Musicians & Entertainers Black History Posters & Prints, “Ha...”
for the classroom, home schoolers, inspirational images for the home or office.

Adelaide Hall, Giclee Print

Adelaide Hall
b. 10-20-1901; Brooklyn
d. 11-7-1993; London

Adelaide Hall, who was taught to sing by her father, worked in black revues from the chorus of the Broadway musical Shuffle Along (1921) to Blackbirds of 1928, with the song “I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby”.

Hall lived in Europe where opportunities for black performers were more available, after the Blackbirds tour of Europe. She had a radio show and appeared on stage and in films and nightclubs. She made her last recording at age 90 in 1991.

• Underneath a Harlem Moon: The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall

Lionel Hampton
b. 4-20-1908; Louisville, KY
d. 8-21-2002, NYC

Lionel Hampton was a jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. He said of Benny Goodman, “As far as I'm concerned, what he did in those days — and they were hard days in 1937 — made it possible for Negroes to have their chance in baseball and other fields.”

FYI ~ the vibraphone is a percussion instrument, similar to a zylophone, marimba, and glockenspiel.

W.C. Handy, “Father of the Blues”
b. 11-16-1873; Florence, AL
d. 3-28-1958; NY

Composer and musician William Christopher Handy is widely known as the “Father of the Blues”. Handy managed to learn music through guitar, organ and cornet, even though his father, a minister, thought musical instruments were the work of the devil.

His St. Louis Blues was published in 1912, and is credited as inspiration for the foxtrot dance by Vernon and Irene Castle.

Handy was also qualified as a teacher but the pay was so low he went back to working in the iron industry in Alabama.

• W. C. Handy at Amazon.com

Herbie Hancock
b. 12-4-1940; Seattle, WA

Pianist, keyboardist, bandleader and composer Herbie Hancock was named the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of Intercultural Dialogue.

Richard Berry Harrison
b. 9-28-1864; London, Ontario, Canada
d. 3-14-1935, NYC

Richard Berry Harrison, a noted actor, teacher and lecturer was the son of slaves who escaped to Canada on the Underground Railroad. His mother named her first born Richard after seeing Shakespeare's Richard III. Harrison's most remembered role was of “de Lawd” in more than 1,650 performances of Marc Connelly’s 1931 Pulitzer winning play, The Green Pastures.

Harrison was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1930.

Coleman Hawkins - Poster

Coleman Hawkins
b. 11-21-1904; St. Joseph, MO
d. 5-19-1969; NY

Coleman Hawkins played the tenor saxophone and is “most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era, ... a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.”

Roland Hayes
b. 6-3-1887; near Curryville, GA
d. 1-1-1977; Boston, MA

Roland Hayes was a lyric tenor considered the first African Amercian male concert artist to receive international and home acclaim.

He was awarded the 1924 Spingarn Medal by the NAACP for outstanding achievement by an African American.