ICONS: Sammy Davis, Jr., Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier in an outtake from their February 4, 1966 LIFE magazine cover. Thank you Reggie Hudlin! Photo: Philippe Halsman/Magnum Photos.
Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis compare notes, and the tools of their respective trades, on June 14, 1946 during Mr. Robinson’s visit to Mr. Louis’s training camp in Pompton Lake, New Jersey. It was 66 years ago today, on April 15, 1947, that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball to play with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Photo: Bettman/Corbis.
Happy 71st Birthday to Muhammad Ali! The Greatest and, quite possibly, The Handsomest of All Time, was born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky. This photo of Mr. Ali was taken in 1966 in London, where he was training for his upcoming fight with British champion Henry Cooper. Photo: Keystone-France/Getty.
Max Roach, the iconic jazz drummer & composer, on tour in Japan in the mid-1950s. Photo via Dwayne Rodgers of The Black Vernacular who obtained it from Mr. Roach’s family.
Harry Belafonte leans against an Oscar statue at the Academy Awards on March 27, 1956. I was going to wait until Oscar night to post this one but… Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images.
I thought this would be a good time to share more about Charles “Teenie” Harris (1908-1998). He was a photographer who captured the full-spectrum of African American life for over forty years, primarily as one of the principal photographers for the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper. Few photographers anywhere captured us so well: from family life to beauty contests to sporting events, social life, civil rights demonstrations and visiting celebrities, Mr. Harris was there with the Speed Graphic camera that he would use well into the 1970s.
Actor Robert Earl Jones photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1938. The father of James Earl Jones, he appeared in Oscar Michaeux films, on Broadway and with Robert Redford in “The Sting”. In the 1930s, he was a boxer and the sparring partner of Joe Louis. Blacklisted in the 1950s, he appeared in an uncredited role as the club employee who offers Harry Belafonte a “piece of iron” in the 1959 film noir “Odds Against Tomorrow”. Mr. Jones died in 2006 at the age of 96.
Harry Belafonte appears in a publicity photo for the movie ‘Odds Against Tomorrow’ which was produced by his company, Harbel Productions, Inc. in 1959. Carmen de Lavallade, Cicely Tyson, Shelley Winters, Robert Ryan and Robert Earl Jones (father of James Earl Jones) also appeared in the film. In the comments, I have included a clip from the film = the most fascinating 9 minutes you’ll spend today. Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.
Sidney Poitier getting his make-up touched up on the set of ‘To Sir, With Love’, in June 1966. Photo by Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive.
Open up your hearts and your pocketbooks, ladies and gentleman! We are gathered here today to celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the birth of a genius, one Richard Pryor. Somebody say Amen!
Boxing legend Joe Louis, photographed in 1941 by Carl Van Vechten at Greenwood Lake, NJ. Photo: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
It never fails: I end up looking for one thing and finding so much more. This is the Wilberforce University Quartette of 1922, Agnus Redden, Basso; H.Q. Smith, Tenor; L.O. Byrd (Director) Baritone; L.H. Berry (Manager), Tenor. Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
