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Black History

Entertainers

Alvin Ailey

Dancer and choreographer. Born January 5, 1931 in Rogers, Texas.

Josephine Baker

Dancer and entertainer. Born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Tyra Banks

Model, television personality. Born Tyra Lynne Banks on December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California.

Angela Bassett

Actress. Born August 16, 1958, in New York City. Bassett was raised with her sister, D'nette, in St. Petersburg, Florida by her single mother, Betty, a social worker.

Harry Belafonte

Actor, singer, humanitarian. Born Harold George Belafonte, Jr. on March 1, 1927 in Harlem, New York.

Halle Berry

Halle Maria Berry was born August 14, 1966, in Cleveland, Ohio . The youngest daughter born to Jerome and Judith Berry, an interracial couple.

Diahann Carroll

Actress, singer. Born Carol Diahann Johnson on July 17, 1935 in New York City.

Bill Cosby

Comedian, writer, television producer. Born William Henry Cosby on July 12, 1937¬ in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dorothy Dandridge

Singer, actress. Born November 9, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio. Dandridge's mother, the actress Ruby Dandridge, urged her two young daughters into show business in the 1930s, when they performed as a song-and-dance team billed as "The Wonder Children.

Sammy, Jr Davis

Singer, actor, and dancer. Born December 8, 1925 in New York City.

Ossie Davis

Actor, playwright, director. Born December 18, 1917 in Cogdell, Georgia.

Laurence Fishburne

Actor. Born Laurence Fishburne III on July 30, 1961 in Augusta, Georgia. Raised in Brooklyn by his mother after his parents' divorce, Fishburne starting acting at age 12.

Jamie Foxx

Comedian, actor, singer. Born Eric Morlon Bishop on December 13, 1967 in Terrell, Texas.

Morgan Freeman

Born June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee. The youngest of four children born to a barber and a schoolteacher, Freeman was raised in Chicago and Mississippi.

Whoopi Goldberg

Born Caryn Elaine Johnson on November 13, 1949¬ (some sources say 1950 or 1955), in New York City.

Gregory Hines

Tap dancer, actor, director, musician. Born February 14, 1946 in New York City.

Judith Jamison

Dancer, choreographer, artistic director. Born Judith Ann Jamison on May 10, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Robert L. Johnson

Media executive. Born April 8, 1946, in Hickory, Mississippi. The ninth of ten children, Robert L. Johnson grew up in Freeport, Illinois, and attended the University of Illinois on an academic scholarship.

James Earl Jones

Actor. Born January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi. The son of an ex-prizefighter-actor, Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents and is of Irish, Cherokee and African decent.

Spike Lee

Producer, director, actor. Born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Bernie Mac

Born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough on October 5, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up in a large family on Chicago's South Side, his grandfather was the deacon of a Baptist church.

Eddie Murphy

Murphy was born April 3, 1961, in Brooklyn, New York.¬ He spent his early years in the projects of Bushwick with his father, Charles Murphy, a New York City police officer and amateur comedian, his mother, Lillian Murphy, a telephone operator, and his brother Charles.

Sidney Poitier

Actor, director. Born February 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida. Born prematurely on the high seas en route to Miami, Poitier grew up in The Bahamas.

Richard Pryor

Comedian, actor, writer. Born on December 1, 1940, in Peoria, Illinois.

Queen Latifah

Rapper, record producer, actress. Born Dana Owens, on March 18, 1970, in Newark, New Jersey.

Phylicia Rashad

Actress. Born Phylicia Ayers-Allen on June 19, 1948 in Houston, Texas.

Paul Robeson

Stage actor, singer, political activist. Born April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey.

Chris Rock

Comedian, actor. Born February 7, 1966 in Andrews, South Carolina.

Al Roker

Weatherman and television personality. Born Albert Lincoln Roker on August 20, 1954, in Queens, New York.

John Singleton

Director. Born John Daniel Singleton on January 6, 1968 in Los Angeles, California. Singleton grew up in South Central Los Angeles and his work as a film director, producer and screenwriter often depicts these turbulent, often violent roots.

Will Smith

Actor, rapper. Born Willard Christopher Smith, Jr. on September 25, 1968 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Denzel Washington

Actor, director. Born Denzel Jermaine Washington, Jr. on December 28, 1954 , in Mount Vernon , New York, where the Boys & Girls Club would help keep him out of trouble.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey was born January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi.

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