Novelist, folklorist, dramatist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891, in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated black town in the United States.
Famed contralto Marian Anderson made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955 as, Ulrica in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.
Poet and writer Langston Hughes, famous for his elucidations of black American life in his poems, stories, autobiographies, and histories, was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902.
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, often said to be America's greatest composer, bandleader, and recording artist, was born on April 29, 1899, in Washington, D.C.