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Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball
Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball was a three-day celebration held by Oprah Winfrey honoring twenty-five African American women in art, entertainment, and civil rights. The celebration included a luncheon, white-tie ball, and gospel brunch. On May 22, 2006, a year after the celebration, a one-hour program about the weekend aired on ABC. It included celebrity interviews and behind-the-scenes moments. The 25 women were: Maya Angelou, Shirley Caesar, Diahann Carroll, Elizabeth Catlett, Ruby Dee, Katherine Dunham, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Nikki Giovanni, Dorothy Height, Lena Horne, Coretta Scott King, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Toni Morrison, Rosa Parks, Leontyne Price, Della Reese, Diana Ross, Naomi Sims, Tina Turner, Cicely Tyson, Alice Walker, Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick (; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on ''Billboa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashanti (singer)
Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas (born October 13, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She was first discovered as a teenager and later signed to Murder Inc. Records in 2002. That year, she was featured on Fat Joe's "What's Luv?" and Ja Rule's "Always on Time", both of which became two of the biggest hit songs of 2002. She became the first female artist to occupy the top two positions on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart simultaneously with " Foolish" and "What's Luv?" at numbers one and two, respectively. In 2002, Ashanti released her eponymous debut album, which sold over 505,000 copies throughout the U.S. in its first week of release. The album earned her many awards, including eight ''Billboard'' Music Awards, two American Music Awards, and a Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Contemporary R&B Album. The album has since been certified triple platinum in the United States and sold six million copies worldwide by the end of 2003. The lead single for the album, " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in '' Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With global sales of over 75 million records, Franklin is one of the world's best-selling music artists. As a child, Franklin was noticed for her gospel singing at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister. At the age of 18, she was signed as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While her career did not immediately flourish, Franklin found acclaim and commercial success once she signed with Atlantic Records in 1966. Hit songs such as "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Chain of Fools", " Think", and "I Say a Little Prayer", propelled Franklin past her musical peers. Franklin continued to record acclaimed albums such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before launching a successful career as a solo performer. Turner began her career with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm in 1957. Under the name Little Ann, she appeared on her first record, "Boxtop", in 1958. In 1960, she debuted as Tina Turner with the hit duet single " A Fool in Love". The duo Ike & Tina Turner became "one of the most formidable live acts in history". They released hits such as " It's Gonna Work Out Fine", " River Deep – Mountain High", " Proud Mary", and " Nutbush City Limits" before disbanding in 1976. In the 1980s, Turner launched "one of the greatest comebacks in music history". Her 1984 multi-platinum album '' Private Dancer'' contained the hit song " What's Love Got to Do with It", which won the Grammy Award for Recor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naomi Sims
Naomi Ruth Sims (March 30, 1948 – August 1, 2009) was an American model, businesswoman, and author, She was the first African-American model to appear on the cover of ''Ladies' Home Journal'', which occurred in November 1968, and is widely credited as being the first African-American supermodel. Early life Sims was born in Oxford, Mississippi, the youngest of three daughters born to John and Elizabeth Sims. Her father (whom she never knew) reportedly worked as a porter, but Sims' mother later described him "an absolute bum" and her parents divorced shortly after she was born. She was teased for her height of 5'10 at the age of 13. Elizabeth Sims later moved with her three daughters to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Naomi's mother was forced to put her child into foster care. She attended Westinghouse High School. There, due to her height, she was ostracized by many of her classmates. Sims credited her upbringing as a Catholic for helping to get her through adolescence. Care ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in history, with a total of twelve number-one hit singles on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, including " Where Did Our Love Go", " Baby Love", " Come See About Me", and " Love Child". Following departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross embarked on a successful solo career in music, film, television and on stage. Her eponymous debut solo album featured the U.S. number-one hit " Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and music anthem " Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". It was followed with her second solo album, '' Everything Is Everything'' (1970), which spawned her first UK number-one single " I'm Still Waiting". She continued her successful solo career by mounting elaborate record-se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Della Reese
Delloreese Patricia Early (July 6, 1931 – November 19, 2017), known professionally as Della Reese, was an American jazz and gospel singer, actress, and ordained minister whose career spanned seven decades. She began her long career as a singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You Know?". In the late 1960s she hosted her own talk show, ''Della'', which ran for 197 episodes. From 1975 she also starred in films, playing opposite Redd Foxx in ''Harlem Nights'' (1989), Martin Lawrence in '' A Thin Line Between Love and Hate'' (1996) and Elliott Gould in ''Expecting Mary'' (2010). Reese achieved continued success in the religious television drama ''Touched by an Angel'' (1994–2003), in which she played the leading role of Tess. Early years Della Reese was born Delloreese Patricia Early on July 6, 1931, in the historic Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan, to Richard Thaddeus Early, an African-American steelworker, and Nellie (Mitchelle), a Native American ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927) is an American soprano who was the first African American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera, where she was the first African American to be a leading performer. She regularly appeared at the world's major opera houses, the Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and La Scala, the last at which she was also the first African American to sing a leading role. She was particularly renowned for her performances of the title role in Verdi's ''Aida''. Born in Laurel, Mississippi, Price attended Central State University and then Juilliard, where she had her operatic debut as Mistress Ford in Verdi's ''Falstaff''. Having heard the performance, Virgil Thomson engaged her in ''Four Saints in Three Acts'' and she then toured—starring alongside her husband William Warfield—in a successful revival of Gerswhin's ''Porgy and Bess''. Numerous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake's order to vacate a row of four seats in the " colored" section in favor of a White passenger, once the "White" section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws, and she helped inspire the Black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year. The case became bogged down in the state courts, but the federal Montgome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toni Morrison
Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, '' The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' Song of Solomon'' (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for ''Beloved'' (1987); she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. She earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first black female editor in fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her work ''Beloved'' was made into a film in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer, actress and businesswoman. LaBelle is referred to as the " Godmother of Soul". She began her career in the early 1960s as lead singer and frontwoman of the vocal group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. Following the group's name change to Labelle in the 1970s, they released the popular number-one hit "Lady Marmalade". As a result, after the group split in 1976, LaBelle began a successful solo career, starting with her critically acclaimed debut album, which included the career-defining song, " You Are My Friend". LaBelle became a mainstream solo star in 1984 following the success of the singles " If Only You Knew", "Love, Need and Want You" (later sampled for 2002's "Dilemma"), " New Attitude" and "Stir It Up". Less than two years later, in 1986, LaBelle scored a number-one album '' Winner in You'' and its number-one duet single, " On My Own", with Michael McDonald. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer, actress and businesswoman. A seven-time Grammy Award-winner, Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys Knight & the Pips, which included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten. Knight has recorded two number-one ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles ("Midnight Train to Georgia" and "That's What Friends Are For" which she did with Dionne Warwick, Sir Elton John and Stevie Wonder), eleven number-one R&B singles and six number-one R&B albums. She has won seven Grammy Awards (four as a solo artist and three with the Pips) and is an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame along with The Pips. Two of her songs (" I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Midnight Train to Georgia") were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "historical, artistic and significant" value. She al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King ( Scott; April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader who was married to Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his death. As an advocate for African-American equality, she was a leader for the civil rights movement in the 1960s. King was also a singer who often incorporated music into her civil rights work. King met her husband while attending graduate school in Boston. They both became increasingly active in the American civil rights movement. King played a prominent role in the years after her husband's assassination in 1968, when she took on the leadership of the struggle for racial equality herself and became active in the Women's Movement. King founded the King Center, and sought to make his birthday a national holiday. She finally succeeded when Ronald Reagan signed legislation which established Martin Luther King, Jr., Day on November 2, 1983. She later broadened her scope to include both advocacy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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