Nat'l Assoc. for the Preservation of African-American History & Culture

07/17/2026

Billie Holiday (1915–1959) was an American jazz singer, songwriter, actress, and an icon in American culture. Billie Holiday was born in Philadelphia to a teenage couple Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan and Clarence Holiday. As a young singer Holiday became part of the vibrant Harlem Renaissance scene, performing in nightclubs and jazz clubs. At only eighteen, she recorded her first record as part of a studio group led by Benny Goodman. Her career quickly grew as she recorded songs with Teddy Wilson and began a long partnership with Lester Young, who gave her the nickname "Lady Day." In 1938, she was invited to headline an orchestra by Artie Shaw. Holiday became the first African American woman to work with an all-white band. One of her most famous songs, “Strange Fruit” was based on a horrific and detailed account of a lynching in the South. Many scholars now consider it one of the first protest songs of the Civil Rights Movement.

03/26/2025

Dr. Mattie Moss Clark was born 100 years ago on this day in 1925. Clark attended Selma University, founded the Clark Conservatory of Music in Detroit and served as President of the International Department of Music for the Church of God in Christ from 1969 to 1994. As Director of the Southwestern Michigan State Choir, she recorded three gold albums, having released more than 35, and penned more than 100 songs, including 1959's "Going to Heaven to Meet the King." The mother of the famed Clark Sisters, Dr. Clark is the matriarch of modern gospel choir music.

03/18/2025

Efforts are currently underway to save the Historic Brevard Chapel United Methodist Church in Denver, North Carolina. Construced by formerly enslaved Christians in the 1870s, historic preservationists have been given 90 days to come up with a restoration plan for the site:

Efforts are underway to save a historic Black church from being demolished.

02/24/2025

Roberta Cleopatra Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025) was an American singer who topped the Billboard charts with the No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", and "Feel Like Makin' Love".

Flack influenced the subgenre of contemporary R&B called quiet storm, and interpreted songs by songwriters such as Leonard Cohen and members of the Beatles.

Flack was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won in 1973 and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won in 1974.

10/08/2024

Honoring legendary gospel singer Cissy Houston (September 30, 1933 – October 7, 2024).

In 1963, with the remaining members of The Drinkard Sisters, Cissy Houston formed the original lineup of The Sweet Inspirations, which provided background vocals for several artists throughout the ’60s, including Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Esther Phillips, Lou Rawls, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, The Drifters and Wilson Pickett.

She released her first solo LP, “Presenting Cissy Houston,” in 1969.

A two-time Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Houston led a successful career as a solo and performing artist, recording ten solo albums, four compilations albums, and five collaborative recordings.

As a first-call backup vocalist, she recorded and performed with a wide range of artists across multiple genres including Franklin, Bette Midler, Beyoncé, Burt Bacharach, Carly Simon, Chaka Khan, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, and her late daughter Whitney Houston, among many others.

06/13/2024

Rev. James Lawson Jr. (September 22, 1928 – June 9, 2024) was an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was expelled from Vanderbilt University for his civil rights activism in 1960, and later served as a pastor in Los Angeles for 25 years.

04/23/2024

Dubbed “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.

Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.)

She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common – they all loved her.

03/07/2024

A native of Jacksonville’s Eastside, Senator Betty S. Holzendorf (April 5, 1939 - February 29, 2024) became one of the state’s most influential political figures. Her ability to deal with controversial issues without losing focus of the goal and her willingness to fight for the disenfranchised earned her respect from all regions of Florida. She used her childhood experiences to help create economic development programs in her community and residents across Florida. Betty’s tenacity, zeal, and courage were often compared to that of Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. However, Betty had her style and was assuredly in a class of her own.

Betty began her government and political career as the city of Jacksonville’s Affirmative Action Officer and an assistant in the Office of Mayor Jake Godbold in the 1970s. She wrote her name in history when she was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, where she served from 1988 to 1992. Then, she became the first African-American woman to be elected to the Florida State Senate from Jacksonville in 1992, representing District 2, which included part of Alachua, Clay, Duval, Putnam, and St. John counties. Her platform was helping senior citizens and securing funds for education on local and collegiate levels.

In 1998, Holzendorf was named Democratic Leader Pro Tempore and Legislator of the Year. Her service to the State of Florida included several Senate committees such as banking and insurance (Vice-Chairwoman), appropriation sub-committees on education, commerce & economic opportunities, regulated industries, rules & calendar, transportation & the reapportionment sub-committee on legislative appointment and redistricting.

Betty was recognized countlessly for her dedication to education at many institutions. She was committed to raising money for all colleges and universities in the Northeast Florida area for development and scholarships for inspiring students. She was instrumental in legislation re-establishing the Florida A&M University College of Law. Her unwavering support of FAMU resulted in her being honored with the President’s Award (1990), the Meritorious Achievement Award (1994), and the Honorary Alumna for Florida A&M University.

During her tenure in the legislature, she was also a significant advocate for the University of North Florida (UNF). She was instrumental in securing funds for the University Center, the Science and Engineering Building, the Fine Arts Center, and the expansion and renovation of the Thomas C. Carpenter Library. She continued to seek funding throughout her legislative career.

01/04/2024

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (December 3, 1934 - December 31, 2023) was a trailblazing healthcare administrator and elected official. The first African-American woman elected to public office from Dallas, Texas, she served as a State Representative and State Senator in the Texas Legislature before being elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1993. A fair housing advocate, she sponsored a bill to empower city governments to repair substandard housing at landlords' expense, and wrote a bill to enforce prohibitions against housing discrimination. In 2023, she retired from Congress and was succeeded by U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

01/11/2023

Zora Neale Hurston's Home in St. Augustine is for sale:

Historians hope it can be saved from the bulldozer. It's one of the few standing buildings in Florida where Zora Neale Hurston lived.