Happy birthday Ta-Nehisi Coates! Born September 30, Ta-Nehisi Coates is an award-winning African American author and journalist. His books include The Water Dancer and The Message. He is currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the Sterling Brown Endowed Chair in the English department at Howard University. Here are additional notable works:
Heavenly birthday wishes Gwen Ifill! Born September 29, 1955, Gwen Ifill was an African American journalist and author. In 1999, Ifill became the first African American woman to host a prominent political talk show on national television when she became moderator and managing editor of PBS’s Washington Week and senior political correspondent for The PBS NewsHour. In 2004, Ifill moderated the vice-presidential debate between Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and Democrat Senator John Edwards, and in 2008, she moderated the vice-presidential debate between Democratic Senator Joe Biden and Republican Governor Sarah Palin. She died in 2016.
Happy birthday Bernice L. McFadden! Born September 26, Bernice L. McFadden is is a national bestselling, award-winning African American author celebrated for her richly layered novels that center ancestry, memory, and the enduring strength of Black women. She is the author of Sugar, The Book of Harlan, and other acclaimed works of fiction. Her writing has earned numerous honors, including the American Book Award and an NAACP Image Award. Other notable works are:
Heavenly birthday wishes Bell Hooks! Born September 25, 1952, Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an African American philosopher, educator, author, and social critic; she was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College in Kentucky. Professor hooks wrote about race, feminism, and social class. She died in 2021. Here are a few of her notable works:
Heavenly birthday wishes Frances Ellen Watkins! Born September 24, 1825, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an African American abolitionist, suffragist, poet, temperance activist, teacher, public speaker, and writer. Beginning in 1845, she was one of the first African American women to be published in the United States. She died in 1911. Here are some of her notable works:
Read some of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper poems here and here:
Heavenly birthday wishes Leighla Frances Whipper! Born September 22, 1913, Leighla Frances Whipper was an African American songwriter, journalist, mystery writer, and businesswoman. She is best known for arranging and publishing musical scores of calypso and Afro-Caribbean songs, often with collaborator Lionel Belasco. She died in 2008.
Here are a couple of her notable works:
Happy birthday Angie Thomas! Born September 20, Angie Thomas is the African American author of the award winning title The Hate U Give. Other notable works are:
Happy birthday N.K. Jemisin! Born September 19, N(ora). K. Jemisin is a New York Times-bestselling author of speculative fiction short stories and novels, who lives and writes in Brooklyn, NY. In 2018, she became the first author to win three Best Novel Hugos in a row. She has also won a Nebula Award, two Locus Awards, and is a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. Here are a few of her award winning and notable titles:
Happy birthday Anna Deavere Smith! Born September 16, Anna Deavere Smith is an African American playwright, actress, author, journalist, and educator, who is best known for her one-woman plays that examine the social issues behind current events. She is credited with having created a new form of theater. Smith’s work combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through performance. She was a pioneer in what is now called “verbatim theater.”
View one of Anna Deveare Smith’s performances here:
Belated birthday wishes Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.! Born September 16, Henry Louis Gates Jr., popularly known by his childhood nickname “Skip”, is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is well-known for his series, “Finding Your Roots” and authoring several African American history books. Here are just a few of his notable works:
