The Harlem Renaissance
Renaissance is a term which leans on the French word for rebirth. It is used to describe a period
in history of revival of classical art, architecture, literature, intellectualism, and philosophical and
social discovery.
The epicenter of the Harlem Renaissance was in New York City during 1920-1930, yet many of
its leaders were not Harlem natives. They were born in Florida, Louisiana, and the Caribbean.
This flowering of art, culture, poetry, music, and literature was also not confined to Harlem. It
spread to Chicago, Kansas City, Boston, Richmond and to the” Harlem of the South”,
Washington, D.C. The poetry, novels, essays, journalism, jazz, and artwork generated from this
decade are considered the springboards for the development of civil rights organizations, unions,
and associations that enabled African Americans to claim their rightful heritage as equal citizens
of the United States. This assignment is designed to acquaint you with some of the important
artists, writers, and musicians from this renaissance.
Process
1. Choose four persons from the list of Harlem Renaissance creators and rank order them.
Ms. North Macie will do her best to assign you a subject based on your preference.
2. Research the life/work of your assigned subject. Use the library resources including the
recommended databases and the support of your teacher and librarians. Consult books on the
reserve cart and the list of Internet sites under the keyword <Harlem Renaissance> in Eagle
Eyes.
3. You are required to use four different information sources with the exception of Wikipedia.
4. Use Noodletools.com to create note cards, card stacks, a bibliography, and an outline of your
work.
Product
1. A daily Log of your activity in NoodleTools, including…
a. Notecards with “My Ideas”, paraphrasing, and quotations
b. Organizing card into stacks by theme
c. Bibliography and outline
d. Questions, comments, frustrations
2. A Historical ID of your subject
3. A Unique Creation
4. A presentation of two minutes or less
5. A project reflection
Search Strategies
1. Highlight key search words from your selected person.
2. Find and read an overview of your person using Biography Reference Center for
homework.
3. Search for information about your biographee in Ebsco, and Historical New York
Times databases.
4. Search the indexes and table of contents of appropriate books for information under those
terms.
5. Search Internet sites in Eagle Eyes. Start by using the key words <harlem renaissance>
Biographical Thinking Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is this person remembered for?
Where (in the world) did this person come from?
Where did he/she establish himself/herself in his/her profession?
Identify a specific piece by this individual and explain how the piece exemplifies his/her
style or contributes to his/her legacy.
5. What inspires you and draws you to this artist?
POETS/WRITERS/ESSAYISTS
1. Bontemps, Arna
I was born in Louisiana and moved with my family to an all-white section of Los Angeles
called Watts. I became really close to an uncle who told me stories in a Creole dialect,
many of which appear in my stories and books. I was a versatile writer of poetry, articles
for the magazine Opportunity, and books. I moved Huntsville, Alabama in the 1930s to
teach school, but got into a serious disagreement over my writing about the Scottsboro
trial which was going on at that time. Soon, the south had no charm left for me and I
returned home to live with my parents in California. I wrote another novel, Black
Thunder, and taught in Chicago. While there, I regularly visited the Chicago Public
Library to continue to educate myself. All of my work celebrates African American
identity and heritage.
2. Cullen, Countee
I am called the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance. Born in New York City, I was
reared in the parsonage of Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in the middle of Harlem
where my father, the Reverend Frederick Cullen, was the pastor. I graduated from New
York University in 1923, then I entered Harvard University where I studied for a master’s
degree in English. I was really most productive as a poet, although I published one novel
for adults and adapted a translation of Euripides’ Medea for the stage. I also wrote a
version of my novel, One Way to Heaven, for theatrical production. My poems
celebrating the African-American experience and heritage are part of the literary canon of
American literature.
3. Du Bois, W.E. B.
I was born in 1868 and suffered years of discrimination, but still earned a Ph.D. from
Harvard University in social science. I was a total supporter of the Harlem Renaissance
and even sponsored a theater there called the Krigwa Players Little Negro Theater that
produced plays written by black people. I was outspoken against racism in employment
and social life and published numerous speeches and essays against it. I finally founded
and headed the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
to combat it. In the 1950’s during the anti-Communist movement, I was accused of being
a foreign agent and spy but was fortunately acquitted by a jury. My most famous work
about the condition of African American people is titled The Souls of Black Folks. In the
1960s, I traveled to Ghana, renounced my US citizenship, and died exactly one day
before Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, DC.
4. Hughes, Langston
I am a poet and writer who became one of the foremost interpreters to the world of the
black experience in the United States. My parents separated soon after my birth and I was
raised by my mother and grandmother. My mother and I moved to half a dozen cities
before reaching Cleveland, where we settled. My poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,”
written the summer after my graduation from high school in Cleveland, was published in
The Crisis (1921) and brought considerable attention. While working as a busboy in a
hotel in Washington, D.C., I put three of my own poems beside the plate of Vachel
Lindsay in the dining room. The next day, newspapers around the country reported that
Lindsay had discovered an African-American busboy poet. A scholarship to Lincoln
University in Pennsylvania followed, and before I received my degree in 1929, I had
published my first two books.
5. Hurston, Zora Neale
I was really born on January 7, 1891, but later decided to list my birth date as 1901,
taking a full decade out of my life. I was born in Eatonville, Florida, the first AfricanAmerican incorporated town in the United States. I entered high school in 1917, after
having spent some time traveling with a Gilbert and Sullivan troupe, and I had to come
up with the revised birthday in order to make myself appear still a teenager. In 1918, I
entered the Howard Prep School at Howard University to catch up on missed education,
and in 1920 I received an associate degree from Howard. In 1925, I won second prize in a
fiction contest for my short story, “Spunk.” The same year, I entered Barnard College. At
Barnard, I studied anthropology with Franz Boas, one of the most influential
anthropologists of his time, and graduated in 1927 as a committed social scientist. I wrote
numerous fiction and non-fiction books as well as short stories.
6. Johnson, James Weldon
I am the composer of what is known as “The Negro National Anthem” (Lift Every Voice
and Sing) dedicated to the memory of President Abraham Lincoln. Born to middle-class
parents in Jacksonville, Florida in 1871, I was a school principal for a while, but hated it.
I read law and passed the Florida bar, but I also started to write poetry. I successfully
wrote songs until 1906 when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed me as Pro-Consul
to Venezuela. From there it was on to working for the NAACP as a social activist for
civil rights. I continued to publish books, including The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored
Man, The Book of American Negro Poetry, and God’s Trombones: Negro Sermons in
Verse. Although I lived through a terrible period of discrimination against AfricanAmericans, I was never bitter because I believe that I made the most of my incredible
gifts as a poet, writer, composer, and national leader.
7. McKay, Claude
I, unlike most members of the Harlem Renaissance, was born in Jamaica in 1907. There I
met a wonderful supportive mentor and patron who published two volumes of my poetry.
I moved to New York, married and opened a restaurant. Both of these endeavors were
flops. In 1918, I met Max Eastman who began publishing my poems and essays in a
famous newspaper called The Liberator. Then I went to England, where I co-edited other
periodicals, traveled to Russia, Germany, and Tangiers and returned to New York
financially ruined. Mr. Eastman actually rescued me from a government welfare camp.
Despite running in to hard times during the Great Depression, my publications included,
an autobiography titled, A Long Way from Home, numerous poems, and the editing of
The Liberator.
8. Larsen, Nella
I may have been born in Chicago, Illinois in 1890, but I’m not really sure. I changed my
name a couple of times and also my past. My father was an African-American cook and
my mother a Danish immigrant. They filed for a marriage license in 1894. I seemed to be
always negotiating two worlds and classes of society. In 1912, I enrolled to study nursing
and worked as a nurse in New York hospitals until 1921. Then I became a librarian at the
New York Public Library which gave me the chance to begin my writing career. I wrote
Quicksand in 1928 which won the Harmon Foundation’s Bronze medal and quickly
established me as a prominent writer of the Harlem Renaissance. I wrote Passing in 1929
and then suffered two major shocks. My husband and I divorced and I was accused of
plagiarism. Although I was eventually exonerated, I never seemed to make a full
recovery from both events.
9. Locke, Alain
I was born in Pennsylvania in 1885. I graduated from Harvard University in 1907 and
was the first African-American to attend Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. I studied
philosophy at the University of Berlin, Germany from 1910-1911. In 1912, I returned to
America and taught philosophy at Howard University until 1917. I loved philosophy and
returned to Harvard to earn a Ph.D. Then it was back again to Howard University where I
re-joined the faculty as a professor until 1953. I was the editor of The New Negro: An
Interpretation which was an anthology of Africa-American writers associated with the
Harlem Renaissance. I also published other anthologies and essays about AfricanAmericans’ distinctive traditions and culture and the role that they play in bringing
African-Americans into the mainstream. These included The Negro and His Music and
The Negro in Art.
10. Schomburg, Arturo Alonso (also known as Arthur)
I was born in 1874 in Puerto Rico. I was an ardent reader and one day came across a book
by a white American historian named Hubert Bancroft that proclaimed the inferiority of
people of Asian and African descent. I asked myself, where are the Negro historians and
defenders who would permit such libel of an entire race?” With my friend John Edward
Bruce I founded the Negro Society for Historical Research. I set about collecting
paintings and books by African-Americans and eventually developed a considerable
collection. I spent my entire life challenging stereotypes, confronting miseducation and
and encouraging others to do the same. I also wrote for Crisis and Opportunity, two of
the most influential magazines of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1926, the New York Public
Library bought my collection labeling it The Arthur A. Schomburg
Collection of Negro Literature and Art. It remains the cornerstone collection on the
Harlem Renaissance.
11. Toomer, Jean
I was born in Washington, D.C., on December 26, 1894. Until I was almost eleven, I
lived with my grandparents. Racially mixed and able to pass as white, my grandparents
lived in an affluent white neighborhood. When my mother remarried, we moved to New
York. After she died, I returned D.C. and confronted the issue of my racial identity. I
later wrote that I was “Scotch, Welsh, German, English, French, Dutch, Spanish, with
some dark blood.” Having lived in both the black and white worlds, for a while I
determined to consider myself simply an American, hoping to ignore any racial label. I
changed my name from Eugene Pinchback Toomer to Jean Toomer and began writing.
Spirituality, music, economic deprivation, and segregation provided me with the subjects
and themes of my major literary work, Cane.
HARLEM RENAISSANCE PATRON OF THE ARTS
12. Walker, A’Lelia
I was born in 1895 in Vicksburg, Mississippi but grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. My
mother owned a financially successful hair care business that allowed me to grow up
without any worries. I went to Knoxville College in Tennessee and took over my
mother’s hair care business when she died in 1919. In addition to the business, I also
inherited two properties inNew York. In a town house called the Dark Tower, I
entertained the who’s who of the Harlem Renaissance including, Countee Cullen,
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jean Toomer. My house was “the “place” to
be. Considered the “ hostess with the mostest”, I bought paintings by Harlem artists,
helped fund the production of their plays, threw book parties, and sponsored poetry
readings. If you wanted to become known as an HR writer, poet, playwright, then you
had to meet me.
LABOR /CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER
13. Randolph, A. Philip
I was born in 1889 in Florida. My father was a minister and social activist and my social
conscience probably developed because of his caring and concern for African Americans.
In 1911 I moved to Harlem and worked at various odd jobs while attending classes at
City College of New York at night. I associated with other members of the Harlem
Renaissance including W.E. B. Du Bois. I honed my speaking skills by giving speeches
in various clubs and associations, but my interest lay with gaining equal employment
rights for black people. I was fired from one job because I tried to unionize the steamboat
waiters who worked under appalling sleeping and working conditions. I joined forces to
publish The Messenger: The Only Radical Negro Magazine in America with my friend
Chandler Owens in 1915. I finally succeeded in establishing one of the most powerful
unions called The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Without a doubt I was at the
forefront of every campaign for equality, civil rights, and social justice for Black people.
I was the Black political organizer of my age.
ARTISTS
14. Bearden, Romare
I was born in 1912 in North Carolina. My grandfather and great grandfather were artists.
My parents moved to Harlem when I was five. I experimented with several different
careers before becoming an artist. I played professional baseball and while studying
mathematics began submitting my drawing and cartoons to local newspapers and wellknown magazines such as Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s. I formally started
studying art at the Sorbonne in Paris and returned home to work as a social worker, while
I painted at night. I had my first show in Harlem and then a significant one-man show in
New York City in 1945. By 1949, I was a well-known artist. I never stopped
experimenting and formally studying art or resting on my artistic reputation. Later on in
my career I created beautiful collages that depicted African-Americans at work and at
play.
15. Douglas, Aaron
I was born in 1899 in Topeka, Kansas. Although my mother was a homemaker, I was
fascinated by her paintings and knew even as a child that I wanted to be an artist. I
worked at a lot of odd jobs to save the money to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Art from the
School of Fine Arts at the University of Nebraska. From there I went to New York where
my artwork typified the Harlem Renaissance and the “New Negro” philosophy. I painted
murals for public buildings and produced illustrations and cover designs for many Black
publications including Crisis and Opportunity. One of my finest murals is the one tracing
the entire African American experience from Africa to the New World that resides in the
New York Public Library. In 1940, I moved to Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee
where I taught for twenty-nine years. My goal was to establish an art era, ”Not white art
painting black… but creating something transcendentally material, mystically objective.”
1. Lawrence, Jacob
I was born in 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and experienced everything negative that
a poor, Black child might during this time period – racism, poverty, family instability, a
broken home and alienation. When we moved to Harlem in 1930, there was still
excitement about the Harlem Renaissance, but the street called to me. I got in trouble for
petty vandalism and theft with some kids on the street. My mother made me go to an
after-school program where I met a wonderful painter named Charles Henry Alston who
started me in my career. I dropped out of school, did odd jobs, but continued to paint. In
the 1930s I met the older Harlem Renaissance generation. In 1941, I had my first
downtown exhibit of paintings. Following that, I never lacked again for exhibitors or
sales. My greatest artistic strength is my use of vibrant color and my ability to tell stories.
2. Johnson, William H.
I was born in 1901 and grew up in poverty. I went to Harlem and studied painting at the
National Academy of Design. Then I traveled to Europe, absorbing some European
influences and gaining a reputation through my exhibitions. In 1938, I settled in New
York and began to produce my most important work. This work is recognized for its
original fusion of such disparate strains as Van Gogh and African sculpture,
constructivism and African textiles, all united to convey a personal vision that is both
modern and vernacular. Virtually all of my surviving output—some 800 paintings and
watercolors and 400 drawings and prints—was given to the National Museum of
American Art in 1967.
MUSICIANS
3. Armstrong, Louis
I was born in 1901 and rose from an impoverished background to become a beloved
international celebrity. I sang in church choirs at an early age until a nice immigrant
family bought me my first cornet (an instrument similar to a trumpet). My neighborhood
was filled with musicians and I imitated them until I developed my own distinctive
playing style. For every success I had, I experienced a setback. At one performance, I
fired a gun and ended up in reform school. But as luck would have it, my musical talent
was recognized and nurtured in reform school. My virtuoso trumpet playing and
innovative scat singing revolutionized jazz, and my joyous and infectious showmanship
left an indelible legacy on American entertainment. I am considered by musicologists as
the most influential figure in the history of jazz.
16. Basie, Count
I was born in 1904 and moved to Harlem when I was twenty. I was a U.S. jazz band
leader and pianist. I developed my own big-­‐band jazz sound and a simplified, swinging
style of music. I began my musical career as an accompanist in vaudeville performances.
In 1927, I moved to Kansas City, Missouri where I became an accompanist for silent
movies. I put together my own nine-­‐piece band in 1935 which expanded in the late 1930s,
becoming the Count Basie Orchestra. The orchestra brought me international success,
although by the 1950s I had returned to smaller line-­‐ups. I continued to tour until the
early 1980s.
17. Blake, Eubie
Born in 1887, I almost made it to my 100th birthday, but unfortunately died five days
before I could celebrate with all of my fans and friends. I was raised by parents who were
former slaves, and I was involved with music from a very young age. As an adult, I was
well known as a pianist and composer of ragtime music, popular and vaudeville tunes,
and scores for musical theatre. I composed by watching other great ragtime musicians. I
was married to the love of my life, a classically trained pianist who died in 1939. I am
proof that you are never too old to learn and, at the age of 63, received a degree in music
from New York University. I remarried in 1945 and continued to tour and perform. I was
popular as a musician until my death and continued to maintain my super celebrity status.
I also appeared on major TV variety programs such as The Tonight Show, and Saturday
Night Live.
18. Calloway, Cab
I was born in 1907 in Rochester, New York and caused so much trouble for my stepfather
that he eventually put me in a reform school. I began singing with the Alabamians in
Chicago and then joined the Missourians for a successful engagement at the Cotton Club
in Harlem. From the late 1930s until 1948 I led my own band, which featured several
noted jazz instrumentalists, including trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, drummer Cozy Cole,
and bassist Milt Hinton. Later in my career, I appeared on Broadway in Porgy and Bess.
My nickname "The Hi-de-ho-Man" derived from my scat singing with songs such as
"Minnie the Moocher".
19. Ellington, Duke
I was born in 1899 in Washington, DC ; now, there is a public performing arts school
named after me in Georgetown. My mother thought that I could “do no wrong” and, as a
result, I developed quite an ego. In fact, it was so big that folks started calling me “the
Duke” and it stuck. I never graduated from high school and even stopped taking piano
lessons. One day, however, I heard a jazz performer and fell in love with that wonderful
sound. I started playing by ear, learning a lot from other willing-to-teach musicians and
had an outstanding career as a composer and arranger of jazz. I wrote numerous pieces
for my own jazz orchestra, emphasizing the strengths of individual virtuoso
instrumentalists, and became one of the leading figures in jazz over a 55-­‐year period. I
was also one of the founders of big-­‐band jazz.
20. Gillespie, Dizzy
I was born in 1917 and taught myself to play the trumpet after the death of my father, a
bricklayer and amateur musician. I also had a penchant for clowning around, which
earned me the nickname “Dizzy”. After working in various swing bands, I emerged as a
leading exponent of bebop and as the most influential trumpeter in the new idiom. In the
late 1940s I helped to introduce "Afro-Cuban" jazz to the U.S. In 1956 I led an orchestra
on two international tours as cultural missions for the U.S. State Department. I was
featured at the White House jazz party hosted by President Carter in 1979, and received
numerous official honors from U.S. and European governments.
21. Morton, Jelly Roll
I was born in 1890 in New Orleans. Classical music was a major part of my childhood,
but I really enjoyed the sounds of Spanish and Creole music. In the early 1900s, I began
performing all over the south. One of my biggest musical influences was Scott Joplin.
His influence led me to become a pioneer in the development of jazz from ragtime to
swing by improvising and imposing my own personality on the music. My 1920s band
was called the Red Hot Peppers. In 1997, almost 60 years after my death, I was inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
22. Waller, Fats
I was born in 1904. My parents made me take piano lessons, but I dropped them and
learned to play by ear. I played the organ at various theaters and wrote hundreds of songs
which I gave away free to various performers. I was an exuberant and humorous
performer who toured extensively, and appeared in several musical movies,
including Stormy Weather. My first recordings were on piano rolls and in the 1920s and
I recorded pipe-­‐organ solos. I wasn’t named “fats” for nothing, I did love to eat and drink.
My first wife disapproved of everything I did and we separated after the birth of our first
child. In the 1930s I worked with a small group, before leading a big band between 1939
and 1942.
SINGERS/DANCERS
23. Anderson, Marian
I was born in 1897. I displayed vocal talent as a child, but my family could not afford to
pay for formal training. Members of my church’s congregation raised funds for me to
attend a music school for a year. Although many concert opportunities were closed to me
because of my race, I appeared with the Philadelphia Symphony and toured African
American southern college campuses. I made my European debut in Berlin in 1930 and
received scholarships to study abroad and appeared before the monarchs of Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, and England. My pure vocal quality, richness of tone, and
tremendous range made me, in the opinion of many, the world's greatest contralto.
24. Baker, Josephine
I was born in 1906 and became a dancer, singer, and civil rights activist. Despite my
original celebrity as a dancer, my long recording career left me with an equal reputation
as a singer. In the sessions of the 1920s, my high, piping soubrette-style delivery at the
Lafayette Theatre in Harlem and in cabaret at the Plantation Club made a charming
impression. I moved back and forth from America to France and appeared with various
jazz bands. After numerous American (two before the age of 18) and French marriages, I
moved to France again just before WWII. I really got involved volunteering, helping the
French Resistance, and even received an award for my work after the war. After being
hounded out of the US because of my anti-segregationist views, I took French
citizenship, and joined the League against Racism and Anti-Semitism.
25. Fitzgerald, Ella
I was born in 1917 in Virginia. My mother moved to Yonkers, New York, but after she
died, I ended up living on the streets of Harlem. It was tough. I was ambitious, though,
and that’s probably what saved me. I entered a singing contest at the Apollo Theater in
Harlem and won first prize and attracted the attention of Chick Webb. I sang with Chick
Webb's big band, giving it a hit song with my swing version of the nursery rhyme "Atisket, A-tasket”. After Webb’s death, I took over the band. Thereafter, I worked
through the 1980s as a soloist in varied settings, accompanied by my trio, the all-star cast
of Jazz at the Philharmonic, big bands, and orchestras. My work ranges from infectiously
cheerful swing, to bop, scat singing, to the "song books," definitive versions of American
popular songs recorded mainly with studio orchestras.
26. Holiday, Billie
I was born in 1915 into extreme poverty. Every chance I got, I hung out at the clubs and
listened to jazz and the blues. I even spent a year in a home for wayward girls. However,
as an adult, I was the ultimate jazz singer and made my debut in clubs in Harlem, New
York. I became known for my emotionally charged delivery and my unique style of
phrasing, and I brought a blues feel to my performances with swing bands. The songs I
created are still the standards by which jazz singers continue to be judged. Be sure to
listen to “Strange Fruit”, a protest song about lynching in the 1930s and “God Bless the
Child.” They were two of my biggest hits.
27. Horne, Lena
I was born in New York City in 1917 and raised by my actress mother. By the age of 16,
I was dancing at Harlem's Cotton Club. With my stunning looks and electric voice, I soon
became a popular singer with bands such as those of Noble Sissle and Teddy Wilson. I
toured Europe and the United States as a nightclub singer. Later in my life, I began to
publically speak out against racism.
28. Mabley, Moms
I was born in Brevard, North Carolina in 1894 and was one of twelve children. I was a
teenage runaway and at the age of 16, I left home to become a singer in a traveling
minstrel show. I quickly transitioned to performing comedy and joined the “Chitlin
Circuit” where it was safe for African Americans to perform. I became well known for
my raunchy grandma character, and played her on tour for nearly 40 years before white
Americans discovered me and I entered the “main stream”. I am known today as the
first prominent female African American comedian.
29. Rainey, Ma
Born in 1886, I toured the South and Midwest as a singer from 1904 into the mid-1930s.
Although my performances in circuses, minstrel, and vaudeville show embraced a wide
range of songs, I was also recognized as the first great blues singer of the early decades of
the century. I referred to myself as the “Mother of Blues,” and my music is considered to
be of historical interest as the blues have become a critical element in the history of
American jazz and popular music. The famous playwright August Wilson based one of
his plays, “Ma Rainey’s, Black Bottom,” on my life and famous music “The Black
Bottom.”
Robeson, Paul
I am a true Renaissance man, born in 1898. I lettered in four sports, including football,
and was educated at Rutgers during a time of incredible discrimination, against African
Americans. I went on to obtain a law degree from Columbia University. I worked as a
lawyer but left the firm to take up a lucrative acting career. Although I was typecast as an
African American in Eugene O’Neal’s The Emperor Jones and All God’s Chillun Got
Wings, I had favorable career as an actor. One night when asked to whistle as part of my
role, I sang a song instead and a third career began as a great singer in musicals such as
Show Boat. Because of my expressed feelings against segregation, I was viewed during
the McCarthy era as a communist and was summoned to defend myself before the House
on Un-American Activities Committee. Although I was eloquent in my own defense, I
still experienced discrimination and was “black listed” (prevented from working in the
performing arts) during this dark period of American history.
30. Smith, Bessie
I was born in 1894 and am known as the “Empress of the Blues.” I began my singing at
the age of nine on the streets of Memphis. I established myself in the 1920s after I was
discovered by Columbia Records. I made over 150 recordings accompanied by such
greats as Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. My popularity waned during the
Depression. I died from injuries sustained in an automobile crash. Rumors circulated that
had I been white, my life could have been saved, as I would have received medical care
more quickly (I was refused admission to a whites-­‐only hospital). A Memphis physician
did treat me and I was sent to a Negro hospital where I died.
31. Waters, Ethel
I was born in 1896 and raised by my grandmother, I grew up in the “red-light district” of
Philadelphia and was known for my foul mouth and unorthodox religious views. I began
my singing career in Vaudeville, and then debuted on Broadway in 1927. I am most
remembered for the role I played in The Member of the Wedding, in which I earned a
New York Drama Critics Award for best supporting actress. At one point in my career, I
was one of the highest paid entertainers, earning $1,000 a week for play performances
and $10,000 for movie roles. Prepared by K. Craver, K. Dickinson and J. Lucas 4/2012