Created by Stephen A. Maglott (1953-2016). Biographical tributes to distinguished LGBTQ/SGL people of color/African descent.

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Category Archives: June

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Paris Barclay

June 29, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Paris Barclay was born on June 30, 1956. He is two-time Emmy Award-winning American television director and producer, and was elected by his peers to serve as the first African-American and openly gay president of the prestigious Directors Guild of America. Paris K.C. Barclay was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and left his Harvey, Illinois neighborhood at the age of 14 to attend La Lumiere School, a previously all-white private, college preparatory boarding school in La Porte, Indiana. As a […]

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Jimmy Daniels

June 28, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Jimmie Daniels died on June 29, 1984. He was an acclaimed cabaret performer, actor, model, nightclub host and owner. Daniels’ music primarily included the songs of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen. He worked in New York, Paris, London and Monaco. James Lesley Daniels was born in Laredo, Texas, in 1908, but grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. In the 1920s, he left Arkansas for New York at the height of the Harlem Renaissance to attend […]

Categories: All, Daniels, Jimmie, June, June 29 • Tags: 1908, 1984, Harlem Renaissance, Jimmie Daniels, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Larry Wilson, Jr.

June 26, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Larry Wilson, Jr. was born in Salinas, California on June 26, 1977. He is a bestselling novelist, poet, professional model, HIV advocate, and community leader. He may be best known for his novels written under his pen name, Dapharoah69: The King of Erotica. He is the son of Larry Curtis Wilson, Sr., and his mother, Barbara McCray (who at the time was a government employee and who has since retired after 25 years of dedicated service). He is the second […]

Categories: All, June, June 26, Wilson, Larry • Tags: 1977, Dapharoah69, Larry Wilson, Ubuntu Biography Project

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James Craig Anderson

June 25, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

James Craig Anderson was an automobile assembly line worker, singer, life partner and father figure who was murdered in a Mississippi hate crime on June 26, 2011. Anderson was born in Holmes County, Mississippi and later moved to Jackson, where has was an active churchgoer at First Hyde Park Missionary Baptist Church and sang tenor in the church choir. For the last 18 years of life, he was partnered with James Bradfield, who had custody of a 4-year-old relative and […]

Categories: All, Anderson, James Craig, June, June 26 • Tags: 2011, James Craig Anderson, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Labi Siffre

June 24, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Labi Siffre was born on June 25, 1945. He is a British poet, songwriter, musician, and singer most widely known for “(Something Inside) So Strong,” “It Must Be Love,” and “I Got The…,” the sampled rhythm track which provides the basis for a number of well-known hip-hop tracks such as Eminem’s breakthrough hit single, “My Name Is.” Labi Siffre was born the fourth of five children, at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in Hammersmith, London to a British mother of Barbadian–Belgian descent […]

Categories: All, June, June 25, Siffre, Labi • Tags: 1945, Labi Siffre, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Rashid Darden

June 24, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Rashid Darden was born on June 25, 1979. He is a novelist, teacher, mentor, poet, and playwright. Rashid Darden is the son of two federal government employees, and attended the District of Columbia Public Schools and graduated from Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in 1997. Following high school, he enrolled at Georgetown University where he obtained his Bachelor degree in English, with a minor in Theology. While in school, Rashid was active in many cultural organizations including the Black Student Alliance and […]

Categories: All, Darden, Rashid, June, June 25 • Tags: 1979, Rashid Darden, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Rob Smith

June 24, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Rob Smith was born on June 25. He is a gay Iraq War veteran, author, and journalist. Rob Smith was born in Akron, Ohio, the son of Chrysler autoworker Robert L. Smith and Mamie D. Presley, a secretary at the offices for a local correctional facility. He is a graduate of John R. Buchtel High School who entered military service right after graduation, deployed to tours in both Kuwait and Iraq, and then went on to obtain his Bachelor of Science degree […]

Categories: All, June, June 25, Smith, Rob • Tags: June 25, Rob Smith, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Nhojj

June 23, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Nhojj was born on June 24, 1972. He is an extraordinary vocalist, composer, poet, advocate and writer who uses music, words and images to create change. His work focuses on inspiration, same gender love, and embracing oneself. Born John Martinborough, Nhojj is the son of Gordon, a church minister, and Waveney, an elementary school principal. He has two older siblings, Esther and Sam. Nhojj attended Saint Margaret’s Primary School and Saint Roses High School in Guyana, and Caribbean Union College High School […]

Categories: All, June, June 24, Nhojj • Tags: 1972, Nhojj, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Philip Shanks

June 23, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Philip Destiny Shanks was born on June 24, 1993 (to May 4, 2015). He was an aspiring journalist whose determination to live a full life filled with pride and joy moved millions to follow his journey as he battled cancer. Philip was born the last of eight biological siblings in Muskegon, Michigan, but due to his mom’s battle with mental illness, he was raised in foster care between the ages of two and six, and again from 15 to 18. […]

Categories: All, June, June 24, Shanks, Philip • Tags: 1993, Philip Shanks, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Daren J. Fleming

June 22, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Daren J. Fleming was born on this day, June 23. He is a classically trained actor, writer, and comedian whose talents have spanned theater/cabaret, film and television, and literary scenes in New York City. He starred as Terry in LOGO TV’s first original feature-film, “The Ski Trip.” Some of his theater credits include “The Hip-Hop Misanthrope,” “Julian & Romero,” and for ten years he appeared as the glamorous yet zany co-host Miss Grenadine Ross in the Off-Broadway game show, “The Ultimate Drag […]

Categories: All, Fleming, Daren J., June, June 23 • Tags: Daren J. Fleming, June 23, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Alim Mongoche

June 22, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Alim Mongoche—one of the “Yaoundé 11” who were imprisoned in Cameroon on sodomy charges in 2005—died of AIDS complications at age 30 on June 23, 2006, ten days after he was released from Kondengui Central Prison. Alim was an inspiring human rights and LGBT activist and a popular clothing designer and tailor. According to an Amnesty International report dated July 7, 2006, “the detainees were arrested at a nightclub in Yaoundé by gendarmes on 22 May 2005, along with two […]

Categories: All, June, June 23, Mongoche, Alim • Tags: 2006, Alim Mongoche, Cameroon, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Kevin Aviance

June 22, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

[Editor’s note: This biography was created using fragments of Stephen Maglott’s research and other source material] Kevin Aviance was born Eric Snead in Richmond, Virginia, on June 22, 1968. He is a popular female impressionist who performs in clubs as a dancer and a musician, and has created a line of women’s shoes. He became a member of the House of Aviance, a performance group and sponsor of House Balls in Washington DC and New York, acquiring their name in […]

Categories: All, Aviance, Kevin, June, June 22 • Tags: 1968, June 22, Kevin Aviance, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Octavia Butler

June 21, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

[Editor note: Although Octavia Butler never publicly discussed her sexuality, her biography has been reproduced here as written and published by Stephen Maglott (with minor updates), who references the ongoing discussion about how she identified.] Octavia Butler was born on June 22, 1947 (to February 24, 2006). She was a celebrated American Science Fiction author, who excelled in a genre with few African-American women. She won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer […]

Categories: All, Butler, Octavia, June, June 22 • Tags: 1947, June 22, Octavia Butler, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Jussie Smollett

June 20, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Jussie Smollett was born on June 21, 1982. He is an accomplished actor, singer and photographer born in Santa Rosa, California, to parents Joel (Jewish) and Janet (African American). Jussie came from a show business family, with several of his three brothers and two sisters involved in acting. He began his acting career with roles in “The Mighty Ducks” (1992), “North” (1994), and the TV series “On our Own” (1994). In 2012, he starred in Patrik Ian-Polk’s “The Skinny” and […]

Categories: All, June, June 21, Smollett, Jussie • Tags: June, June 21, Jussie Smollett

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Dr. Melvin Boozer

June 20, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Dr. Melvin Boozer was born on June 21, 1945 (to March 9, 1987). In the eight years between receiving his PhD in Sociology from Yale in 1979 and his death from AIDS-related complications in 1987, Dr. Melvin Boozer blazed a brilliant trail through local and national gay politics. In his brief but intense career he led the local Gay Activists Alliance, the DC office of the National Gay Task Force, and the Langston Hughes-Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club. The same year […]

Categories: All, Boozer, Melvin, June, June 21 • Tags: June, June 21, Melvin Boozer

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E. Lynn Harris

June 19, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Photo © Matthew Jordan Smith E. Lynn Harris was born on June 20, 1955 (to July 23, 2009). He was a celebrated pioneer of gay black fiction and a literary entrepreneur who rose from self-publishing to best-selling status. Everette Lynn Harris was born in Flint, Michigan, to Etta Mae Williams and James Jeter, who were unmarried. When Harris was three, he moved with his mother to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she worked as a housekeeper. She soon married Ben Odis […]

Categories: All, Harris, E. Lynn, June, June 20 • Tags: E. Lynn Harris, June, June 20

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Otis D. Harris, Jr.

June 19, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Otis D. Harris Jr. was born on June 20, 1987. He is an actor, model, entertainer, and a respected HIV/AIDS educator and activist. Otis D. Harris Jr. was born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Otis D. Harris Sr., who is also an entertainer, and his mother, LaTongia Anderson, an accomplished homemaker. Otis is the eldest of 10 siblings, and attended Woodrow Wilson High School, where he graduated in 2006. While in school, Otis was a part of a marching band, and a nominee for homecoming king and prom king; he was […]

Categories: All, Harris, Otis D., June, June 20 • Tags: June, June 20, Otis Harris

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Dr. Ian C. Barrett

June 19, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Dr. Ian C. Barrett was born on June 20, 1964. On Facebook and Twitter, he identifies himself as a Human Resource talent scout, husband, LGBTQ Black political activist, fraternity brother, and Jamaican American. He is one of the leading Human Resources professionals working in academic healthcare in the United States and a strong advocate for social justice and community service. He was born in Mandeville, Jamaica, to Aston C. Barrett, a land surveyor, and Thelma Faye Barrett, a social worker. He grew […]

Categories: All, Barrett, Dr. Ian, June, June 20 • Tags: 1964, Dr. Ian Barrett, June, June 20, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Dr. Frank Mugisha

June 17, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Dr. Frank Mugisha was born on June 17, 1979. He is a prominent advocate for the rights of sexual minorities in Uganda, a respected champion of human rights, and an anti-violence advocate. Mugisha was a 2014 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2017, was included in “Fortune” magazine’s list of the world’s greatest leaders. Frank Carlton Mugisha was born in a suburb of Kampala, Uganda, and raised in a strict Catholic family. He reportedly came out to his brother at age fourteen, which estranged […]

Categories: All, June, June 17, Mugisha, Frank • Tags: 1979, Frank Mugisha, June 17, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Dr. Leo Moore

June 11, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Dr. Leo Moore was born on June 11. He is a physician, philanthropist, and entrepreneur who is focused on helping others live their best lives. Leonard Jamison Moore was raised in Mobile, Alabama, one of nine children born to the late Lannie Moore, an electrician and general contractor, and Gwendolyn Moore, a registered nurse. He attended Dunwoody High School in Dunwoody, Georgia, where he received the Ray Kroc Award for being the most improved student. Despite the honor, Dr. Moore […]

Categories: All, June, June 11, Moore, Leo • Tags: Dr. Leo Moore, June 11, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Park Cannon

June 6, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Park Cannon was born on June 6, 1991. When she was elected as the youngest member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 2016, she was one of just four openly LGBTQ Black lawmakers in state legislatures nationwide. Park Cannon was born in Albany, Georgia, where was raised on a military base by her father, a Vietnam War veteran, and her mother, a pharmaceutical rep. Following her parents’ divorce, Cannon moved with her mother to Brooklyn, New York, where she […]

Categories: All, Cannon, Park, June, June 06 • Tags: 1991, June 6, Park Cannon, Ubuntu Biography Project

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