Arts

Juneteenth 2022
A Celebration of Black Achievers (Click Here)

Chronology

1773 Phillis Wheatley (1753 - 1784), a poet, was the first published poet (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773), and was the first woman whose writing helped create the genre of African American literature.

1854 Frances Harper (1825 - 1911), was an abolitionist and author whose antislavery verse, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854), sold thousands of copies and The Two Offers(1859) was the first short story published by an African American.

1855 Lucy Terry Prince (1730 - 1821), a former slave and poet, was the author of the first and oldest known work of literature, Bars Fight, a ballad published in 1855. The ballad was about an attack on two white families by Native Americans on August 25, 1746. The ballad was preserved orally until its publication in 1855.

1859 Harriet Wilson (1825 - 1900), a writer, was the first to publish a novel, Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black in 1859.

1860s Edmonia Lewis (1845 - 1872), an artist, was the first to become a professional sculptor in the U.S., during the 1860s.

1927 Louise Beavers (1902 - 1962), an actress, was the first actress to star in a major film one of which was Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1927.

1929 Nina Mae McKinney (1912 - 1967), an actress, became the first black movie star and popular entertainer in her time. Nina Mae became the first black woman to have a leading role in the first black cast movie, Hallelujah and to be signed to a major studio, MGM in 1929.

1930 Nella Larsen (1891 - 1964), a novelist, was the first to win a Guggenheim fellowship for creative writing in 1930.

1939 Hattie McDaniel (1895 - 1952) an actress, was the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Mammy in the 1939 film, Gone with the Wind.

1946 Ann Petry (1908 - 1997), an author, was the first to sell over one million copies of her book,The Street, which was published in 1946.

1949 Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 - 2000), a poet, was the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (Annie Allen) in 1949.

1950 Juanita Hall (1901 - 1968), an actor, was the first woman to win a Tony Award in 1950 for her role as Bloody Mary in South Pacific.

1953 Mary Elizabeth Vroman (1925 - 1967), a playwright, was the first to join the Screen Writers Guild for writing the screen play, Bright Road in 1953.

1954 Dorothy Dandridge (1922 - 1965), an actor, was the first to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress Award for her role in Carmen Jones in 1954.

1955 Alice Childress (1916 - 1994), a novelist, playwright and actress, was the first to win an Obie in 1955, for the best off-Broadway play, which she produced ’Trouble in Mind’.

1959 Lorraine Hansberry (1930 - 1965), a writer and author, was the first woman to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for A Raisin in the Sun in 1959.

1960s Jackie ’Moms’ Mabley (1930 - 1965), a writer and author, was the first woman to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for A Raisin in the Sun in 1959.

1965 Ruby Dee (1924 - 2014), an actress, was the first to play major roles at the American Shakespeare Festival. In 1965, she became the first actress to play major classical roles, portraying Kate in the Taming of the Shrew and Cordelia in King Lear.

1972 Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014), a poet, author, civil rights activist, was the first to have her screen play, Georgia, produced in 1972.

1975 Virginia Hamilton (1934 - 2002), a writer and author, was the first to win the John Newberry Medal in 1975 for M.C. Higgins, the Great.

1983 Alice Walker (b. 1944), a writer and author, was the first to win the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for her novel, The Color Purple.

1992 Julie Dash (1952 - 1992), a director, was the first to direct a feature-length film for general theatrical release in the United States, entitled Daughters of the Dust, in 1992. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was selected as preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the library of Congress as being ’culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’.

1992 Maya Angelou (1928 -2014), a poet, author, civil rights activist, was the first to read at a Presidential Inaugural Ceremony, President William Jefferson Clinton in 1992.

1993 Toni Morrison (b. 1931) a writer, was the first to win a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.

1993 Rita Dove (b. 1931)(b. 1952), a poet, was the first and the youngest person to be named the U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993 – 1995.

1995 Octavia Butler (b. 1947), a writer and publisher, and was the first to win the MacArthur Foundation ’genius grant’ in 1995.

2000 Lucille Clifton (1936 - 2010),was a poet, writer and educator, was the first to win the National Book Award for Poetry for her collection, Blessings the Boats: New and Selected Poems in 2000. She is the only poet to have received two Pulitzer nominations in a single year.

2002 Halle Berry (b. 1966), an actress, was the first to win an Oscar for Best Actress, for her role in the film, Monster’s Ball, in 2002.

2004 Phylicia Rashad (b. 1948), an actress, was the first to win a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in 2004 for her portrayal of Lena Younger, in A Raisin in the Sun.

2004 Shonda Rhimes (b. 1970), a writer and producer, was the first to create and produce a top TV Series on a major network, Grey’s Anatomy in 2004.

2008 Annette Gordon-Reed (b. 1958), an American historian, was the first to win the National Book Award for a non-fiction book, The Hemingses of Monticello: an American Family in 2008.

2013 Cheryl Boone Isaac (b. 1949), a veteran publicist, was the first African American to serve as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.