Category Archives: HW Bio

HW Bio: Malcolm “X” Little

Posted on February 21, 2011 by | 1 Comment

There is nothing better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.

Malcolm X (pronounced /ˈmælkəm ˈɛks/; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Arabic: الحاجّ مالك الشباز‎), was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Continue reading →

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HW Bio: Zora Neale Hurston

Posted on February 17, 2011 by | 2 Comments

Biography

Zora Neale Hurston in (we hope) Harlem.Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American folklorist and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Zora Neale Hurston on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. Continue reading →

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HW Bio: Cora Walker, Harlem Resident First Black Female Lawyer In NY (video)

Posted on February 6, 2011 by | 3 Comments

Cora T. Walker, a prominent New York lawyer who nearly 60 years ago became one of the first black women to practice law in the state, died in 2006 at her home in Harlem, NY. She was 84.

The cause was cancer, said her son Lawrence R. Bailey Jr., a lawyer, who practiced with his mother for many years. Continue reading →

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HW Bio: Hubert Henry Harrison

Posted on December 25, 2010 by | 4 Comments

Hubert Henry Harrison (April 27, 1883 – December 17, 1927) was a West Indian-American writer, orator, educator, critic, and radical political activist based in Harlem, New York. He was described by activist A. Philip Randolph as

…the father of Harlem radicalism…

and by the historian Joel Augustus Rogers as “the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time.” Continue reading →

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HW Bio: Richard Wright (video)

Posted on December 25, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Richard Nathaniel Wright (September 4, 1908 – November 28, 1960) was an American author of powerful, sometimes controversial novels, short stories and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes. His work helped redefine discussions of race relations in America in the mid-20th century. Wright was born on the Rucker Plantation in Roxie, Mississippi, the first of two sons to Ella Wilson, an elementary schoolteacher, and Nathaniel Wright, an illiterate, alcoholic sharecropper. Continue reading →

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HW Bio: Ronald Harmon “Ron” Brown

Posted on October 4, 2010 by | 1 Comment

Ronald Harmon “Ron” Brown (August 1, 1941–April 3, 1996) was the United States Secretary of Commerce, serving during the first term of President Bill Clinton. He was the first African American to hold this position. He was killed, along with 34 others, in a 1996 plane crash in Croatia.

He was born in Washington, D.C., and was raised in Harlem, New York, in a middle-class family. He was a member of the African-American social and philanthropic organization, Jack and Jill of America, where he met many African-American friends. Brown attended Hunter College Elementary School and Rhodes Preparatory School. His father managed the Theresa Hotel in Harlem, where Ron lived growing up. Continue reading →

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HW Bio: Father Divine In Harlem

Posted on October 3, 2010 by | 1 Comment

Father Divine (c. 1876 – September 10, 1965), also known as Reverend M.J. Divine, was an African American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death. Continue reading →

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HW Bio: Kahlil Gibran the Prophet

Posted on July 17, 2010 by | 3 Comments

Education

Khalil Gibran (born Gubran Khalil Gubran bin Mikhā’īl bin Sa’ad; Arabic جبران خليل جبران بن ميکائيل بن سعد, January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) also known as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer. Born in the town of Bsharri in modern-day Lebanon (then part of the Ottoman Mount Lebanon mutasarrifate), as a young man he emigrated with his family to the United States where he studied art and began his literary career. Continue reading →

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HW Bio: Roy DeCarava, Artist

Posted on November 1, 2009 by | 6 Comments

Art

Roy Decarava Freedom_jpg

Roy DeCarava was born in Harlem as the only child of Elfreda Ferguson, an immigrant, who separated from DeCarava’s father shortly after his birth. DeCarava lived in Harlem Continue reading →

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HW Bio Frankie Manning

Posted on May 31, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Biography

manningEarly years

Frankie Manning (May 26, 1914 – April 27, 2009) was an American dancer, instructor and choreographer. Manning is considered one of the founding fathers of the Lindy Hop. was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He frequented Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom in the 1930s, eventually becoming a dancer in the elite and prestigious “Cat’s Corner,” a corner of the dance floor in which impromptu exhibitions and competitions took place. During a dance contest in 1935, Manning and his partner Frieda Washington performed the first air step (often referred to as an aerial) in a swing dance competition against George “Shorty” Snowden and his partner Big Bea, at the Savoy Ballroom. The air step he performed was a “back to back roll” and was danced while Chick Webb played “Down South Camp Meeting”, which was Manning’s request after having heard the song earlier in the evening. The airstep went flawlessly to the music and astonished over 2,000 audience members watching.

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