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Beah Richards (July 12, 1920 – September 14, 2000) was an American actress with a long career on stage, screen and television. She was also a poet, playwright and author. Born Beulah Richardson in Vicksburg, Mississippi, her mother was a seamstress and PTA advocate and her father was a Baptist minister. In 1948, she graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans and two years later moved to New York City. Her career started to take off in 1955 when she portrayed an eighty-four-year-old-grandmother in the off-Broadway show Take a Giant Step. She often played the role of a mother or grandmother, and continued acting her entire life. She appeared in the original Broadway productions of Purlie Victorious, The Miracle Worker, and A Raisin in the Sun. "There are a lot of movies out there that I would hate to be paid to do, some real demeaning, real woman-denigrating stuff. It is up to women to change their roles. They are going to have to write the stuff and do it. An

Eartha Mae Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008 was an American actress, singer, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her 1953 Christmas song "Santa Baby". Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world." She took over the role of Catwoman for the third season of the 1960s Batman television series, replacing Julie Newmar, who was unavailable for the final season. Kitt was born Eartha Mae Keith on a cotton plantation in the town of North, South Carolina, a small town in Orangeburg County near Columbia, South Carolina. Her mother was of Cherokee and African-American descent and her father of German or Dutch descent. She claimed she was conceived by rape. Kitt was raised by a woman named Anna Mae Riley, an African-American woman whom she believed to be her mother. Anna Mae went to live with a black man when Eartha was 8, and he refused to accept her because of her lighter complexion. She lived with another family un

Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Williams made history on September 17, 1983 when she became the first woman of African descent to be crowned Miss America. Williams' reign as Miss America came to an abrupt end when scandal led to her subsequent resignation of the title. Williams rebounded by launching a career as an entertainer, earning Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award nominations. Williams was born in Tarrytown, New York, the daughter of music teachers Helen and Milton Augustine Williams Jr. Williams and her younger brother Chris, who is also an actor, grew up in the predominantly white middle-class suburban area of Millwood, New York. Prophetically, her parents put "Here she is: Miss America" on her birth announcement. Williams studied piano and French horn growing up, but was most interested in singing. She received a scholarship and attended Syracuse University as a Theatre Arts major from 1981 to 1

Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample (born February 1, 1939 in Houston, Texas) is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer. He was one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 (not including the 2003 reunion album Rural Renewal). Sample began playing the piano when he was five years old. Since the early 1980s, he has enjoyed a successful solo career and has guested on many recordings by other performers and groups, including Miles Davis, George Benson, Jimmy Witherspoon, B. B. King, Eric Clapton and Steely Dan. Sample incorporates jazz, gospel, blues, Latin, and classical forms into his music. In high school in the 1950s, Sample teamed up with two friends, saxophonist Wilton Felder and drummer "Stix" Hooper, to form a group called the Swingsters. While studying piano at Texas Southern University, Sample met and added trombonist Way

Angela Bofill (born on May 2, 1954 in The Bronx) is an American R&B contralto vocalist and songwriter. Bofill was born to a Cuban father and Puerto Rican mother. She performed with Ricardo Morrero & the Group and Dance Theater of Harlem chorus prior to her 1978 debut album, Angie. She scored several dance hits such as "Angel Of The Night," "Something About You," "Holding Out For Love," and "Too Tough." However, she is probably best known for her ballad "This Time I'll Be Sweeter" and her signature tune, "I Try". In the early 1980s, she recorded You're A Special Part Of Me, a duet with romantic balladeer Johnny Mathis. Her 1983 album "Teaser" featured the Top 10 R&B chart hit "I'm On Your Side," which also became a hit for Jennifer Holliday in 1991. Bofill is one of the first Latina musicians to find success in the R&B market. She recorded two more modestly successf

Nona Hendryx (born October 9, 1944 in Trenton, New Jersey) is an American vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress. Many articles mistakenly give her first name as Wynona, which her manager, Vicki Wickham, has verified to be incorrect. Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with "Lady Marmalade." Her music has ranged from soul, funk, dance, and rhythm and blues to hard rock, art rock, and World Music. Born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1944, Hendryx's family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the mid-1950s where Hendryx first got in contact with fellow New Jersey native Sarah Dash and Philadelphia-based singers Patricia "Patsy" Holte and Sandra Tucker. After the short-lived tenure as member of rival group the Del-Capris, Hendryx and Dash formed a singing group with Holte and Tucker that year calling themselves The Ordettes. In 1961, Tucker was re

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Whoopi Goldberg (born November 13, 1955) is an American actress, comedienne, singer-songwriter and media personality. Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple (1985) playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the south. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award for her role in the film. In 1990, she starred as Oda Mae Brown, a psychic helping a slain man find his killer in the blockbuster film Ghost. This performance won her a second Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Notable later films include Sister Act (1992), The Lion King (1994), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), The Rugrats Movie (1998), Girl, Interrupted (1999) and Rat Race (2001). She is also acclaimed for her role as the bartender in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Goldberg has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television. She was the co-producer and center square of the latest edition game show

Prince Rogers Nelson (born June 7, 1958) is an American musician. He performs under the mononym of Prince but has also been known by various other names, most notably the unpronounceable symbol which he used as his stage name between 1993 and 2000. During this period, he was usually referred to as The artist formerly known as Prince. Prince is a songwriter and musician, having released several hundred songs both under his own name and with other artists. He has won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible in 2004. Rolling Stone ranked Prince #28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2008. Prince's musical palette covers many musical genres including R&B, soul, funk, rock, blues, new wave, psychedelia, folk, jazz and hip hop. Some of his influences are Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Parliament-Funkadelic,

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Sarah Dash (born August 18, 1945) is a singer and actress. Her first notable appearance on the music scene was as a member of Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles. Born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1945, she later moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the mid-1950s where she got reacquainted with fellow adopted Philadelphian Nona Hendryx and Philadelphian natives Patricia "Patsy" Holte and Sandra Tucker. In 1960, following the break-up of a rival girl group, Hendryx and Dash joined Holte and Tucker in "The Ordettes". In 1961, Tucker was replaced by Philadelphia-born Cindy Birdsong and the quartet became The Bluebelles in 1962. The group changed their name again to Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles after Holte was advised to changed her name. Among the Bluebelles hits including the doo-wop classic, "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman" and doo-wop-esque R&B ballads "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "Danny Boy", the top forty cla

Sarah Lois Vaughan (nicknamed "Sassy" and "The Divine One") (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century". She had a contralto vocal range. Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner. The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award in 1989. Sarah Vaughan's father, Asbury "Jake" Vaughan, was a carpenter and amateur guitarist. Her mother, Ada, was a laundress. Jake and Ada Vaughan migrated to Newark from Virginia during the First World War. Sarah was their only natural child, although in the 1960s they adopted Donna, the child of a woman who traveled on the road with Sarah Vaughan. The Vaughans lived in a house on Brunswick Street, in Newark, New Jersey, for Sarah's entire childhood. Jake Vaughan was deeply religious and the family was very active in the New Mount