Meet the Man, was published in 1965.
From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France, but often returned to the USA to lecture or teach. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in New York City. His novels include Giovanni's Room (1956), about a white American expatriate who must come to terms with his homosexuality, and Another Country (1962), about racial and gay sexual tensions among New York intellectuals. His inclusion of gay themes resulted in a lot of savage criticism from the Black community. Eldridge Cleaver, of the Black Panthers, stated the Baldwin's writing displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." As an openly gay man, he became increasingly outspoken in condemning discrimination against lesbian and gay people.
In 1983, Baldwin became a Five College Professor in the Afro-American Studies department of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He spent his latter years in St. Paul de Vence on the Riviera, France, where he died of stomach cancer on November 30, 1987.
NBJC salutes James Baldwin for living his life as an openly gay man and challenging homophobia and racism through literary channels that are still travelled today.
Marlon Riggs:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born in Ft. WorthTexas on February 3, 1957, Marlon graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard and received his masters' degree from the University of California - Berkeley where he became a tenured professor in the Graduate School of Journalism.
Marlon's first major work, Ethnic Notions (58 min, 1987), traces the evolution of the racial stereotypes which have implanted themselves deep into the American psyche across 150 years of U.S. history. The documentary received a National Emmy Award and other top film festival honors and has become a core audio-visual "text" in a wide range of courses.
But it was Marlon's second major work, Tongues Untied (58 min, 1989), which catapulted him into the debate over public funding of the arts. This moving, highly personal, sometimes angry, always poignant documentary was the first frank discussion of the black, gay experience on television. Though acclaimed by critics and awarded Best Documentary at Berlin and other film festivals, its broadcast by the PBS series P.O.V. was immediately pounced upon by the Religious Right as a symbol of everything wrong with public funding for art and culture, particularly culture outside the mainstream. Riggs had received $5,000 from a National Endowment for the Arts' regional re-granting program (now eliminated) and P.O.V. had received both NEA and Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding.
The Christian Coalition edited a highly sensationalized seven- minute clip from the film which they sent to every member of Congress. Senator Jesse Helms was point man for the chorus of denunciation. In a telling Freudian slip, he invariable referred to the film as Tongues United. Then Patrick Buchanan re-edited a 20-second clip from the film for a sensationalized TV ad "hit piece" blasting the NEA during the 1992 presidential primary.
Marlon responded with an Op Ed in the New York Times entitled "Meet the New Willie Horton" which recalled the notorious race- baiting ad George Bush himself used in the 1988 election. "The insult," Riggs wrote, "extends not just to blacks and gays, the majority of whom are taxpayers and would therefore seem entitled to some means of representation in publicly financed art. The insult confronts all of us who witness and are outraged by the quality of political debate."
Marlon's next major work, Color Adjustment (86 min, 1991), challenged television itself. It traces over 40 years of the representations of African Americans through the distorting prism of prime time television, from Amos 'n' Andy to Cosby. Color Adjustment garnered television's highest accolade, the George Foster Peabody Award, among other awards. That same year the American Film Institute granted Riggs their Maya Daren Lifetime Achievement Award.
Marlon Riggs' final film, Black Is...Black Ain't (86 min, 1995), is an outstanding example of the kind of committed television programming he struggled to support all his life. It wasn't easy. While in production Marlon maintained his teaching position at U.C. Berkeley, took on public speaking engagements, and continued to write. All the while, the HIV virus was ravaging his body. Hospitalized by kidney failure and other ailments, he continued to direct - even appeared on camera - from his hospital bed and the film gradually took on a more personal tone as he got sicker.
Marlon succumbed to AIDS April 5, 1994. He was 37 years old. Black Is...Black Ain't was completed by his co-producer Nicole Atkinson and editor / co-director Christiane Badgely from the footage and notes he left behind. Marlon was survived by Jack Vincent, his life companion of 15 years.
For tackling the tough issues, telling his truth and fighting until the every end, NBJC salutes Marlon Riggs provocateur and film maker.
A. Philip Randolph:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Asa Philip Randolph was born on April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida. His parents, Rev. James Williams and Elizabeth Robinson Randolph, were descendants of slaves. Their son became one of the Deans of the Civil Right s Movement.
Growing up in Florida, Randolph only had menial jobs available to him, so he moved to New York to pursue a career in acting. His parents objected to his acting aspirations so he switched from drama courses at CityCollege to politics and economics, which led to his joining the socialist party. He married Lucille Green and began his career as a labor leader leading the fight for black men to join and form unions.
Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and received vicious and violent resistance from the Pullman Company. Randolph struggled with the Pullman Company for 12 years to bring economic justice and racial dignity to the men who rode the rails, working hard and long hours on America’s trains. The Brotherhood finally prevailed and in 1935 the Pullman Company was forced to sit down with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and negotiate. In 1937, the Brotherhood, which was now affiliated with the AFL, obtained the first contract ever between a company and a black union.. During the 1940’s and 50’s Randolph became a major leader for African American civil rights. It is Randolph who suggested that there be a march on WashingtonDC to demand equal rights, jobs and dignity for black people. This idea became a reality in 1963 with the famous March on Washington, with Dr. Martin Luther King.
Randolph was also instrumental in helping to bring about desegregation of the American army. He was a true giant. His activism brought him under the close scrutiny of FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, who threatened to expose him as a homosexual. “Hoover’s FBI compiled a huge file on Randolph, as with all prominent civil rights figures. Hoover threatened to make public Randolph’s homosexuality.”Although listed as “atheist-socialist-homosexual” on the internet, A. Philip Randolph was probably bisexual.
When Randolph died on May 16th, 1979 in New York City, his funeral was attended by President Jimmy Carter and many luminaries.
“Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; It is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final act, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship.”
-- Asa Philip Randolph
Gladys Bentley:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Gladys Bentley was born on August 12, 1907. She was the eldest of 4 children born to a Trinidad born mother, Mary Mote (Bentley) and an American born father, George L. Bentley. Gladys left home at 16 years old. Like many African Americans of her generation she ended up in New York City's Harlem, the capital of "The New Negro ".
Bentley left Pennsylvania at 16 to be part of the Harlem Renaissance. She began singing at rent parties and buffet flats and moved on to speakeasies and nightclubs. later she would headline the popular speakeasy the Clam House as well as the Ubangi Club.
For Gladys, her lesbianism made her need to strike out on her own all the more urgent. As she would recall many years later in an Ebony Magazine Article, "It seems I was born different. At least, I always thought so....From the time I can remember anything, even as I was toddling, I never wanted a man to touch me...Soon I began to feel more comfortable in boys clothes than in dresses".
She wowed audiences with her powerful voice and obscene parodies of blues standards and show tunes and was famous for her glamorous girlfriends. Very open about her sexuality, Bentley also performed at lesbian bars and once told a gossip columnist she had married a white woman while in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Advertisement for Mona's Club 440 in 1942, with the explicit use of the word "gay" featured prominently. The word "gay" during the 1940s also denoted "happy," and to the casual reader even the reference to "butch," meaning masculine in gay argot, might have escaped attention.
However, the discerning, sophisticated, 1942 reader would quickly understand that Mona's Club 440 catered to an almost exclusively woman audience during World War II.
Gladys Bentley carved out a place for herself amidst this curiosity, playing at rent parties and the legendary speakeasies of "Jungle Alley" at 133 between Lenox and Seventh Avenue. She would transform popular tunes of the day with raunchy naughty playful lyrics. Dressed in signature tux and top hat , she openly and riotously flirted with women in the audience. Her popularity and salary was ever increasing as she was frequently mentioned in many of the entertainment columns of the day.
During the McCarthy era, J. Edgar Hoover, Roy Cohen and possibly McCarthy himself became social dictators. Although gay and lesbian organizations like The Daughters Of Bilitis and The Mattachine Society were formed at this time, the lives of many homosexuals were ruined. Bentley, who for so long had been one of THE most open about her homosexuality, was of course a sitting duck for persecution. Out of desperate fear for her own survival (particularly with an aging mother to support) Gladys Bentley started wearing dresses, and sanitizing her act. In 1950, Bentley wrote a desperate, largely fabricated article for Ebony entitled "I am Woman Again" in which she claimed to have cured her lesbianism via female hormone treatments and was finally at peace after a "hell as terrible as dope addiction".
She claimed to have married a newspaper columnist named J. T. Gibson (a man who soon after publicly denied that the two had ever wed). In 1952 she does seem to have married a man named Charles Roberts. He was a cook and 16 years younger than Bentley, who lied on the marriage certificate, stating her age as 36 rather than 45. The two eventually divorced. Bentley did manage to still perform, usually at the RoseRoom in Hollywood.
She recorded a single on the Flame label and appeared twice on Groucho Marx's' television show. At this stage, Bentley became an active and (truly) devoted member of "The Temple of Love in Christ, Inc.". She was about to become an ordained minister in the church when she died of a flu epidemic in 1960 at the age of 52.
For her total acceptance of who she was and her perception of the times, NBJC salutes, Gladys Bentley, a true, African American Shero.
Alexander Hamilton:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born out-of-wedlock in the West Indies to a bi-racial mother, Rachel Lavien and a Scottish businessman, James Hamilton, we end the month with Alexander Hamilton.The belief that Hamilton was mulatto probably arose from the incontestable truth that many, if not most, illegitimate children in the West Indies bore mixed blood. At the time of Rachel's birth, the four thousand slaves on Nevis outnumbered whites by a ratio of four to one.
His exact birth date is still in question because he did not have a birth certificate, but it was either January 11, 1755 or 1757. Statesman, politician, soldier, writer, lawyer and passionate abolitionist, Hamilton was a super nova of brilliant thought and action.
Abandoned by his father at an early age and orphaned when his mother died when he was in his early teens, Hamilton rose to be one of our most renowned Founding Fathers.
Being an eye-witness to the ravages of slavery in the Islands, Hamilton developed an abiding passion for the abolition of slavery. One of his biographers, Ron Chernow writes that Hamilton espoused this position on African Americans, “The contempt we have been taught to entertain for the blacks makes us fancy many things that are not founded neither in reason nor in experience.” Black author Lawrence Aaron writes: “As much as I thought I knew about Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary, nobody ever told me he was black. Yes. You heard it here first folks.” Although it is still argued as to Hamilton’s genetics, Aaron writes of the importance of knowing, “The message for black youngsters is that African Americans were present at every stage of the United States’ development, and that one of the founding fathers was in fact African American.”
In addition to laying the groundwork for the American economy, Hamilton founded the First Bank if the United States. Then he founded the Federalist Party, the first political party in the United States. He co-authored the Federalist Papers with John Jay and James Madison.
During the Revolutionary War, Hamilton joined with the rank of lieutenant-colonel and became the private secretary of General George Washington. Although Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler, he formed romantic attachments to soldiers, most notably John Laurens. His letters to Laurens portrayed a loving relationship filled with longing as revealed by this excerpt: “I wish, my dear Laurens?it might be in my power, by action rather than by words, [to] convince you that I love you.” John Laurens was eventually killed in battle. Hamilton died from wounds in a duel with Aaron Burr on July 12th, 1804 in New York City.
For his courage in fighting for the abolition of slavery, for his passion regarding his heart’s desire, NBJC salutes Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton.Be proud the next time you see a $10 bill and know that a same gender loving man of Americans of African descent was so honored.
This concludes the Profiles in Courage as disseminated by NBJC.We encourage all of our readers to continue to investigate and discover all of the contributions by our contemporaries and our ancestors.Some of those profiled may have been obscure, may have been speculative, may have been circumspect, but all are meant to encourage, enlighten and increase dialogue and conversations about the “invisible” leaders in our community. We hope you have learned as much as we have and that you will continue to seek the truth that has often been erased.
the Fellowship for Reconciliation's Department of Race Relations; out of this came the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
As a favorite daughter of a popular pharaoh, and as a charismatic and beautiful lady in her own right, she was able to command enough of a following to actually take control as pharaoh. 
Born in 
allowed him to nurture, encourage and mentor many young flourishing writers and artists. His teachings led him to New York and the Harlem Renaissance.
Radcliffe, associated with Harvard University, was one of the Seven Sisters Colleges, a group of prestigious northeastern liberal arts institutions founded in the nineteenth century to educate women. Graduates of the Seven Sisters differed from women at coeducational schools. Seven Sisters alum were known for their high levels of self-esteem and often pursued diplomas in traditionally male fields. Judge Batts displayed both qualities. Once she completed her studies at Radcliffe, Batts obtained a J.D. from 
judge." She has described being a lesbian as "definitely an important part" of her life, but has added that it is only one of many important parts of her life: "I am also a very devoted mother, I'm an attorney, a former prosecutor, and I'm an African American."
abject slavery, she was seriously injured at the age of 12 by an overseer for refusing to bind up a captured slave who had attempted escape. The overseer hit her in the head with a two pound weight. This injury would cause her to suffer blackouts for the rest of her life. 
Only twelve miles from Seneca Falls, Tubman helped 
settling in 
Staying in 
In 1980 Ailey was briefly hospitalized for stress-related conditions. His death followed a long, solitary struggle that had taken him out of the limelight for some time. Ailey's legacy to the dance world was to foster a freedom of choice--from ballet, modern, and social dance performance -- to best express humanity in movement terms suited to the theatrical moment.
Alvin Ailey, though lauded and praised for his artistic and societal contributions, was reluctant to publicly acknowledge that he had AIDS.
began work on A Raisin in the Sun and in 1957 read the first draft to publisher Philip Rose. That same year, in a letter to the Ladder, she wrote that "It is time that 'half the human race' had something to say about the nature of its existence." She called for a new approach to combat a sexist society, "as per marriage, as per sexual practices, as per the rearing of children, etc.," adding that: "In this kind of work there may be women to emerge who will be able to formulate a new and possible concept that homosexual persecution and condemnation has at its roots not only social ignorance, but a philosophically active anti-feminist dogma." This stance, notes Gay and Lesbian Biography, was "at once far-sighted and, in 1957, extremely courageous," marking Hansberry's "strong commitment as feminist and pro-lesbian spokesperson," which, "only in recent years has this contribution been noted." 
Critics Circle Award, and her screenplay, completed in 1960, won the Cannes Film Festival Award in 1961. She continued writing in the 1960s, and became increasingly involved in supporting the civil rights movement. 
Born July 12, 1864 in 
nd teaching. Carver discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and over a hundred uses for sweet potatoes, soybeans and pecans. Although he only obtained three patents, he is credited with inventing recipes and improvements for: linoleum, mayonnaise, chili sauce, shaving cream, synthetic rubber, wood stain, adhesives, bleach, axle grease, meat tenderizer, shoe polish, talcum powder, ink, instant coffee, fuel briquettes, pavement, paper, and plastic. 
ofile in Courage for Black History Month
oems came out in 1968 and her first novel just after her daughter's birth in 1970. 
h non-fiction women's history writing, such portrayals give a sense of the differences and similarities of women's condition today and in history. 
The history, of the family of William Thomas Strayhorn (his mother called him "Bill") goes back over a hundred years in Hillsborough. One set of great grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George Craig, lived behind the present Farmer's Exchange. A great grand-mother was the cook for Robert E. Lee. Billy, however, was born in 
musicians of his time.
songs as “Take the 'A' Train,” “Chelsea Bridge,” “Lotus Blossom,” and “My Little Brown Book,” he has never really received his due as an independent artist.
man like Ellington, with all his charisma, poise, and flair for self-promotion, the respect he deserved as a world-class creative artist, it was far from ready to show that same respect for a gay black artist like Strayhorn. Had he sought a higher profile, perhaps leading a band of his own, Hajdu suggests, he would have had to keep his sexual orientation closeted. “Forsaking public prominence, Strayhorn sought personal freedom in service to the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Now there might not be a Billy Strayhorn Orchestra. But there was a Billy Strayhorn.” 
Ma Rainey:
Pridgett married traveling entertainer Will "Pa" Rainey in 1904. Together they toured throughout the southern 
spent the night in jail for hosting an "indecent party" and was bailed out the following morning by her friend and fellow blues singer Bessie Smith. Some accounts link Smith and Rainey romantically, but no one is sure. But it is clear that Ma Rainey made no secret of her bisexuality.
ity of the classic women blues singers declined in the 1930's. Rainey retired to her home town of 
Claude McKay was born in 
Literary Renaissance’. McKay himself described his life with the statement,
ers Party. He stayed in 
1931 in 
Faith Temple COGIC in 
Cleveland
el masterpiece entitled “Amazing Grace” featuring Aretha Franklin. This was one of the best selling gospel albums ever.
Born on November 9, 1731 in Ellicott’s Mill, 
which would not be the 
ans and astronomers.” President Thomas Jefferson was impressed with the mathematical and scientific genius of Banneker and was lobbied heavily by Banneker to get rid of ideas of racial superiority. Jefferson was not moved to end slavery but did praise Banneker for his accomplishments.
Hattie McDaniel was born on June 10, 1895 in 
't long before Hattie became the show's main attraction. Hattie's film debut was in 1932, and she found her first major role in the 20th Century-Fox film, Judge Priest. She sang a duet with Will Rogers in this film. She appeared in many films for the remainder of the 1930s and on through the 1940s, including Shirley Temple's The Little Colonel. Hattie was also on numerous radio shows throughout the 1930s and 40s, including the Eddie Cantor Show and Amos 'n Andy.
can American stars of the movie were invited. When Hattie’s picture appeared on the back of a movie program, 
Josephine ran away a few years later at age thirteen and began dancing in vaudeville and on Broadway. In 1925, Josephine Baker went to 
sexuality was as fluid and forward as her stage shows.
Born February 21, 1936 in 
she never forgot the poor and downtrodden. Her legislative proposals championed the causes of the poor, African Americans, and the disadvantaged. Her phenomenal work in Congress catapulted her into national prominence, which gained her the honor as being the keynote speaker for the 1976 National Democratic Convention, and again in 1972. 
In addition to her many firsts, Jordan is also known as the person who electrified Watergate hearings with the quote about the Constitution: “Why don’t we just take this 17th century document and put it into a 20th century shredder?” A true visionary she worked for peace, democracy and justice for all people.
bably in 1946, though 1944 and 1947 are sometimes given. He was raised by his grandmother, blues singer Julia Morgan, who taught him to sing and exposed him to a wide variety of music, including blues, jazz, and gospel. 
himself at Warner Brothers, for whom he recorded Mutual Attraction. That same year he also realized an early dream by singing backup on Aretha Franklin's album Who's Zoomin' Who?, including the hit single "Freeway of Love." 
Born Michelle Johnson in 1969, Me'shell Ndegéocello spent the first years of her life in 
exploration of her sexuality that would eventually become an aspect of her public persona almost as prominent as her musical acumen. Though her first romantic relationship with a woman left her feeling an outsider, her musical ambitions were left unscathed. 
The first female artist signed to Madonna’s Maverick label, the release of 1994's plantation lullabies offered a unique musical perspective. Claiming as her own a fusion of rock and funk—two genres previously dominated by males—Ndegéocello presented a brazenly unapologetic resurrection of music dependent upon equal parts talent and theatrics. 
as a 90s diva. However, through her railing against racism, sexism and homophobia with quiet strength, Ndegéocello contributes much more to society than just her music. 
Born into a socially prominent family on July 2, 1906, Nugent grew up in 
movement. His unique and unorthodox personal style and sexual conventions snubbed the established mores of the time. Nugent’s lifestyle was that of the ultimate bohemian. Because of the notoriety surrounding him, and to avoid the disapproval of and embarrassment to his family, he assumed the pseudonym of Richard Bruce. It is this pseudonym that is often attached to his writings and drawings. He has been described as a “bizarre and eccentric vagabond poet,” and “a non-conformist who refused to accept so-called middle class standards.” Other attributes used to describe him were “cutting, good-looking, great sense of humor, and intelligent.”
“Shadows,” Nugent's first published poem, was anthologized in Contee Cullen’s 1927 work Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets. A one-act musical, 
only issue of Fire!! A quarterly devoted to the younger Negro, was published through a collaboration between Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Bennett, Richard Bruce Nugent, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas and John Davis. Due to controversy and financial constraints, only one issue of Fire!! was published. The story, which depicts a 19-year-old artist's sexual encounter with another man, was a deliberate attempt to shake up the conventional attitudes of middle-class African Americans. Although he continued to write the occasional article, Nugent supported himself first by acting, then by his involvement, during the 1930s, in the federal arts programs.
Glenn Burke was born in 
wandering the streets especially in 
philosophy at Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in 
On 7th August, 1970, George Jackson's seventeen year old brother, Jonathan, burst into a Marin County courtroom with a machine-gun and after taking Judge Harold Haley as a hostage, demanded that George Jackson, John Cluchette and Fleeta Drumgo, be released from prison. Jonathan Jackson was shot and killed while he was driving away from the courthouse. 
James Baldwin was born in 
ver of Time magazine. Critic Irving Howe said that 
Black community. Eldridge Cleaver, of the Black Panthers, stated the 
from Harvard and received his masters' degree from the 
awarded Best Documentary at 
Award, among other awards. That same year the American Film Institute granted Riggs their Maya Daren Lifetime Achievement Award.
Asa Philip Randolph was born on April 15, 1889 in 
forced to sit down with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and negotiate. In 1937, the Brotherhood, which was now affiliated with the AFL, obtained the first contract ever between a company and a black union.. During the 1940’s and 50’s 
civil rights figures. 
Gladys Bentley was born on August 12, 1907. She was the eldest of 4 children born to a 
to feel more comfortable in boys clothes than in dresses".
Gladys Bentley carved out a place for herself amidst this curiosity, playing at rent parties and the legendary speakeasies of "Jungle Alley" at 133 between 
soon after publicly denied that the two had ever wed). In 1952 she does seem to have married a man named Charles Roberts. He was a cook and 16 years younger than Bentley, who lied on the marriage certificate, stating her age as 36 rather than 45. The two eventually divorced. Bentley did manage to still perform, usually at the 
Born out-of-wedlock in the 
Fathers.
dear Laurens?it might be in my power, by action rather than by words, [to] convince you that I love you.” John Laurens was eventually killed in battle. 
