• the217
• Arts
• Black is ...

Related Media

Sidney Poitier (far left)

• See Slideshow (2 images)

Florence B. Price

(1887-1953)

First Black Woman to be Recognized as a Symphonic Composer

-Kevin Terrell

With symphonic works steeped in both the European Romantic convention and traditional African melodies and rhythms, Florence B. Price was one of the truly unique and influential composers of modern times.

Publishing her first work at age 11, Price would go on to win the prestigious Wanamaker Competition in 1932 for her most famous piece, “Symphony in E Minor.” Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, presented it at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933. It was the first time a symphony written by a black woman had been performed by a major symphony orchestra.

Despite fame, Price struggled as a single mother in Chicago through much of her life. To earn a living, she sold small pieces commissioned for the piano and taught piano lessons. She also played the organ for silent films and orchestrated for WGN radio. She developed a supportive social circle that included Abbie Mitchell and Langston Hughes.

With more than 300 works, Florence Price is remembered as an integral part of the New Negro Arts Movement.

Gwendolyn Brooks

(1917-2000)

First Black Writer to Win a Pulitzer Prize

-Chris Magiet

The poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) truly resonates with Chicago’s South Side. At 19, Brooks was already published and had a college degree in English. She worked with the NAACP and various other organizations serving Chicago’s youth until her death. Brooks invested her skills in the development of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, but Annie Allen (1949) brought her the most attention, generating comparisons to Langston Hughes and e.e. Cummings. Her poetry contemplates issues born from racism, poverty and the impact of urban life on African-Americans. In 1950, Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize, the first black writer to do so.

Ruby Dee

(1924-)

First Black Woman to Have Lead Roles at the American Shakespeare Festival

-MaryPat Flanagan

-“You just try to do everything that comes up.” — Ruby Dee

By doing “everything,” Ruby Dee meant being an award-winning actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and activist — not to mention a wife and mother. Although Dee graduated from Hunter College with degrees in Spanish and French, she immediately stole the stage as the first black woman to appear in major roles at the American Shakespeare Festival. Her career continued to flourish even at the age of 83 with her 2008 Screen Actors Guild award for her role in American Gangster as Mama Lucas. Offstage, Dee and her husband, Ossie Davis, were active in civil rights groups such as the NAACP, the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Sidney Poitier

(1927-)

First African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor

-Robin Clement

Sidney Poitier was the first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. It was awarded for his role in Lilies of the Field (1963). Poitier was unique because he only signed on to movies that empowered African-Americans, refusing those that he felt were demeaning roles. According to PBS.org, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) was the first Hollywood movie about interracial romance that ended optimistically. Biography.com states that seven years later, Poitier became Knight Commander of the British Empire. Though appointed the title “Sir,” he humbly declines the practice. Poitier later became the Bahamian ambassador to Japan and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Ed Bradley

(1941-2006)

First — and only — Black Co-Anchor of 60 Minutes

-Syd Slobodnik

Ed Bradley was a pioneer, trailblazing newsman who spent over 35 years with CBS News. He co-anchored 60 Minutes for 26 of those years after becoming the chief Southeast Asia correspondent in the final years of the Vietnam War and the first African-American White House correspondent. He won 19 Emmy Awards with some of his most memorable interviews being with Lena Horne, (Oklahoma City bomber) Timothy McVeigh, Bob Dylan and Muhammad Ali. He won honors for his reporting on the AIDS crisis in Africa and was one of the first male anchors to wear an earring on-air. He was an avid L.A. Lakers fan and a jazz enthusiast as well as a close friend of Jack Nicholson and Jimmy Buffett.

Carole Gist

(1970-)

First Black Woman to Win Miss USA

-Keri Carpenter

In March of 1990, a young woman stood on a stage in Wichita, Kan., in awe of the announcement that she had just become Miss USA. After being judged — and scored — on her appearance, personality and intelligence, the diamonds and roses were not her true reward for winning the title of Miss USA; her real reward was making history. She was beautiful, intelligent and black, and at the young age of 20, Carole Gist had become the first African-American woman to become Miss USA. She had previously been crowned Miss Michigan USA but never imagined she would become the first African-American Miss USA. Many argue that the 1990 Miss USA pageant was the most competitive Miss USA pageant to ever be held due to the extraordinary number of talented contestants. Today, Gist is still in the spotlight, co-hosting a gospel radio show and singing professionally in Midland, Mich.

Garrett Augustus Morgan

(1877-1963)

Inventor of America's First Patented Three-Position Traffic Signal

-Keri Carpenter

With critical inventions such as the three-position traffic signal, smoke protectors and gas masks, Morgan’s creative mind and determination to be a productive member of society were quickly fulfilled. Simply put by www.fhwa.dog.gov, “Morgan devoted his life to creating items that made the lives of common people safer and more convenient.”

Morgan was a handy man who could briefly study something and figure out how it worked or how to fix it. By 1907, he had his own repair shop. By 1920, he had his own newspaper, which he called the Cleveland Call, and by 1916, he appeared in the news for using his gas mask to save a group of men who had been trapped in a tunnel due to an explosion. Morgan’s inventions saved lives, encouraged other inventors and ultimately increased the quality of American life.

Glenn Ligon

(1960-)

Media Master

-Lauren Yang

Artist Glenn Ligon possesses an uncanny ability to bring the past into the present and address issues of race, history and sexuality while projecting his own identity as a black gay man. The results are powerful juxtapositions of social commentary and aesthetic values. In one work, modeled after a photo album, vintage gay porn mingles with family photos. Other pieces feature slave posters, narratives describing Ligon and borrowed literary phrases such as “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” Ligon’s “post-black” art forces viewers to come to terms with numerous social issues while reconsidering what it means to be true to one’s self.