Vintage Black Glamour

Stevie Wonder (who turns 63 today!) shares a laugh with his friend, Minnie Riperton, at a party in 1975. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty.

Happy Birthday to ya Stevie Wonder!!! My favorite musical genius was born 63 years ago today as Steveland Hardaway Judkins (his last name was later changed to Morris) in Saginaw, Michigan. In this 1974 photo, he is performing his classic “Living For The City” on “Top Of The Pops” in London. Photo: David Warner Ellis/Redferns. In the comment section, let me know what your favorite Stevie song is (Is it possible to have just one?)

Diana Ross at the Palace Theatre in Manhattan in 1976 with her daughters, Rhonda Ross Kendrick, Tracee Ellis Ross and Chudney Ross, owner of Books and Cookies LA. Photo by Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images.

When I first told my dad about Vintage Black Glamour, he had one question: “Is Freda Payne in the book?” Why yes, Dad. Yes she is. This photo by Terry O’Neill (via Getty) is from the early 1970s.

Jayne Kennedy in April 1977 in a shot from her short-lived NBC TV show, “Cover Girls.” She played Monique Lawrence who was, of course, a secret agent posing as a fashion model. Photo: Dave Friedman/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images.

Congratulations to Cicely Tyson on her first ever Tony nomination for The Trip to Bountiful! In this 1973 photo, she is trying on a dress in Paris. Ms. Tyson, a two-time Emmy winner and Oscar nominee, was nominated for her role in the current Broadway hit The Trip to Bountiful Broadway which also stars Vanessa Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Wopat and Condola Rashad - daughter of Phylicia Rashad and a two-time Tony nominee herself! Photo: Jean-Claude Deutsch/Paris Match/Getty.

Sidney Poitier holding court at a party in 1977. To his right is actress, Tracy Reed, his co-star in the 1977 film, “A Piece of the Action.” I LOVE Tracy Reed and wish I could find more (clear!) pictures of her. Photo: Ozier Muhammad for EBONY.

Coretta Scott King was born 86 years ago today in Marion, Alabama. Mrs. King was a graduate of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio (B.A. Music Education, 1951) and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston (Mus.B. in voice, 1954). In this photo, she is flashing the peace sign at an anti-war rally at the White House on May 9, 1970. She was one of over 100,000 demonstrators who attended the rally to protest the war in Vietnam and Cambodia. Photo: Benjamin E. “Gene” Forte/CNP/Corbis.

Brilliant scholar, activist and author Angela Davis, photographed in 1973 by the legendary photographer Philippe Halsman. Filmmaker Shola Lynch Free Angela has just released an AMAZING documentary about the iconic Ms. Davis. Photo: Philippe Halsman/Magnum Photos.

Phyllis Hyman, in a photo taken by the esteemed photographer Anthony Barboza in 1978, the year she released her album, “Somewhere In My Lifetime.” Photo: Anthony Barboza/Getty.

You didn’t think I forgot Billy Dee Williams’s 76th birthday today did you? No, of course you didn’t! Mr. Williams is still acting, still writing, still painting and still fine today and, if you can’t name the film this photo is from, I am going to shed real tears… of laughter. :) Photo: Bettman/Corbis.