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.
Sarah Vaughan, born on this day in 1924 in Newark, NJ, in her dressing room in Chicago, 1948. I wonder which fragrance she was using? Photo: Ted Williams.
British contralto Evelyn Dove (1902-1987) wearing a mantilla and holding a fan in a photography by Carl Van Vechten taken on December 27, 1935. Born in London to a barrister from Sierra Leone and his British wife, Ms. Dove’s career took her all over the world, from American jazz clubs to cabarets from Paris to India. She was best known to most for her work in BBC radio broadcasts in the 1940s. In 1956, she portrayed Eartha Kitt’s mother in a BBC television drama called “Mrs. Patterson,” that starred the American-born British-based singer, Elisabeth Welch. She also appeared on stage in London’s West End in a production of Langston Hughes’s “Simply Heavenly.” Photo: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
A Twitter fan tweeted this awesome shot I shared last year of the one and only Malcolm X in Chicago in 1961. The picture was taken by the legendary photographer Eve Arnold who died on January 4, 2012 at the age of 99, just three months short of her 100th birthday. I’m pretty sure this is my favorite picture of Malcolm X.
Actress Jane White in a 1941 photograph by Carl Van Vechten. A 1944 graduate of Smith College, White was the daughter of Civil Rights icon Walter White. Ms. White began her career on Broadway in 1945 when Paul Robeson helped her get her first role as the lead in Lillian Smith’s “Strange Fruit,” a story about a doomed interracial love affair. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt praised Ms. White’s work for its “restraint and beauty.” In 1959, Ms. White originated the role of Queen Aggravain (to a young Carol Burnett’s princess) in “Once Upon a Mattress.” For this role, Ms. White was asked to lighten her complexion, lest she “confuse” the audience with her “Mediterranean” looks. She would go on to establish a solid reputation as an actress in Shakespearean and classical roles from the 1960’s through the 1990’s. In 1979, her autobiographical one-woman show, “Jane White, Who?…”, was well received. Ms. White was also a cabaret singer and did work in film and television, including a small part in the film, “Beloved.” In 1992, Ms. White wrote “Life As An Actress: A Mystery Story,” an autobiographical essay for Revealing Women’s Life Stories: Papers from the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Ms. White died of cancer on July 24, 2011 in New York City at the age of 88.
A beautiful, unidentified woman (perhaps holding a newspaper?) circa 1912. Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
Paul Robeson, majestic singer and actor, brilliant scholar and athlete, fierce political activist and all-around renaissance man, in a 1925 photo by Edward Gooch. According to Shadow And Act, David Harewood, the British actor and star of Showtime’s “Homeland” is in talks to portray Mr. Robeson in an upcoming film. Wynton Marsalis has signed on to score the film as well.
Sarah Vaughan in New York City, 1948. Photo: Herman Leonard via the Morrison Hotel Gallery.
Singer and actress Ketty Lester in a 1962 studio portrait. Ms. Lester, born Revoyda Frierson in Hope, Arkansas, became better known in later years as an actress, especially for her role as Hester Sue on “Little House on the Prarie.” In 1962, her hit song, ‘Love Letters” was a Top 5 single. She also appeared on “Julia,” “The Bill Cosby Show,” and yes, “House Party 3” and that cult cinematic classic, “Blacula.” Photo: Gilles Petard/Redferns.
Boxing legend Joe Louis, photographed in 1941 by Carl Van Vechten at Greenwood Lake, NJ. Photo: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Legendary model Naomi Sims in the photo that appeared on the cover of the October 17, 1969 issue of Life magazine. Photo: Yale Joel/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.
Happy 93rd birthday to my opera singer aunt Margaret Tynes! She had a phenomenal international career as a singer in opera, jazz and theater for over fifty years. A graduate of North Carolina A&T State University (BA 1939) and Columbia University (MA 1944), she starred as Harry Belafonte’s leading lady off-Broadway in a show he produced called Sing Man, Sing! She also recorded a jazz suite called A Drum is a Woman with Duke Ellington and made several appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1961, she gained international acclaim as Salomé at the Spoleto Festival of the Two Worlds in Italy, where she lived for more than forty years. This photo was taken on September 29, 1959 by Carl Van Vechten, who shot her many times. Photo: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
