1980s Today, Lawrence, KS (2025)

07/23/2025

George Tynes (1908-1982)

Soviet agricultural specialist and one of the first popularizers of turkey breeding in the USSR, George Tynes, was born in 1908 into a large African American family in Norfolk, Virginia. His father was a Methodist minister, and his mother was Native American. His cousin was the famous American opera singer Margaret Tynes. In his youth, Tynes attended lectures by W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, and in 1926, he entered Wilberforce University and became a halfback on the college football team.

Tynes graduated from Wilberforce in 1930 at the beginning of the Great Depression and could find work only as a dishwasher in a Harlem restaurant. There, he met a Black Communist agronomist, Oliver Golden, a Mississippi native who moved to the Soviet Union in 1924. In 1930, Golden returned to the US to persuade graduates of Tuskegee Institute and Hampton Institute as well as other specialists to accept work with Narkomzem, an organization of agricultural enterprises in the USSR.

Tynes was among the first 11 Black agricultural specialists that Golden brought to the Soviet Union in 1931. Arriving at the port of Leningrad in November, they boarded a train for the 2,200-mile journey to Yangiyul, Uzbekistan. After five years in Yangiyul, Tyles returned briefly to the United States before accepting Soviet citizenship, although he never joined the Communist party.

Tynes returned to Uzbekistan, where he began breeding white Peking ducks. There, he met his future Ukrainian wife, Maria Pavlenko, whose family had been resettled in Uzbekistan following collectivization in the Donetsk region. In 1938, 30-year-old Tynes married 19-year-old Maria even though each poorly understood the other’s language.

The couple traveled across the Soviet Union, setting up poultry farms. Their children, Slava, Emilia, and Ruben, were born in different cities in the USSR. When N**i Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, George Tynes was the director of a poultry farm in southern Russia, continuing his work even when German troops occupied the area.

In the post-war period, the couple and their children settled in Ramenskoye near Moscow. Tynes worked as a livestock specialist at a local fish farm with a leading Soviet agronomist, Gita Lyasko. The Tynes home had frequent visitors who were served Russian, Ukrainian, and American cuisines perfectly combined on their table.

African Americans who moved to the nation to work were given a warm welcome from Soviet authorities, including high wages, subsidized housing, and free vacations. Because of his success in raising poultry, Tyne’s numerous studies on waterfowl were published. He frequently participated in major agricultural exhibitions and received state awards and prizes. The Peking ducks he raised were delivered to the Kremlin and to the famous Beijing restaurant in Moscow.

Tynes, however, remained connected to American culture, asking all visitors from the US to bring the latest jazz records. He loved listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Paul Robeson, as well as classical music, opera, and ballet. During the Ed Sullivan Show tour of the USSR in 1959, his cousin, Margaret Tynes (their fathers were brothers), was reunited with him when she visited his family at their home outside Moscow. In 1970, at the age of 62, Tynes was an actor in the Belarusian film Black Sun. In 1974, Tynes retired, and eight years later, in 1982, he passed away at his home at the age of 74.

07/23/2025

Mahmoud Mohammed Taha (1909-1985)

Mahmoud Mohammed Taha was a Sudanese religious thinker, engineer, and political leader who dedicated his life to an innovative reinterpretation of Islam, advocating for a modern, progressive vision for Sudan and the wider Muslim world. Known to his followers as “Ustadh” (the Teacher), Taha’s radical ideas on human rights, democracy, and gender equality ultimately led to his ex*****on for apostasy, cementing his place as a controversial yet profoundly influential figure in contemporary Islamic thought.

Born in 1909 in Rufaa, a town on the Blue Nile south of Khartoum, Taha received a Western-style education, graduating as a civil engineer from Gordon Memorial College (now the University of Khartoum). After a brief stint with Sudan Railways, he began his own engineering business. His political activism began early; in 1945, he founded the Republican Party, an anti-monarchical, federalist, and socialist group that challenged British colonial rule. His defiance led to multiple imprisonments by the British authorities, including a two-year sentence during which he embarked on a period of intense spiritual seclusion, prayer, and meditation.

This period of self-imposed retreat, known as khalwa, was transformative for Taha. Emerging from it, he articulated what he called the “Second Message of Islam.” This groundbreaking philosophy distinguished between the Qur’anic verses revealed in Mecca and those revealed later in Medina. Taha argued that the Meccan verses, revealed during the Prophet Muhammad’s early, persecuted phase, represented the universal and eternal principles of Islam, such as equality, human dignity, and freedom of belief. The Medinan verses, revealed after the establishment of an Islamic state, contained subsidiary laws and regulations suited
to the specific social and political conditions of 7th-century Arabia. This “Second Message” championed democratic governance, economic justice, and full equality between men and women, and between Muslims and non-Muslims.

To propagate his ideas, Taha transformed his political party into the Republican Brotherhood (and Republican Sisters), a social-religious movement that practiced and promoted his vision. His followers were known for their activism, particularly in advocating women’s rights and challenging traditional social norms. The Republican Sisters played a crucial role in campaigning for gender equality, often participating in public discussions and debates, which was revolutionary for the time

Taha’s progressive interpretations placed him at odds with the conservative religious establishment and Sudanese governments. He fiercely opposed the imposition of Sharia law by the regime of Jaafar Nimeiri in 1983, viewing it as a distortion of true Islamic principles and a move that would further divide Sudan. He famously distributed pamphlets calling for an end to these Sharia laws. His defiance led to his arrest on January 5, 1985. Tried on charges of apostasy, Taha refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court, maintaining that the Sharia laws under which he was being judged were themselves illegitimate. Despite international appeals for clemency, Mahmoud Mohammed Taha was publicly executed by hanging in Khartoum on January 18, 1985, at the age of 76. His death sparked protests and cemented his status as a martyr for freedom of thought and progressive Islamic reform.

07/23/2025

Joan Little (1954–)

Joan Little is an African American woman who was charged in 1974 with the murder of Clarence Alligood, a white prison guard at the Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina. Alligood attempted to r**e Little, but she fought back and killed him in the process before escaping the facility. Her case became a cause célèbre among civil rights activists, feminists, and opponents of the death penalty. Little was ultimately acquitted, becoming the first woman in U.S. history to successfully use deadly force in self-defense against sexual assault as a legal defense. Her trial is also notable for its groundbreaking use of scientific jury selection, making it a landmark in American legal history.

Little was born on May 8, 1954, to Jessie Williams and an unnamed father in Washington, North Carolina. She was the oldest of six siblings, including four half-siblings. As a teenager, she took various jobs to support herself, including work as a waitress and in the to***co industry.

In 1968, at the age of fourteen, Little’s mother asked a judge to classify her as a truant and commit her to the Dobbs Farm Training School in Kinston, North Carolina. After a few weeks, Little ran away and hitchhiked back to Washington. Upon learning of her return, her mother sent her to live with relatives in Philadelphia.
Between December 1973 and January 1974, Little was arrested multiple times. Her final arrest, which led to her conviction on June 4, 1974, involved three counts of breaking and entering and larceny. She requested to remain in the county jail in Washington rather than be transferred to the Correctional Facility for Women in Raleigh, partly so she could raise bond money.

On August 27, 1974, a police officer discovered Clarence Alligood’s body on Little’s bunk. He was found naked with stab wounds to his temple and heart, inflicted with an ice pick. Little was missing but surrendered to authorities a week later, claiming she had killed Alligood in self-defense during an attempted r**e.

Little was charged with first-degree murder, a crime that carried a mandatory death sentence at the time. Her case made her the first woman of color to successfully claim self-defense in a murder case based on sexual assault. The trial drew national attention, attracting support from civil rights and feminist leaders, including Rosa Parks and Angela Davis. Her legal defense, led by Jerry Paul and Karen Bethea-Shields, was funded by the Joan Little Defense Committee, which raised over $350,000.

The trial began on July 14, 1975, and lasted until August 15. A jury of six white and six African American members rendered a verdict of not guilty. A key factor in her acquittal was testimony from other women, including African American inmates Ida Mae Roberson and Phyllis Ann Moore, who described Alligood’s history of sexual misconduct.

Although Little was acquitted of murder, she still had to serve her previous prison sentence. She later escaped from prison one month before becoming eligible for parole but was eventually caught and convicted for the escape. She was released in June 1979 and moved to New York City. In 1981, she was shot but survived. In 1989, she was arrested in New Jersey for driving a stolen car but was later released. After that, she disappeared from public view.

07/23/2025

Oladipo Jadesimi (1945 – )

Chief Oladipo “Ladi” Jadesimi is a prominent Nigerian oil businessman and the founder of the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), where he currently serves as the executive chairman. His journey to becoming a key figure in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector is marked by a strong educational foundation and diverse professional experiences.

Born in Nigeria in 1945, Oladipo Jadesimi completed his secondary education at the prestigious King’s College, Lagos. He then pursued higher education in the United Kingdom, graduating from Oxford University in 1966 with M.A. and L.L.B. degrees in Jurisprudence. Following his studies, he embarked on a career in accountancy, working as a chartered accountant with Coopers and Lybrand in London. His expertise in the field earned him a Fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (F.C.A.).

Jadesimi’s career moved beyond traditional accountancy. He became a founding partner in Arthur Andersen Nigeria, where he continues to contribute as an Independent Financial Consultant. He also became a major investor in the Niger Delta Oil Company. His influence in the oil industry grew significantly, leading to his appointment as a director of Niger Delta Exploration and Production PLC in 2010. He became the Chairman of the Board on June 21, 2016. Furthermore, he served as a non-executive director of First City Monument Bank from 1983 until 2011.

The Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) is the cornerstone of his business interests. This privately owned, multi-billion naira state-of-the-art logistics and engineering facility is located on an island on the coast of Lagos Lagoon. Jadesimi’s vision for LADOL was to maximize the local benefit of Nigeria’s offshore oil and gas industry, creating an industrial hub for the sector. Under his leadership, LADOL has been instrumental in attracting several leading major oil companies and oil servicing companies to Nigeria.

In his personal life, Chief Jadesimi is married to Alero Okotie-Eboh, a former broadcaster and the daughter of Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh. They have a daughter, Amy Jadesimi, who has followed in her father’s entrepreneurial footsteps and serves as the Chief Executive Officer of LADOL, taking a leading role in the family’s flagship business. Amy, an Oxford-trained medical doctor, also worked at Goldman Sachs before joining LADOL in 2004 and becoming its managing director in 2009.

Oladipo Jadesimi also has another daughter, Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath, from a relationship he had with English socialite Suzanna McQuiston while working as an accountant in London in the 1980s. Emma, also known as Viscountess Emma Weymouth, is a socialite and fashion model based in the United Kingdom. She married Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth, in 2013.

Despite his significant wealth and influence, Chief Jadesimi is known for his preference for a quiet lifestyle, often maintaining a relatively low profile among Nigeria’s elite. His business endeavors have focused on fostering local content and development within Nigeria’s burgeoning oil and gas sector.

07/22/2025

Francis Cecil Sumner (1895-1954)

Francis Sumner, a scientist, professor, and Sergeant in the United States Army, 808th Pioneers in World War I, was the first Black American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology in 1920, graduating from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. By 1928, Sumner had joined the faculty and served as chair of the psychology department at Howard University in Washington, DC, where he remained for 26 years. While at Howard, Sumner was the first professor to establish courses for studying religion, equity in the education of Black students, psychoanalysis, race psychology, and social justice.

In 1918, Sumner was drafted into the United States Army Pioneer Infantry Unit, a non-combat unit. Due to rampant racial segregation in the U.S. military, Sumner was forced to build and repair railroads, although he was fluent in German, French, and Spanish. In 1922, he published his dissertation, “The Psychoanalysis of Freud and Adler or Sex-determination and Character Formation,” and conducted extensive research on the psychology of American and European religions. Sumner was the official abstractor for Psychological Bulletin and the Journal of Social Psychology, where he wrote abstracts for over 3,000 articles from German, French, and Spanish authors.

Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on December 7, 1895, Sumner was the youngest of two sons born to David Alexander and Ellen Lillian Sumner. Sumner attended elementary school in Norfolk, Virginia, and Plainfield, New Jersey. His father homeschooled him, and by age 15, he was accepted and enrolled at Lincoln University in 1911. Four years later, he graduated magna cm laude, earning his bachelor’s degree and later another bachelor’s degree in English from Clark University.

In 1920, Sumner taught psychology and philosophy at Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio. A year later, he joined the faculty at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He then moved to Institute, West Virginia after accepting a faculty position at West Virginia Collegiate Institute where he remained for seven years. During this time, he published numerous articles about the glaring disparity of Black students’ acceptance rates to state colleges.

In his research, Sumner highlighted the environmental conditions of Black and white intellectuals in higher education. He argued that structural racism worked against original scholarship production among Black scholars at HBCUs. Black intellectuals were forced to teach in segregated colleges which minimized research and paid poverty wages. The geographical locations of Black colleges across the South isolated Black intellectuals from the epicenter of American scholarship while race prejudice generated an “oppression psychosis,” limiting Blacks’ mental energies to mainly combating racism.

The 1954 landmark desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas, was regarded as another capstone of Sumner’s career. Although he didn’t live to see it come to pass, Sumner’s work in psychology and the study of racism in the lives of Black people is viewed as the building blocks for the landmark court decision.

On January 11, 1954, Sumner suffered a massive heart attack while shoveling snow at his home in Washington, DC and died the following day at the age of 58. He was buried with honors at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

07/22/2025

R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)

From precocious five-year-old piano player in the 1890s to internationally known choral director, composer, concert pianist, and poet, R. Nathaniel Dett became champion for preservation of the black spiritual which he called authentic American folk music: He dedicated his life to finding a musical form to bridge the gap between the music’s simple origins and its concert performance.

Robert Nathaniel Dett was born October 11, 1882 in Drummondville, Ontario, Canada, a town founded prior to the American Civil War by fugitive slaves from the U.S. His early experience included absorbing spirituals his grandmother sang, playing piano in church, and studying piano locally. He then majored in piano and composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. In 1908 Dett was its first African American to graduate from Oberlin after winning Phi Beta Kappa honors. His formal education continued throughout his life including studies at Harvard University where his 1920 essay “Negro Music” won a prize. In 1932 he received a Master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music (1932).

In 1911 Dett published his only book of poetry, The Album of the Heart. Three years later he began touring as a concert pianist and soon after was widely acclaimed by critics. In 1916 he married Helen Elise Smith, a pianist and the first black graduate of the Damrosch Institute of Musical Art (later Juilliard School of Music.)

After teaching at several black colleges in the South Dett became the music director at the Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia in 1913 and would remain there until 1932. His 40-voice Hampton Singers performed at Carnegie Hall in 1914. Later Dett-led choirs gained fame singing across the United States and at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Dett’s choirs performed at the White House before Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. In 1930 Dett and his choir toured five European countries.

Dett published more than 200 piano, vocal, and choral works. Major chorus works include Chariot Jubilee (an extended motet) and an oratorio, The Ordering of Moses, which was drawn from his master’s thesis at the Eastman School of Music. Popular favorites were Listen to the Lambs (1914), Don’t be Weary, Traveler (1920), and Juba (1920).

Moving to Rochester, New York in 1932, Dett taught privately and led a sixteen-voice chorus for weekly NBC radio broadcasts. He continued to teach at several colleges from 1935 to 1942.

Robert N. Nathaniel Dett died in Battle Creek, Michigan on October 2, 1943 while on tour with a USO Women’s Army Corps chorus. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.

07/21/2025

Henry Louis Gates Jr. (1950- )

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is an award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, and cultural critic. He was born on September 16, 1950, in Keyser, West Virginia, to Henry Louis Gates Sr. and Pauline Augusta Coleman Gates. He has one brother, Paul Edward Gates.

In 1968, Gates graduated as the valedictorian of his class from Piedmont High School, becoming one of the first African American students in West Virginia to attend a newly desegregated public school. Gates then enrolled at Potomac State College in Keyser, West Virginia, but after his first year, transferred to Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1969, Gates graduated summa cm laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History after being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. That same year, he received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Award to do graduate study at the University of Cambridge, in England, where one of his tutors was the legendary Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka. Gates earned a Master of Arts in English Literature in 1974 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1979, becoming the first African American to achieve that honor in Cambridge’s 800-year history.

In 1976, Gates began serving as a lecturer in English and African American Studies at Yale and remained there until 1985 as an Assistant Professor. After leaving Yale, Gates held a professorship in English, Literature, and Africana Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, until 1990. While at Cornell, Gates’s book, The Signifying Monkey: Toward a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism, was the winner of the 1989 American Book Award. This work, published by Oxford University Press, revealed the literary tradition that accompanied enslaved Africans to the Americas.

In 1991, Gates was appointed Professor and the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The institute has since been renamed, and Gates now holds the position of Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard.

Gates, the author or co-author of 22 books, has produced more than 20 documentary films that explore African American history and the African American experience. His most notable documentary is the 2013 six-part PBS series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, which earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program Long Form. In 2025, his Great Migrations: A People on the Move, a four-part docuseries about the African American movement over the 20th and 21st centuries, appeared on PBS.

Gates has received extensive recognition for his work, including Emmy nominations for his genealogical series Finding Your Roots, The Black Church (PBS) and Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches (HBO). He has been awarded 51 honorary degrees, among them a Doctor of Humane Letters from Howard University, Colgate University, and his Alma Mater the University of Cambridge. In 1997, Time magazine recognized him as one of the “25 Most Influential Americans.” The following year Gates became the first African American scholar to receive the National Humanities Medal, presented by President Bill Clinton. In 2006, he was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution, received the prestigious Spingarn Medal from the NAACP and was elected an Honorary Fellow by the Royal Academy of Arts in England. He also holds membership in Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity.

Since his first marriage, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been married twice and has two daughters, Maggie Gates and Liza Gates.

07/21/2025

Julia C. Collins (1842–1865)

Julia C. Collins was an African American educator, novelist, and abolitionist best known for her work The Curse of Caste; or, The Slave Bride, considered the first novel written by an African American woman. Born in 1842 to unnamed parents, little is known about her early life, though many believe she was born a free woman in the northern United States.

According to the April 16, 1864, issue of The Christian Recorder, the national newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Collins worked as a schoolteacher for African American children in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Alongside teaching, she contributed essays to The Christian Recorder focused on racial uplift and empowerment. Her writings often referenced notable literary figures such as William Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, and Lord Tennyson. In one of her essays, she famously wrote, “We are born with faculties and power, capable of almost everything.”

Collins married Stephen Carlisle Collins, a free Black man from Pennsylvania and a Civil War veteran who served in the 6th United States Colored Infantry Regiment. He also operated a barbershop in Williamsport and later served as commander of the Fribley Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans’ organization for Civil War soldiers.

In 1865, Collins’s novel The Curse of Caste; or, The Slave Bride was serialized weekly in The Christian Recorder over the course of eight months. The story addressed themes of racial identity, in*******al marriage, and the injustices of slavery and racism in the United States. In addition to her novel, Collins published six essays in The Christian Recorder, titled: “Mental Improvement,” “School Teaching,” “Intelligent Women,” “A Letter from Oswego: Originality of Ideas,” “Life is Earnest,” and “Memory and Imagination.” These essays conveyed strong messages of racial pride and intellectual advancement for the African American community.

Julia C. Collins died of tuberculosis on November 25, 1865. On her deathbed, she became a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her exact age at death is uncertain, but she was likely 22 or 23 years old. Her novel remained unfinished at the time of her death, but in 2006, Oxford University Press published The Curse of Caste, including an introduction and two alternative endings written by editors Mitch Kachun and William Andrews.

In June 2010, a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker was installed along the Williamsport River Walk near the presumed site of Collins’s home and school. In 2022, HBO’s historical drama The Gilded Age, set in the United States during the Gilded Age, featured a character named Peggy Scott, played by Denée Benton, who was inspired in part by the life of Julia C. Collins.

07/21/2025

Herbie Hancock (1940- )

Herbert “Herbie” Julian Hancock is an African American pianist, composer, bandleader, and keyboardist, with a career spanning over five decades. Hancock was born on April 12, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Winne Belle Griffin, a secretary and Waymand Edward Hancock, a government meat inspector. At the age of seven Hancock began his musical education with the piano. Considered a child prodigy, Hancock performed at age 11 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He attended Wendell Philips High School, Roosevelt University, and Grinnell College, where he double majored and received degrees in Engineering and Music in 1960.

Hancock recorded his first album in 1962. He then joined the Miles Davis Second Great Quintet and performed with them from 1963 to 1968, while recording dozens of sessions with other musicians. He signed with Warner Brother Records and soon afterwards composed the soundtrack for Bill Cosby’s “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” TV series. During that recording he became fascinated with musical gadgets and toys, which led to his ventures into electronic music.

Hancock’s first venture into electronic music came in 1971 when he and his sextet made the first of three albums that became known as the “Mwandishi” albums, so-called after a Swahili name Hancock sometimes used during this era (Mwandishi is Swahili for writer). Looking to do more with his music, Hancock in 1973 formed a new band, The Headhunters, and released three more albums. The first Head Hunters album was the first jazz album to reach platinum status (over one million albums sold and over two million singles from that album).

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hancock toured with his V.S.O.P. Quintent. During this period he released albums in Japan that have yet to appear in the United States. In 1980, Hancock introduced trumpeter Wynton Marsalis to the world as a solo-artist, by producing his debut album. A later collaboration with Marsalis on the album “Future Shock” also reached platinum.

Hancock also produced soundtracks for the movies Blow Up, The Spook Who Sat by The Door, and Death Wish. In 1986 he won an Oscar for the score to the movie Round Midnight. He has had numerous television appearances that eventually led to hosting assignments on the TV programs Rock School and Coast to Coast.

Throughout his career, Hancock collaborated with artists from various musical genres such as Chick Corea, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Annie Lennox, and Kathleen Battle. Those collaborations as well as solo albums have earned Hancock numerous honors including Grammys and awards such as the Soul Train Music Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and Lifetime Achievement Awards. In 2014 he was the Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University.

Hancock was recently named by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra as Creative Chair for Jazz and he currently serves as Institute Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He is also a founder of The International Committee of Artists for Peace, and was recently awarded the “Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres” by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. In July of 2011 Hancock was designated an honorary UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

Since 1972, Hancock has practiced Nichiren Buddhism, reciting the Buddhist chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo each day. Hancock has been married to his wife Gigi for 42 years and together they have one daughter Jessica. The family resides in Beverly Hills, California.

07/21/2025

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004)

Musician, composer, and conductor Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson was born on June 14, 1932, in Manhattan, New York City. Perkinson’s mother, a talented pianist, organist, and theater director in the Bronx, named her son after the Afro-British composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Perkinson began showing an interest in music at a very young age and in 1945 he began attending New York’s High School of Music and Art. In 1948, he won the prestigious High School Music and Art Choral Competition with his composition titled And Behold. Perkinson graduated from the high school in 1949 and that same year he won the coveted LaGuardia Prize for Music.

After high school, Perkinson attended New York University where he was an education major until 1951, intending to become a public school teacher. In that year, however he decided instead to focus on music and transferred to the Manhattan School of Music where he became a composition major. Perkinson studied under influential figures such as Charles Mills, Vittorio Giannini, and Jonel Perlea. He graduated in 1953 and during the summer of 1954 began taking courses in conducting at the Berkshire Music Center in Massachusetts while at the same time studying under renowned composer Earl Kim at Princeton University. In 1960, Perkinson traveled to Holland, where he spent three years pursuing his studies in conducting under Maestros Dean Dixon and Franco Ferrara at the Netherlands Radio Union at Hilversum.

Perkinson had a long and successful career in the music industry. He worked as a music director and arranger for many famous jazz and soul artists including Marvin Gaye, Barbara McNair, Lou Rawls, Donald Byrd, Max Roach, Melvin Van Peebles, and Harry Belafonte. Perkinson also composed numerous musical scores for the stage, film, and television. He wrote ballet scores for dance companies like Dance Theater of Harlem, Alvin Ailey, and the Pomare Dance Company. He also wrote and conducted the scores for award winning films such as Montgomery to Memphis, a documentary about Martin Luther King Jr., and A Warm December, a film both starring and directed by Sidney Poitier. Perkinson also wrote the theme songs for several hit network television shows including Get Christie Love! and Room 222.

In 1965, Perkinson co-founded the Symphony of the New World, which he also conducted from 1965 to 1970. In addition to writing and conducting, Perkinson also held various teaching positions, including a job at Indiana University from 1997 to 1998. From 1998 until his death in 2004, he worked as the Coordinator of Performance Activities at Columbia College Chicago’s Center for Black Music Research. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson passed away on March 9, 2004 in Chicago, Illinois. The year after his death a wide-range compilation of his music was released on an album titled Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004); A Celebration.

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