This Week In Black History (September 7 – September 13)

Sept. 7, 1949 – Singer Gloria Gaynor was born this year in Newark, NJ. Gaynor is infamous for classic 1970’s hits “I Will Survive” and “Never Can Say Goodbye,” her first dance song to reach No. 1 on the newly created Billboard “Disco Action Charts.” In 2005, “I Will Survive,” was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. The song was reproduced by a slew of artists including Gladys Knight, Chante Moore and Diana Ross. In 2013, she penned a memoir titled “I Will Survive.” (Photo Courtesy: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

September 8, 1954 – Civil rights icon, Ruby Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi. At 6 years-old, Bridges was the first African American child to integrate a White Southern elementary school, William Frantz School, having to be escorted to class by her mother and U.S. marshals due to violent protest in November 14, 1960. The image of this small Black girl being escorted to school by four large White men inspired Norman Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Must Live With.” The painting graced the cover of Look magazine in 1964. (Courtesy Photo)

September 9,1908 – Author, Richard Wright was born in Roxie, Mississippi. A pioneering African American writer, Wright is best known for the classic novels “Black Boy” (autobiography) and “Native Son,” a bestseller and in 1945. (Courtesy Photo)

September 10, 1968 – Rap legend, Big Daddy Kane was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York. He is a Grammy Award-winning rapper and actor who started his career in 1986 hip hop group Juice Crew. Kane is considered to be an acclaimed MC in hip hop. “Ain’t No Half-Steppin” is #25 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time,” deeming him a “master wordsmith of rap’s late-golden age and a huge influence on a generation of MCs.”

September 11,1977 – Mega producer, Quincy Jones wins an Emmy for musical composition for the miniseries “Roots.” It is one of nine Emmys for the series, an unprecedented number. (Courtesy Photo)

September 12, 1977 – South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko was assassinated in Pretoria, South Africa. Steve Biko spearheaded the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, co-founded the South African Students’ Organization in 1968 and co-founded the Black People’s Convention in 1972. Biko was arrested many times for his anti-apartheid work and died from injuries that he’d sustained while in police custody in 1977, years later his death was revealed a murder. (Courtesy Photo)

Alain Leroy Locke (Courtesy Photo)

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