1977 – 2025. Nona Faustine, a photographer who used her work to highlight the perseverance of Black women, has passed away at 48. In ways both provocative and beautiful, Faustine’s photography explored conditions afflicting Black women across time. She frequently photographed herself in ways that considered how her body acted as a record of histories of exploitation and empowerment.
1937 – 2025. Roberta Flack was a virtuoso singer- pianist. With majestic anthems like “Killing Me Softly” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” Ms. Flack, a former schoolteacher, became one of the most widely heard artists of the 1970s.
1940 – 2025. An award-winning writer and director who became the first Black African filmmaker to win the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, transitioned in Bamako, Mali. He was 84. Mr. Cissé was catapulted to worldwide fame with the release in 1987 of “Yeelen” (“Light” in his native Bambara).
March 1942 – January 24. 2025. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a painter who revolutionized the landscape genre and paved a path to success for generations of Native American artists that followed.
June 7, 1943 – December 9, 2024 Nikki Giovanni, the charismatic and iconoclastic poet, activist, children’s book author and professor wrote, irresistibly and sensuously about race, politics, gender, sex and love. She was a prolific star of the Black Arts Movement; the wave of Black nationalism that erupted during the civil rights era.
September 21, 1934 – December 13, 2024 We remember the inimitable Lorraine O’Grady, who passed away in New York at age 90. Wielding photography, performance, and words as her tools, she brought a Black feminist methodology to her sharp critiques of the art world and paved the way for the next generation of artists.
April 16, 1952 – November 29, 2024. In 1984 Westbrook became the first African-American and Asian-American to win an Olympic medal. In 1991, he founded the Peter Westbrook Foundation, which has served more than 4,000 scholar-athletes.
March 16, 1963 – November 15, 2024. Ann Elizabeth Bennett was an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker, multimedia producer, and devoted community advocate. Ann’s distinguished career in film and media was marked by her deep commitment to exploring the intersections of history, culture, disability, and technology within diverse communities. As a producer, she made significant contributions to projects such as the NAACP Image Award-winning PBS feature documentary, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, and the innovative multi-platform initiative Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR).
September 13, 1926 – November 16, 2024. The Honorable Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr. was a Black pioneer in four different fields: Foreign economic development, higher education, philanthropy and business. The first Black person to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Dr. Wharton was Chairman and CEO of TIAA-CREF, the nation’s largest pension fund with assets over $390 billion. When elected president of Michigan State University from 1970-78, he became the first Black person to lead a major predominantly white university in the United States.
August 6, 1924 – November 9, 2024. Ella Louise Jenkins, “the first lady of children’s folk song,” was born on August 6, 1924, in St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, Jenkins loved all kinds of games, but adored those involving rhythm, movement and music. Despite never having any formal musical training. Jenkins became a first-rate composer and musician who plays the ukulele, the pipe organ, the harmonica and a wide variety of percussion instruments, in addition to singing.