Inductees, A-Fa

Maya Angelou

Novelist, poet, screenwriter, director

April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014

Films (as director):

  • All Day Long (1974)
  • Down in the Delta (1998)

Films (as screenwriter):

  • Georgia, Georgia (1972)
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979)
  • Sister, Sister (1982)

Prose:

  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)
  • And Still I Rise (1978)
  • The Heart of a Woman (1981)

Ruth Beckford 

Dancer, choreographer, actor

December 7, 1925 - May 8, 2019

Films (as actor):

  • Angels in the Outfield (1994)
  • The Principal (1987)
  • Street Music (1981)

Eubie Blake

Pianist, composer

February 7, 1887 - February 12, 1983

Films (as musician):

  • Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake Sing Snappy Songs (1923)
  • Pie, Pie Blackbird (1932)
  • Scott Joplin (1977)

Songs and Musicals:

  • Shuffle Along (1921)
  • "I'm Just Wild About Harry" (1921)
  • "Memories of You" (1930)

Tempestt Bledsoe

Actor

August 1, 1973 -

TV Series (as actor):

  • The Cosby Show (1984-1992)
  • The Tempestt Bledsoe Show (1995-1996)

Films (as actor)

  • Dance til' Dawn (1988)
  • Husband for Hire (2008)
  • N-Secure (2010)

Elaine Bushnell

April 21, 1919 - July 6, 2007

Widow of posthumous inductee "Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878-1949), a celebrated dancer who appeared in the following films:

  • Harlem is Heaven (1932)
  • The Little Colonel (1935)
  • The Littlest Rebel (1935)
  • One Mile from Heaven (1937)
  • Stormy Weather (1943)

Vinnette Carroll

Playwright, actor

March 11, 1922 - November 5, 2002

Films (as actor):

  • Up the Down Staircase (1967)
  • Alice's Restaurant (1969)

Theater (as playwright):

  • Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (1958)
  • The Prodigal Son (1965)
  • Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope (1972)
  • Black Nativity (1961)

Benny Carter

Jazz musician, composer

August 8, 1907 - July 12, 2003

Films (as musician):

  • Stormy Weather (1943)
  • An American in Paris (1951)
  • Clash by Night (1952)
  • Buck and the Preacher (1972)

Discography:

  • "Keep a Song in Your Soul" (1930)
  • "Symphony in Riffs" (1933)
  • "Cow-Cow Boogie" (1942)

Rosalind Cash

Actor

December 31, 1938 - October 31, 1995

Films (as actor):

  • The Omega Man (1971)
  • Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
  • Wrong Is Right (1982)
  • Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985)

TV Series (as actor):

  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1974)
  • Good Times (1976)
  • The Cosby Show (1986)

Ivan Dixon

Actor, director

April 6, 1931 - March 16, 2008

Films (as actor):

  • A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
  • Nothing But a Man (1964)
  • The Final War of Olly Winter (1967)
  • Car Wash (1976)

Films (as director)

  • Trouble Man (1972)
  • The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)

TV Series (as actor):

  • Cain's Hundred (1962)
  • Hogan's Heroes (1965-1970)

Katherine Dunham

Dancer, choreographer, activist

June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006

Films (as actor):

  • Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
  • Pardon My Sarong (1942)
  • Stormy Weather (1943)
  • Casbah (1948)
  • Mambo (1954)

Notable achievements:

  • Founder of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the first African American modern dance company
  • Developed the Dunham technique involving elements of Afro-Caribbean and African dance traditions

Lonne E. Elder III

Actor, screenwriter, playwright

December 26, 1927 - June 11, 1996

Films (as screenwriter):

  • Sounder (1972)
  • Melinda (1973)
  • Bustin' Loose (1981)

Theater (as playwright):

  • Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (1969)

Lola Falana

Actor, dancer, musician

September 11, 1942 -

Films (as actor):

  • A Man Called Adam (1966)
  • The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)
  • The Klansman (1974)
  • Lady Cocoa (1975)

Music:

  • "My Baby" (1965)

TV Series (as actor):

  • The Joey Bishop Show (1967-1969)
  • The New Bill Cosby Show (1972-1973)