Black ThenThe Dossier: "The King of Harlem" Bumpy Johnson

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Black ThenThe Dossier: "The King of Harlem" Bumpy Johnson

Born October 31, 1905, in Charleston, South Carolina, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson would go on notoriety as an enforcer and kingpin in Harlem’s underworld. At an early age his older brother Willie was sent from South Carolina after he was said to have killed a White man. Johnson himself would be sent to Harlem in 1919 to […]

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Source: Black Then

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Bishop Alexander Walters: Religious Leader and Civil Rights Activist

Noted religious leader and civil rights activist Bishop Alexander Walters was instrumental in establishing the National Afro-American League and later, the Afro-American Council. Both organizations, despite being short-lived, served as predecessors to the National Association for the Advancement of

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Harlem's Cotton Club closes

Harlems Cotton Club closes.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jun

10

1940

About African-American Architect Norma Merrick Sklarek

Architect Norma Merrick Sklarek (born April 15, 1926 in Harlem, New York) worked behind the scenes on some of the largest architectural projects in America. Notable in architectural history as the first African-American woman registered architect in New York and California, Sklarek was also the

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6

2012

St. Philip’s Protestant Episcopal Church, New York City (1809- )

St. Philip’s Protestant Episcopal Church was the first African American Episcopal parish in New York City, New York. It was also one of the largest Christian congregations in the United States at one

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Henry McGee, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Henry McGee is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School. He is a member of the HBS Business History Initiative and a director of the Pew Research Center in

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McKay, Claude (1889-1948)

Harlem Renaissance writer Festus Claudius McKay was born on September 15, 1889, in Sunny Ville, in the Clarendon Hills of Jamaica, to peasant farmers Hannah Ann Elizabeth Edwards and Thomas Frank McKay. Young Claude was tutored by his elder schoolmaster brother, Uriah Theodore McKay, who

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May

22

1948

Hurston, Zora Neale (1891-1960)

Zora Neale Hurston, known for her audacious spirit and sharp wit, was a talented and prolific writer and a skilled anthropologist from the Harlem (New York) Renaissance to the Civil Rights Era. Born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama, she grew up in the all-black town of

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Jan

7

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Maynor, Dorothy Leigh (1910–1996)

Dorothy Leigh Maynor was an international concert soprano, founder of the Harlem School of the Arts, the first African American to sing at an American president’s inauguration (Harry S. Truman’s, on January 20, 1949), the first African-American artist to perform at Constitution Hall, the first

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African-American Dancers

Pearl Primus was the first African-American modern dancer. Throughout her career, Primus used her craft to express social ills in United States’ society. In 1919, Primus was born and her family immigrated to Harlem from Trinidad. While studying anthropology at Columbia University, Primus began her

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Race riot in Harlem

A Race riot in Harlem spread to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

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Paterson, David A. (1954- )

David A. Paterson, sworn in as Governor on March 17, 2008, is the first legally blind American Governor, the first black Governor of New York State, and only the fourth black Governor of any

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17

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Fitzgerald, Ella (1917-1996)

Ella Fitzgerald was a female jazz singer considered without equal at the height of the jazz era. Her voice had an amazing and vibrant range that allowed her to sing nearly every jazz style. Ella was also an accomplished composer and bandleader who performed into the

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Apr

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1917

Writer Wallace Thurman's play Harlem opens in NYC.

Writer Wallace Thurmans play Harlem opens in NYC. It is the first successful play by an African American playwright.

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Feb

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1929

Arthur Mitchell, dancer

Arthur Mitchell, first African American principal of the New York City Ballet Company and founder, Dance Theatre of Harlem, born

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1934

Classical Conductor Dean Dixon born.

Classical Conductor Dean Dixon is born in 1915 in Harlem, NY. Fluent in Swedish, French and German, Dixon became one of Europes best known conductors after leaving the US in 1949. He conducted the Goteborg (Sweden) Symphony for 10 years before being named conductor for the Hessian Radio Symphony in

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Jan

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Dudley, Edward Richard (1911-2005)

Edward Dudley was the first black American to lead a U.S. Mission abroad with the rank of Ambassador. Dudley was born on March 11, 1911 in South Boston, Virginia to Edward Richard and Nellie (Johnson) Dudley. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree from Johnson C. Smith College in Charlotte, North

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Countee Cullen, born

Born in 1903 in New York City, Countee Cullen was raised in a Methodist

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May

30

1903

Jordan, June (1936-2002)

June Meyer Jordan, writer, editor, poet, educator, environmental and social activist, was the only child of Granville Ivanhoe and Mildred Maude Fischer Jordan who were Jamaican immigrants. June was born in Harlem on July 9, 1936. June’s father worked as a night shift postal clerk and her mother

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Jul

9

1936

Poet Laureate of Liberia

Melvin B. Tolson, author of Harlem Gallery (1965), was poet laureate of Liberia.

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Demonstrations for housing, school and jobs

Civil rights group demonstrated at Harlem construction sites to Protest discrimination in building trades unions. Demonstrations and marches were held in metropolitan areas in June, July and August to dramatize discontent over housing, school and job discrimination.

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Jun

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Willie Howard Mays, Jr. is a widely respected retired American baseball player, born on May 6, 1931 in Westfield, Alabama. He played almost 22 seasons in the American Major League Baseball (MLB) with the New York/San Francisco Giants, finishing off his career at New York Mets in the early 1970s. He

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6

1931

Duke Ellington was an eminent twentieth century African American composer and pianist. He was also a bandleader of jazz orchestras which he led from 1932 till his demise. He served the American music industry for over 50

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Van Der Zee, James

Van Der Zee, James, 1886–1983, American photographer, b. Lenox, Mass. The son of Ulysses S. Grants maid and butler, Van Der Zee opened his first studio in Harlem, New York City, in 1915. For 60 years, working in obscurity, he made a visual record of Harlem life unsurpassed in scope and detail. In

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Civil Rights Timeline

The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned

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Ashley, Maurice (1966- )

Maurice Ashley, the first African American chess grandmaster, was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica on March 6, 1966. At age 12, his family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Ashley began to develop an interest in chess. Although he spent several hours a day playing and studying the game, he did not play

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Mar

6

1966

Walker, Madam C. J.

Walker, Madam C. J., 1867–1919, African-American entrepeneur, b. Delta, La., as Sarah Breedlove. Thought to be Americas first black female millionaire, this daughter of ex-slaves was orphaned at 7, working at 10, married at 14, and a widow with an infant daughter at 20. She worked as a domestic

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Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King Jr. stabbed in chest by a deranged Black woman while he was autographing books in a Harlem department store. Woman was placed under mental observation.

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Sep

20

1958

Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor (1932-2004)

Musician, composer, and conductor Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson was born on June 14, 1932, in Manhattan, New York City. Perkinson’s mother, a talented pianist, organist, and theater director in the Bronx, named her son after the Afro-British composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Perkinson began showing

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Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organized at a mass meeting in Elks Hall in Harlem. A Philip Randolph was elected president. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters would become one of the most successful union organizing efforts in history. The union gave voice to the many railroad porters and

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