Music

The loss of jazz vocalist legend Al Jarreau sent ripples throughout the music world after news of his passing on Sunday. The legendary singer enjoyed a history-making career, becoming the first artist to win a Grammy Award across three different categories. Alwin Lopez Jarreau was born March 12, 1940 in Milwaukee, Wisc. The son of […]

Music

The overwhelming success of the film Hidden Figures, starring Taraji P. Henson, highlighted three African-American women who were instrumental in propelling the U.S. space program. The state of Arkansas has a hidden figure of its own in Raye Montague, who is the first person to design a U.S. Navy ship using a computer. Montague was […]

Music

Oscar Holmes broke three color barriers in his lifetime, although he never set out to become a pioneer. Holmes was not only the first Black air traffic controller, he was also the U.S. Navy’s first Black commissioned officer and the military branch’s first Black pilot. Holmes was born January 31, 1916 in Dunbar. W. Va. […]

Music

Black circus performers have found varying levels of fame over the years, but little is known about the stars of Europe. Olga Kaira, better known as Miss LaLa, dazzled audiences across the continent and was the subject of one of the art world’s most prized works. Anna Olga Albertina Brown was born April 21, 1858 […]

Music

  Blacks oppressed by white and violent hate groups across the Deep South saw reason to celebrate on this day in 1988. The Ku Klux Klan and the Southern White Knights of Forsyth County, Ga. were ordered to pay nearly $1 million to its Black victims. On January 17, 1987, around 55 marchers gathered in […]

Music

  Dr. Justina L. Ford was a pioneering physician who practiced medicine in Colorado, despite facing the barriers of race and gender. Dr. Ford, better known as the “Lady Doctor,” was rumored to have delivered 7,000 babies in her lifetime and was the lone Black female doctor in the state for the first half of […]