Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson (1897–1993), a renowned operatic singer from the first half of the twentieth century, was celebrated as the third highest concert box office draw in the United States.
Despite the racial discrimination of her era, Anderson's popularity soared. She frequently faced denial of hotel accommodations and restaurant services while touring. One of her most notable encounters with racism garnered national attention. In 1939, when Howard University managers attempted to organize a concert for her at Constitution Hall—the largest and most suitable indoor venue in Washington, D.C.—the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), who owned the hall, refused to permit her performance. In response, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for Anderson to perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, attracting a crowd of over 70,000 people. This incident with the DAR became widely reported, highlighting broader issues of racial discrimination in the United States.
In 1954, Anderson achieved another milestone by performing the role of Ulrica in the Metropolitan Opera of New York’s production of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, making her the first African American to sing on the Met stage.
Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte, born in 1927 to West Indian parents, spent part of his childhood in Jamaica despite being a U.S. citizen. As a young adult, he returned to New York City, where he began his acting career, starting on stage and later transitioning to film. In 1953, he earned a Tony Award for his role in Almanac. The next year, he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones. By 1960, Belafonte made history as the first African American to win an Emmy for his performance in the television show Tonight with Belafonte.
Belafonte's talents extended beyond acting. In 1956, after participating in an amateur talent show, he recorded an album of West Indian-inspired songs. This album, Calypso, became the first record to sell over a million copies.
During the Civil Rights Movement, Belafonte formed a close relationship with Martin Luther King, Jr. He provided the bail money for King when he was jailed in Birmingham City, funded the Freedom Rides, and raised thousands of dollars to secure the release of other civil rights activists. Additionally, he was a key organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Belafonte also played a significant role in the production of the song "We Are the World," which raised millions to combat famine in Ethiopia.
Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Dandridge (1922–1965) began her acting journey as a child, making her screen debut alongside the Marx Brothers in A Day at the Races. Throughout the early 20th century, Hollywood offered few opportunities for African-American actresses, leading Dandridge to mostly secure minor roles. Her most notable performances were in two films directed by Otto Preminger: Carmen Jones (1954) and Porgy and Bess (1957).
Carmen Jones is a modern adaptation of George Bizet’s opera, which was first performed in Paris in 1875. The story follows the tragic fate of a young, seductive gypsy woman. Preminger’s film featured an all-black cast, with Bizet’s music and lyrics reimagined by Oscar Hammerstein II. Among the notable African-American performers in Carmen Jones were Harry Belafonte and Pearl Bailey. Dandridge starred as Carmen, earning a nomination for Best Actress from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, making her the first African-American actress to receive this honor.
In 1999, HBO aired a film about Dandridge titled Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, starring Halle Berry. The movie delves into Dandridge’s battle against racial discrimination in the film industry and highlights some of the abusive experiences she faced in her personal life. In 1965, Dandridge was found dead, apparently due to an overdose of sleeping pills.
Chester Bomar Himes
Chester Himes was born on...
(This entire section contains 270 words.)
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July 29, 1909. As an author and expatriate residing in Paris, he published a series of black detective novels. His writing style is often characterized as angrier compared to his contemporaries, such as Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison. Himes's work demonstrates a deep awareness of racism, which he did not hesitate to portray in explicit terms.
Personal aspects of his life are frequently cited to explain the source of his intense emotions. Though he was raised in a comfortable, well-educated middle-class environment, his life took a drastic turn. He first became physically impaired after an accidental fall down an elevator shaft and was later expelled from Ohio State University for what he claimed was a prank. Shortly thereafter, at the age of nineteen, Himes was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for armed robbery. It was during his time in prison that Himes began to write.
Himes's first novel, If He Hollers, Let Him Go (1945), tells the story of a black man working in a defense plant during World War II, detailing the suffering he endures in a racist environment. His second novel, Cast the First Stone (1952), focuses on life in prison.
While living in Paris, Himes often interacted with fellow writers Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison. Though he was not as well-known in the United States as he was in Europe, Himes managed to earn a comfortable living from his writing, particularly after starting his nine-book detective series. In 1965, Himes's novel Cotton Comes to Harlem was published, and five years later, it was adapted into a popular movie of the same name.
Other Characters
Louis Armstrong
Many people credit trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong with introducing jazz to white audiences across the United States. Armstrong began his musical journey in the 1920s, earning recognition for his innovative improvisations. Over time, he blended jazz with popular music, and by the peak of the swing era in the 1930s, he was performing more traditional pieces. Despite this shift, Armstrong's charismatic stage presence greatly contributed to his widespread popularity. Although he reverted to a more classic jazz style in the late 1940s, it was his popular music performances that brought him financial success.
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Bailey was a renowned singer and entertainer. She performed with big bands during the 1930s and 1940s and took on various acting roles in both film and theater. Bailey starred in the movie Carmen Jones (1954) alongside Dorothy Dandridge, but her most famous role was in the all-black stage version of Hello, Dolly (1967–1969). In the early 1970s, she also headlined her own television show.
At the age of sixty-seven, Bailey earned a degree from Georgetown University. She later authored several books about her life. In 1975, she was appointed as a special ambassador to the United Nations and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom that same year.
Lena Horne
Lena Horne was an African-American singer and actress. One of her early Broadway roles was in the play Blackbirds of 1939. Eventually, she transitioned to Hollywood, securing a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she insisted on avoiding stereotypical black roles. Her big break came in 1942 with the lead role in Cabin in the Sky. The following year, she starred in Stormy Weather and performed the title song, which became her signature piece.
Horne received a Grammy for the album from her acclaimed Broadway show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, which holds the record for the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history. In 1984, she was honored with the Kennedy Center Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts.
Joe Louis
Joe Louis was the first African American to achieve hero status among both the African-American and white communities in the United States. As a boxer, he was among the first African-American athletes to play a significant role in the cultural history of the country. His career started in the 1930s, and he eventually became the world heavyweight champion during a period when boxing was immensely popular, cementing his status. Known as the Brown Bomber, Louis initially lost and later reclaimed his title from Germany’s Max Schmeling, who was seen as a representative of Hitler’s regime. This victory in 1938, just before World War II, made Louis’s success even more celebrated. Joe Louis passed away in 1981 in Las Vegas. President Reagan arranged for his burial in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., honoring him as a hero.
Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger began his career in stage and screen as an actor, but he gained fame as a director of plays and films. He worked with various studios in the early twentieth century, but by the early 1950s, he became an independent producer and director. It was during this period that Preminger earned a reputation for tackling controversial topics. His film The Moon Is Blue (1953) addressed issues of virginity and pregnancy, which were taboo subjects at the time. The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) was one of the first movies to explore drug addiction. Additionally, Preminger's Carmen Jones (1954) and Porgy and Bess (1959) were successful musical films featuring all-black casts.
George S. Schuyler
George S. Schuyler (1895–1977), a journalist and columnist for the Pittsburgh Courier—one of the nation’s leading weekly newspapers aimed at a black audience—has often been compared to H. L. Mencken for his writing style and his fight against hypocrisy. He authored a novel titled Black No More (1931), a satirical tale about what would happen if African-American people could change their skin color whenever they wished. Although the novel did not reach a wide audience, it has been recently reprinted.
Despite his name being largely forgotten and his works rarely studied, Schuyler is acknowledged as one of the first black journalists to gain prominence in the United States. He was also among the first black foreign correspondents for a major metropolitan newspaper, the New York Evening Post. Schuyler’s conservative views, which were at odds with the popular image of African-American thought during the Civil Rights Movement, eventually limited his publishing opportunities. In 1964, he was dismissed from the Courier for opposing Martin Luther King receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Schuyler died in 1977. His autobiography, Black and Conservative, was published in 1966.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe, born in 1811, authored Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which tells a somewhat idealized story of the brutality of slavery and the struggle to escape it. While the book was well-received during her lifetime, largely due to its subject matter and Christian themes, contemporary critics often highlight the lack of literary quality in Stowe’s writing.
Stowe resided in Cincinnati when she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, witnessing firsthand the slave trading along the Ohio River. Her family, including her father, Lyman Beecher, a Congregational minister and president of Lane Theological Seminary, and her husband, Calvin Stowe, a professor of biblical literature at the seminary, shared her abolitionist views and frequently participated in hiding runaway slaves.
Although Stowe published numerous other works (averaging a book a year over nearly eighteen years), she is primarily known for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Initially serialized in a popular weekly newspaper in forty installments, Stowe’s novel became a habitual read for many Americans. When these installments were compiled into a book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold half a million copies, setting sales records at the time. Despite the fact that Stowe’s writing style and character development do not hold up well under close literary analysis, and her characters often appear as stereotypes rather than fully developed individuals, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is regarded as a classic of its era and continues to be required reading at many colleges.
Henry A. Wallace
Henry A. Wallace (1888–1965), who served as vice president under F.D. Roosevelt and was a key figure in the Progressive Party, faced criticism for his social idealism and perceived leniency towards communism. These factors led to his falling out with the Democratic Party and subsequent alignment with the Progressives. The Progressive Party generally opposed international military intervention but advocated for peace negotiations with the Soviet Union, the establishment of a robust United Nations, and civil rights. Wallace also condemned Senator Joseph McCarthy, the leading voice in the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Wallace was frequently accused of being a communist, a label that carried significant stigma in the late 1940s. When the Communist Party of America endorsed Wallace’s candidacy, he found himself in a precarious situation. He was often prohibited from speaking in various parts of the United States and was denied interviews by many journalists. Wallace did poorly in the 1948 presidential election, eventually left the party, and retired from political life. Following Wallace's departure, the Progressive Party disbanded.
Richard Wright
Richard Wright was born in the deep South and was the grandchild of former slaves. A contemporary of James Baldwin, he played a key role in launching Baldwin’s writing career. Wright gained fame with his novel Native Son (1940), which was so well-received that it went into a second printing before the first even hit bookstores.
Wright was among the first African-American writers to depart from a style heavily influenced by white audiences. His works are characterized by their anger and are often criticized for their overtly political tones. Nonetheless, he is credited with pioneering a new movement in African-American literature, one that depicted more realistic black characters in significant and socially relevant situations. Despite Baldwin later criticizing Wright’s work, Wright significantly influenced Baldwin.
Like Baldwin, Wright grew increasingly frustrated with the social and political climate in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s, prompting him to move to Paris. His autobiographical work, Black Boy (1945), also became a bestseller, although his later works did not receive as much popular attention. Wright passed away in France in 1960.