In the 1950s, Linwood Burton ran a successful ship cleaning business with accounts up and down the east coast of the United States. His workers, however, suffered regular injuries from the caustic nature of the cleansers they used. A concerned Burton, using his basic knowledge of chemistry, began formulating a solution that could cut through …
A teenage Tammi Terrell, still using her birth name of Montgomery, signed on as a back-up singer with soul legend James Brown in 1963. While on tour, she entered into a sexual, yet physically abusive, relationship with the singer. Tammi eventually left Brown after he beat her for not watching his entire performance. Following a …
At the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Nazi-controlled Berlin, Germany, Jesse Owens single-handedly crushed Adolf Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy. Jesse, an African-American son of sharecroppers, won four gold medals in track and field in Berlin before an astonished crowd. Despite his achievements and the accolades he received, he was not offered an invitation to …
When A Raisin in the Sun opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in 1959, it was the first Broadway show written by an African-American playwright. Lorraine Hansberry, at 29, was also the youngest to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. Lorraine grew up in Chicago’s South Side, where her father, a successful real estate …
In Greek mythology, Liriope, a nymph, was raped by Cephissus, the river god. A mystical seer told Liriope that their son, Narcissus, would live a long life, as long as he never recognized his own beauty. Narcissus discovered his reflection in the waters of a spring and stared at himself for eternity.
Recy Taylor died on December 28, 2017 at the age of 97. In September 1944, Recy Taylor, a newly married 25-year old sharecropper was walking home from church with her friend Fannie Daniel and Daniel’s teenage son. The trio was accosted by a car with Hugo Wilson behind the wheel. One of the passengers, US Army Private Herbert …
No. Not green.
Jean Porter was one of those actresses that appeared in over three dozen films but you never knew her name. The button-cute, petite blonde was fourteen when she made her motion picture debut in an uncredited role in Song and Dance Man with Claire Trevor. She went on to land bit parts in numerous films throughout the …
One more than four. Seven less than twelve.
France Gall won the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest with “Poupée de cire, poupée de son,” penned by French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. It was the first non-ballad song to win the competition. The song, a sort of double meaning of the phrase “rag doll,” implied a Svengali-like power Gainsbourg possessed over his young protege, as well …
