Category : Performance

Nina Simone, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, was an iconic American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her extraordinary talent and...

American singer Rosetta Tharpe is credited with popularizing gospel music among secular audiences during the 1930s and ’40s. Born in Arkansas in 1915, Sister Rosetta...

Victoria Spivey was one of the more influential blues women simply because she was around long enough to influence legions of younger women and men...

Blind Lemon Jefferson was born in Coutchman, Texas, to a humble family. Losing his sight during infancy, Jefferson developed an exceptional sense of hearing and...

A Legacy of Blues and Resilience Ida Cox, one of the most distinguished classic blues singers of the 1920s, left an indelible mark on the...

Jelly Roll Morton, byname of Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe, (born Oct. 20, 1890, New Orleans, La., U.S.—died July 10, 1941, Los Angeles, Calif.), American jazz...

Fletcher Henderson, in full Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr., original name James Fletcher Henderson, byname Smack, (born Dec. 18, 1897, Cuthbert, Ga., U.S.—died Dec. 29, 1952,...

African American audiences were generally ignored by the major motion picture studios in the first two decades of the 20th Century. Nonetheless, demand for films...

Oscar Micheaux was the quintessential self-made man.  Novelist, film-maker, and relentless self-promoter, Micheaux was born on a farm near Murphysboro, Illinois.  He worked briefly as...

Hattie McDaniel was an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She was born on June 10, 1895, in Wichita, Kansas, and passed away on October 26,...