"If We Dont Support Each Other We Have No Support At All"

Charlie Sifford – First Black Golfer

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Charles Luther Sifford (June 2, 1922 – February 3, 2015) was an American professional golfer who was the first African American to play on the PGA Tour.

Charlie Sifford endured a hard road to glory from distractions of racial prejudice to the threat of body harm. He persevered to become an American hero. Charlie Sifford began learning the game of golf the only way Black kids could in the 1930’s, as a caddy. He earned sixty cents a day, gave fifty cents to his mother and kept ten cents to buy cigars which was one of his signature trademarks. Clayton Heafner who was a kind hearted White player, taught Charlie Sifford and other young Black men golf technique. [Read more…]

Hazel Dorothy Scott – First Black TV Host & Queen Of Dual Pianos

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Hazel Dorothy Scott (June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981) was born in Port Of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. She was a jazz and classical pianist, singer and actor. At the age of four, her mother took her to New York City where she was recognized early on as a musical prodigy. At the age of eight, Hazel was given scholarships to study at the Juilliard School of performing arts.

Hazel began performing in a jazz band in her teens and started performing on radio at the age of 16. She was prominent as a jazz singer throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1950 she became the first black person to have her own TV show. The Hazel Scott Show debuted on April 14th 1950 and featured a variety of entertainment. [Read more…]

Worship Music – A Few Gospel Classics

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Most of the first Black congregations and churches formed before 1800 were founded by free Blacks. The oldest Black Baptist church in Kentucky, and third oldest in the United States, was founded about 1790 by the slave Peter Durrett.

After slavery was abolished, segregationist attitudes in both the North and the South discouraged and even prevented African-Americans from worshiping in the same churches as Whites. Freed Blacks most often established congregations and church facilities separate from their white neighbors, who were often their former masters. These new churches created communities and worship practices that were culturally distinct from other churches, including unique and empowering forms of Christianity that hybridized African spiritual traditions. [Read more…]