Wikipedia

List of African-American arts firsts

African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. The first achievements by African Americans in various fields historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier".[1][2]

This is a list of African-American firsts in the fine arts, popular arts, and literature. It is a wider listing than that of the major national firsts at List of African-American firsts.

18th century edit

1746 edit

  • First known African-American (and slave) to compose a work of literature: Lucy Terry with her poem "Bars Fight", composed in 1746[3] and first published in 1855 in Josiah Holland's "History of Western Massachusetts[4][3]

1760 edit

  • First known African-American published author: Jupiter Hammon (poem "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries", published as a broadside)[5]

1773 edit

  • First known African-American woman to publish a book: Phillis Wheatley (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral)[6]

19th century edit

1825 edit

  • First African-American actor to play Othello on an English and then continental stages - First African-American star - best paid actor : Ira Aldridge

1827 edit

1858 edit

1890 edit

  • First African American to record a best-selling phonograph record: George Washington Johnson, "The Laughing Song" and "The Whistling Coon."[8]
  • First woman and African American to earn a military pension for their own military service: Ann Bradford Stokes.[9]

1892 edit

20th century edit

1903 edit

  • First Broadway musical written by African Americans, and the first to star African Americans: In Dahomey

1910 edit

1927 edit

1931 edit

  • First African-American composer to have their symphony performed by a leading orchestra: William Grant Still, Symphony No. 1, by Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra[14]

1935 edit

1936 edit

1939 edit

  • First African American to star in their own television program: Ethel Waters, The Ethel Waters Show, on NBC[17]

1940 edit

 
Hattie McDaniel

1941 edit

  • First African American to give a White House Command Performance: Josh White[19]

1943 edit

  • First African-American artists to have a number-one hit on the Billboard charts: Mills Brothers ("Paper Doll"), topped "Best Sellers in Stores" chart on November 6 (See also: Tommy Edwards, 1958; The Platters, 1959)

1944 edit

1945 edit

1947 edit

1948 edit

1949 edit

  • First African-American-owned and -operated radio station: WERD, established October 3, 1949 in Atlanta, Georgia by Jesse B. Blayton Sr.[27]

1950 edit

1954 edit

1955 edit

1956 edit

  • First African-American star of a nationwide network TV show: Nat King Cole of The Nat King Cole Show, NBC (See also: 1948)

1957 edit

1958 edit

1959 edit

1960 edit

1961 edit

1963 edit

1964 edit

1965 edit

1966 edit

1967 edit

1968 edit

1969 edit

1970 edit

1971 edit

1972 edit

1973 edit

1974 edit

1975 edit

1980 edit

  • First African-American-oriented cable channel: BET[47]

1982 edit

1983 edit

1986 edit

1987 edit

1988 edit

1990 edit

1991 edit

1992 edit

1993 edit

1994 edit

1995 edit

1996 edit

1997 edit

  • First African-American actor to star in the lead role in a comic-book adaptation movie (Spawn): Michael Jai White

2000 edit

21st century edit

2001 edit

2002 edit

2004 edit

2009 edit

2012 edit

2013 edit

2014 edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ While considered a network for regulatory reasons, CBS TV was viewable only locally in 1948. By 1956, CBS and other networks were viewable nationwide.
  2. ^ At that time, nominations were announced in November of the year of release, instead of early the following year.
  3. ^ a b c The first Black superhero, Marvel's Black Panther, introduced in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966), is African, not African-American. This is also true of the first Black character to star in his own mainstream comic-book feature, Waku, Prince of the Bantu, who headlined one of four features in the multiple-character omnibus series Jungle Tales (September 1954 – September 1955), from Marvel's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics.

References edit

  1. ^ Juguo, Zhang (2001). W. E. B. Du Bois: The Quest for the Abolition of the Color Line. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-93087-1
  2. ^ Herbst, Philip H (1997). The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States. Intercultural Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-877864-97-1
  3. ^ a b 🖉"Literature". Encyclopedia.com.
  4. ^ "Lucy Terry's " Bars Fight. " Text from San Antonio College LitWeb". Alamo.edu. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  5. ^ O'Neale, Sondra (2002). "Hammon, Jupiter". In William L Andrews; Frances Smith Foster; Trudier Harris (eds.). The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195138832. Archived from the original on April 7, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  6. ^ Shields, John C. (2010). Phillis Wheatley and the Romantics. University of Tennessee Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-57233-712-1. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  7. ^ Zack, Naomi (1995). American mixed race: the culture of microdiversity. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-8476-8013-9. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  8. ^ Brooks, Tim (2004). Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890–1919. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. pp. 15–71
  9. ^ Slawson, Robert (2011-01-27). "Ann Bradford Stokes (1830–1903)". Black Past. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  10. ^ Tardif, Elyssa (2013). Providence's Benefit Street. Arcadia Publishing. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-7385-9923-6. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  11. ^ Susan Love Brown (2006). "Economic Life". In Paul Finkelman (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: from the colonial period to the age of Frederick Douglass. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 121–129. ISBN 0195167775.
  12. ^ Brooks, Tim, and Dick Spottswood. Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890–1919. University of Illinois Press, 2004. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt2jcc81. Accessed 8 Oct. 2020.(pp. 254–258)
  13. ^ Baker, Josephine; Bouillon, Joe (1977). Josephine (First ed.). New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-010212-8.
  14. ^ Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit, MI: Gale. 2004. pp. 455–456. ISBN 978-0-7876-9124-0.
  15. ^ Baker, David. "Important Firsts: Groups and Their Leaders, and Groups and Personnel". Jazz in America. The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Archived from the original on January 15, 2011. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  16. ^ Strunk, William Oliver; Treitler, Leo (1998). Source Readings in Music History. Norton. p. 1421. ISBN 978-0-393-03752-4. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  17. ^ a b c Bogle, Donald (2001). Primetime Blues. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 9–14. ISBN 978-0-374-23720-2. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  18. ^ Jackson, Carlton (1993). Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-56833-004-4. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  19. ^ Epstein, Lawrence Jeffrey (2010). Political Folk Music in America from Its Origins to Bob Dylan. McFarland. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-7864-5601-7. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  20. ^ Matt Baker at the Grand Comics Database. Archived from the original on April 24, 2015. Artist credits were not routinely given in comic books in the 1940s, so comprehensive credits are very difficult if not impossible to ascertain.
  21. ^ "1st African-American Published Comic – All Negro #1- (1947) Comes to Auction". Metropolis Collectibles Inc. / ComicConnect Corp. press release via BlackRadioNetwork.com. February 2009. Archived from the original on July 2, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
  22. ^ Sperb, Jason (2012). Disney's Most Notorious Film: Race, Convergence, and the Hidden Histories of Song of the South. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-292-74981-8. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  23. ^ Smith, Catherine Parsons (2008). William Grant Still. American composers. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-252-03322-3. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  24. ^ Hill, George H. (1986). Ebony Images: Black Americans and Television. Carson, CA: Daystar Publishing Company. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-933650-01-5. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  25. ^ "One of the first TV shows hosted by a black man". African American Registry. Archived from the original on December 23, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
  26. ^ O'Dell, Cary (2012). June Cleaver Was a Feminist!: Reconsidering the Female Characters of Early Television. McFarland. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-7864-7177-5. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  27. ^ Manos, Nick (February 3, 2009). "Blayton, Jesse B., Sr. (1879–1977)". BlackPast.org. Archived from the original on November 10, 2014. Retrieved November 2, 2012.
  28. ^ Weaver, Joshua R. (June 9, 2011). "The Great Black Way? Black Tony Award Winners". TheRoot.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  29. ^ Clarage, Elizabeth C; Elizabeth A Brennan, eds. (1999). Who's who of Pulitzer Prize winners. Phoenix, Arizona: Oryx Press. p. 522. ISBN 9781573561112.
  30. ^ a b Otfinoski, Steven (2010). "Dandridge, Dorothy". African Americans in the Performing Arts. A to Z of African Americans (Revised ed.). New York: Facts On File. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-1-4381-2855-9. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  31. ^ Keiler, Allan (2002). Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey. University of Illinois Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-252-07067-9. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
  32. ^ "The Black Presence in American Dance: Arthur Mitchell". (Biographical capsule) Spelman College. Archived from the original on December 14, 2004.
  33. ^ "John Kitzmiller". Festival de Cannes 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
  34. ^ "Winners −1958: First Annual Grammy Awards". The Recording Academy. Archived from the original on April 24, 2015. Retrieved April 24, 2015. Presented May 4, 1959, for recordings made in 1958.
  35. ^ "Cicely Tyson Biography (1924–2021)". Biography.com. Retrieved February 28, 2019. In 1963 Tyson became the first African American star of a TV drama in the series East Side/West Side...
  36. ^ Cosham, Ralph H. (November 25, 1963). "Negro Comes to Television; Sponsors Happy". Nashville Banner. United Press International. p. 29. Retrieved January 29, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. …only one dramatic program features a Negro as a regular member of the cast. She is Cicely Tyson, who portrays a social worker in the new CBS series East Side, West Side.
  37. ^ Hudson, David (n.d.). "Black Cinema". GreenCine.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Update of Hudson (June 10, 2003). "SFBFF: Experience and Empowerment". Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved July 7, 2011. Note: Asian-American interracial marriage had previously been portrayed.
  38. ^ Duncan, Randy; Smith, Matthew J. (2013). Icons of the American Comic Book: From Captain America to Wonder Woman. ABC-CLIO. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-313-39924-4. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  39. ^ Nancy Sinatra (May 2, 2000). Movin' with Nancy (DVD Commentary Track). Chatsworth, California: Image Entertainment.
  40. ^ "A. S. McWilliams, 77, Comic Strip Cartoonist". The New York Times. March 25, 1993. Archived from the original on April 17, 2014. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
  41. ^ Horn, Maurice, ed. (1996). 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics. New York: Gramercy Books. pp. 91–92. ISBN 0-517-12447-5.
  42. ^ Boyd, Todd (2008). African Americans and Popular Culture. Westport, CN: Praeger. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-313-06408-1. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  43. ^ Bould, Mark; Butler, Andrew M.; Roberts, Adam; Sherryl Vint (2009). The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction. Taylor & Francis. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-203-87131-7. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  44. ^ The earliest known humorous interracial kiss was in the story "Home Cooking" in Premier Magazine's satirical comic book Nuts #1 (March 1954), per its listing at the Grand Comics Database. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013.
  45. ^ "Sammy's Visit". All in the Family. Season 2. Episode 34. February 12, 1972. CBS. In the comedy All in the Family, at the last moment as a picture is taken, Sammy Davis, Jr., playing himself, chides the bigoted but celebrity-fawning Archie Bunker with a humorous kiss on the cheek.
  46. ^ O'English, Mark (2014). "Killraven". In Booker, M. Keith (ed.). Comics through Time : A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. Greenwood Publishing. p. 666. ISBN 978-0313397509.
  47. ^ Mitchell, Gail (October 29, 2005). "From One Man's Vision To An Empire: BET". Billboard. Vol. 117, no. 44. p. 24. ISSN 0006-2510.
  48. ^ Alban, Debra (June 28, 2009). "Michael Jackson broke down racial barriers". CNN. Archived from the original on November 11, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  49. ^ Kourlas, Gia (May 6, 2007). "Dance: Where Are All the Black Swans?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  50. ^ Thompson, Gayle (2020-01-07). "53 Years Ago: Charley Pride Becomes the First Black Singer to Perform at the Grand Ole Opry". The Boot. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  51. ^ Trust, Gary (August 29, 2016). "This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 1995, Michael Jackson Made a Record Start". Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  52. ^ Price, Emmett George; Kernodle, Tammy L.; Maxile, Horace Joseph, eds. (2011). Encyclopedia of African American music. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313342004. OCLC 699474764.
  53. ^ Weisman, Jon (July 30, 2013). "Cheryl Boone Isaacs Elected President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences". Variety. Archived from the original on April 24, 2015.
  54. ^ Silverstein, Melissa (December 11, 2014). "Ava DuVernay Becomes First African American Woman Nominated for Best Director Golden Globe". Indiewire.com. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014.
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