John Blassingame, while he was a professor of history at Yale University. Photographer unknown. African American, History John Blassingame (1940-2000) John Wesley Blassingame transformed the scholarly knowledge and perception of the lives, cultures, and traditions of 19th century African Americans through his meticulous research examining documents that revealed the voices and thoughts of enslaved people. …
Photo by Stan Barouh African American, Foodways, Ethnography, Media Production Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Hon* (1937-2016) Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor was a multimedia performer and culinary griot, specializing in the food and culture traditions of Gullah people. She shared her insights as a journalist on National Public Radio, Public Television, and through numerous magazine articles and books. Vertamae Smart, …
Photo from University of California Press via Columbia College African American, Music, Archives Samuel A. Floyd, PhD (1937-2016) A music educator, archivist, and historian, Samuel A. Floyd Jr’s goal was to document and preserve the spectrum of Black music in written and performed forms to express African Diasporic cultures across genre, time period, geographic region, …
Photographer unknown. Handout photo originally ran 02-06-2007 on SFgate.com African American, Music, Ethnography Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (1937-2018) Composer and music professor Olly Wilson wrote several foundational articles illuminating key structural aesthetic practices commonly found in African derived musics. Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr was born in 1937 to Alma Grace Peoples Wilson, a seamstress and …
Photo from the Journal of Gospel Music African American, Music Horace Clarence Boyer (1935-2009) Horace Clarence Boyer was a performer/scholar of African American gospel music who educated others on the performance and compositional practices of the music tradition. Horace Clarence Boyer was born in 1935 in Winter Park, Florida, the fourth of Climmie L. Sr. …
Gaines in conversation at Fall for the Book, 28 September 2015. Photo courtesy of S L O W K I N G (Wikipedia user Slowking4) African American, Literature Ernest James Gaines (1933-2019) Ernest James Gaines was a celebrated author and educator, who infused African American folklore into his writings. Ernest James Gaines was born on …
Photo by K. Kendall, April 1980, Austin, TX, via Flickr African American, Cultural Theory, Philosophy, Library Work Audre Lorde (1932-1992) Audre Geraldine Lorde was a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet and essayist” whose work highlighted the tenets of intersectional critical theorizing in race, gender, and sexuality. Lorde was born in New York City to …
Photo from the University of California Riverside African American, History P. Sterling Stuckey (1932-2018) Dr. Ples Sterling Stuckey, Jr. contributed to transforming scholarship on slavery from speculations by plantation owners to a focus on the voices, identities, and cultural practices of enslaved people. He was born in 1932 in Memphis, Tennessee, to Ples Sterling Stuckey, …
Portrait by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, courtesy of the photographer African American, Cultural Theory, Literature Toni Morrison (1931-2019) Born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio to Ramah and George Wofford whose parents had fled Georgia to escape sharecropping, debt, and violence. Raised in a household that nurtured traditional storytelling, she learned to value ancestors, community …
Photo from The Veterans of Hope Project African American, Autoethnography, Spirituality, Activism Rosemarie Freeney Harding (1931-2004) Rosemarie Freeney Harding offers a detailed autoethnographic memoir of African American women’s beliefs and traditions during the Great Migration from Georgia to Chicago and about her spiritual journey as she engaged study through interfaith traditions. As a Mennonite, she …