Musicians & Entertainers Black History Posters & Prints, “W...-X...-Y...-Z...-”
for the classroom, home schoolers, inspirational images for the home or office.

Thomas “Fats” Waller, Photographic Print

“Fats” Waller
b. 5-21-1904; New York City
d. 12-15-1943; traveling near KCMO

• Fats Waller at Amazon.com

Singer Dinah Washington, 1963, Photographic Print

Dinah Washington
née Ruth Lee Jones
b. 8-29-1924; Tuscaloosa, AL
d. 12-14-1963

Dinah Washington, a blues, R&B and jazz singer, was one of the most influential vocalists of the twentieth century.

• Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Best of Dinah Washington, CD

Stars of the Harlem Renaissance - Ethel Waters Poster

Ethel Waters
b. 10-31-1896; Chester, PA
d. 9-1-1977, CA

Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, into unhappy circumstances. Her mother was just 12 years old, and Waters was raised in poverty in Philadelphia by her grandmother. Still in her teens, Ethel was already divorced and working as a chambermaid for $4.75 a week when her friends convinced her to sing at an amateur night competition at a local club. She won first prize and a steady job, and soon she was performing on the black vaudeville circuit. She was billed as “Sweet Mama Stringbean” because she was tall and skinny.

Waters began to record blues songs at the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance in 1919, and by 1921 she was a huge star. Her single “Down Home Blues” sold more than 500,000 copies in six months, and she drew rave reviews for her Broadway appearances in two important black revues, Africana and Blackbirds of 1928. But she never lived in luxury. In fact, she gave away most of her money to Harlem's poor. “There's an old saying that charity begins at home,” she said, “and all Harlem is home to me.”

Ethel Waters career lasted much longer than the Harlem Renaissance itself. She remained a popular stage, screen, and radio actress for many years. In the early 1950s, she played the title role on the television show Beulah – the first national TV show that featured an African American as its main character. Waters also received two Academy Award nominations for her work in the movies Pinky (1938) and A Member of the Wedding (1953), and she wrote two autobiographies. She died in 1977.

• more women in music posters
• more Stars of the Harlem Renaissance posters

“Muddy” Waters
McKinley Morganfield
b. 4-4-1913; Issaquena Co., MS
d. 4-30-1983: Illinois

• The Very Best of Nancy Wilson: The Capitol Recordings 1960-1976

Mary Lou Williams, née Mary Elfrieda Scruggs
b. 5-8-1910; Atlanta, GA
d. 5-28-1981; Durham, NC (cancer)

Self taught pianist Mary Lou Williams grew up in Pennsylvania, working as early as age six to help support her large family. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded over a hundred records with such greats as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, as well as being a friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie.

• Mary Lou Williams on Culture Map poster
• Piano Lesson collage by Romare Bearden
• Live at the Keystone Korner, CD

Vanessa L. Williams
b. 3-18-1963; Millwood, NY

Actress and singer Vanessa Williams was the first woman of African American descent to win the Miss America crown (1984).

Nancy Wilson
b. 2-20-1937; Chillicothe, Ohio

• The Very Best of Nancy Wilson: The Capitol Recordings 1960-1976

Stevie Wonder
(Stevland Hardaway Morris)
b. 5-13-1950; Saginaw, MI

Stevie Wonder, who was born blind, is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Wonder signed with Motown Records at the age of eleven, has more than 30 top ten hits and won twenty-two Grammy Awards.

Lester Young
b. 8-27-1909; Woodville, MS
d. 3-15-1959; NY