Enlightened Free Thinking Nubian Kings And Queens

Samuel George Davis Jr. was born on December 8, 1925 in Harlem, New York. His parents, Sammy Davis Sr., an African American, and Elvera Sanchez, a Cuban American, were both vaudeville dancers.  They separated when young Davis was three years old and his father took him on tour with a dance troupe led by Will Mastin. Davis joined the act at a young age and they became known as the Will Mastin Trio. It was with this trio that Davis began a lucrative career as a dancer, singer, comedian, actor, and a multi-instrumentalist. During World War II Davis joined the army, he joined an integrated entertainment Special Services unit, and found that while performing the crowd often forgot the color of the man on stage. After his discharge from the army Davis rejoined the Will Mastin Trio and soon became known in Las Vegas as the kid in the middle.  On November 19, 1954, with the act in Las Vegas finally getting off the ground, he was involved in a serious car accident on a trip from L...

Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham was an African American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor. His nickname came from a stage routine, in which he declared himself to be "Sweet Poppa Pigmeat". Dewey Pigmeat Markham was born April 18, 1904 in Durham, North Carolina. His family was the most prominent on their street, which was later officially renamed Markham Street. Running away from home in 1918, Markham began his career in traveling music and burlesque shows. He took up with a white showman he ambiguously referred to over the years as "Mr. Booker" owner of a "gilly carnival."  For a time he was a member of Bessie Smith's Traveling Revue in the 1920s and later appeared on burlesque bills with such comedy legends as Milton Berle, Red Buttons, and Eddie Cantor. He claims to have originated the Truckin' dance which became nationally popular at the start of the 1930s. Markham performed ...

Richard Pryor was an American comedian, actor, film director,  social critic , satirist, writer, and  MC . Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities and profanity, as well as  racial epithets . He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and story telling style. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time:  Jerry Seinfeld  called Pryor "The  Picasso  of our profession", and  Bob Newhart  has called Pryor "the seminal comedian of the last 50 years". This legacy can be attributed, in part, to the unusual degree of intimacy Pryor brought to bear on his comedy. As  Bill Cosby  reportedly once said, "Richard Pryor drew the line between comedy and tragedy as thin as one could possibly paint it." Pryor's body of work includes the concert movies and recordings:...

Rudolph Frank Moore , known as  Rudy Ray Moore , was an American comedian, musician, singer, film actor, and film producer.  He was perhaps best known as  Dolemite  (the name derived from the mineral  dolomite ), the uniquely articulate  pimp  from the 1975 film  Dolemite , and its sequels,  The Human Tornado  and  The Return of Dolemite .  The persona was developed during his earlier comedy records,  for which Moore has been called "the Godfather of Rap". Moore was born and raised in  Fort Smith, Arkansas , and eventually moved to  Cleveland, Ohio , and then  Milwaukee, Wisconsin . In Milwaukee, he preached in churches as well as worked as a  nightclub  dancer. He returned to Cleveland, working in clubs as a singer, dancer, and comedian, often appearing in character as  Prince DuMarr . He joined the  US Army  and served in an entertainment unit in Germany, where he w...

Known to many as the most beautiful male model of all time. Not much is known about him except that he was a fixture at Studio 54. The actor Raymond St Jacques was his adopted “father”. On any given night at studio 54, Sterling could be seen twirling Bianca Jagger, Pat Cleveland and Grace Jones around the floor. Caroline Kennedy would go to Studio 54 just to dance with Sterling. Sterling, Raymond, Howard Rollins and Paul Winfield were also fixtures in the Castro. Pat and Sterling danced on Soul Train for a minute. Sterling never reached the levels of success as his female counterpart Grace Jones although he did make an attempt in the early eighties at a music career. People talk about Tyson Beckford, but Sterling was the first to walk the runways for Givenchy, Halston and Yves Saint Laurent. He came, he danced and died with no fanfare. So every time you see a black man walking a runway or modeling in print just think about Sterling for a minute because he was the first.

Paul Robeson was a famous African-American athlete, singer, actor, and advocate for the civil rights of people around the world. He rose to prominence in a time when segregation was legal in the United States, and Black people were being lynched by racist mobs, especially in the South. Born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey, Paul Robeson was the youngest of five children. His father was a runaway slave who went on to graduate from Lincoln University, and his mother came from an abolitionist Quaker family. Robeson's family knew both hardship and the determination to rise above it. His own life was no less challenging. In 1915, Paul Robeson won a four-year academic scholarship to Rutgers University. Despite violence and racism from teammates, he won 15 varsity letters in sports (baseball, basketball, track) and was twice named to the All-American Football Team. He received the Phi Beta Kappa key in his junior year, belonged to the Cap & Skull Honor Society, and gradu...