Everybody loves the sunshine. Rest in peace to Roy Edward Ayers, Jr. He was born in Los Angeles, CA on September 10, 1940. He comes by his affinity with music naturally, as his mother Ruby Ayers was a schoolteacher and local piano instructor and his father Roy Sr., a sometimes-parking attendant and trombonist. Roy began at first study independently, then eventually discovered that Bobby Hutcherson, a rising vibraphonist, lived in his neighborhood, and subsequently he began to work under Bobby’s tutelage. Their relationships as friends and musicians blossomed, with regular meetings between the two to collaborate and practice. By 1961 Roy had become a well-rounded, full-fledged professional musician. Eventually, evolving into a composer and arranger as well as a greatly sought after performer, met and developed a relationship with one of the jazz world’s leading authors and producers. The lifeline of his music continued through his music being sampled, but also studio collaborations with new generations of musicians like Alicia Keys, The Roots, Gang Starr's Guru and Tyler, The Creator. In a quote from his family it was announced that he passed away March 4th, 2025, “It is with great sadness that the family of legendary vibraphonist, composer and producer Roy Ayers announce his passing which occurred on March 4th, 2025 in New York City after a long illness…He lived a beautiful 84 years and will be sorely missed. His family ask that you respect their privacy at this time, a celebration of Roy’s life will be forthcoming.” Peace to Roy Ayers, @royayerssunshine.
Black History 365 | # 201 Angie Stone
Rest in peace to Angie Stone, born Angela Laverne Brown on 18 December 1961 in Columbia, SC Angie Stone was a Grammy Award-nominated artist. Stone's music possessed a clear old school soul music influence. Fun fact, she started off as a rapper actually, Angie B in the group The Sequence. Still very young but also very ambitious, Stone was ultimately looking for something more. “Rap was just starting to break into the mainstream at that time, and everyone was grabbing onto it,” she recalls. “But I knew early on that I didn’t want to be a rapper all my life, because I had been a singer up to that point.” She tragically died in a car crash on the Interstate 65 in Alabama, March 1st 2025. She lived to be 63 years old. Thank you for your contributions.
Black History 365 | # 200 Thomas Sankara
Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara is one of the most iconic leaders in African history. As the President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987, Sankara spearheaded one of the most ambitious socio-economic and anti-imperialist programs on the continent, prioritizing self-reliance, equality, and dignity for all. Known for his visionary policies, Sankara remains a symbol of resistance against neo-colonialism. Sankara was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary and pan-Africanist theorist. Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is commonly referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara.” During the course of his presidency, Sankara successfully implemented programs that vastly reduced infant mortality, increased literacy rates and school attendance, and boosted the number of women holding governmental posts. On the environmental front, in the first year of his presidency alone 10 million trees were planted in an effort to combat desertification. On the localized level Sankara also called on every village to build a medical dispensary and had over 350 communities construct schools with their own labour. Moreover, his commitment to women’s rights led him to outlaw female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy, while appointing women to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant. In order to achieve this radical transformation of society, he increasingly exerted authoritarian control over the nation, eventually banning unions and a free press, which he believed could stand in the way of his plans. His revolutionary programs for African self-reliance made him an icon to many of Africa’s poor, but an enemy of the rich. As a result, he was overthrown and assassinated in a coup d’état led by Blaise Compaoré on October 15, 1987. A week before his murder, he declared: “While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.”
Black History 365 | # 199 Dorie Miller
This is Doris Miller. Doris Miller was born in Waco, Texas, on 12 October 1919. He had to drop out of school to help support his family, working as a cook to supplement the family income during the Great Depression. In 1939, just before his 20th birthday, he enlisted in the United States Navy, and after training in Norfolk, Virginia, Miller became a Mess Attendant, one of the few positions open to African Americans in the Navy. Eventually, Miller was assigned to the U.S.S. West Virginia, a battleship, in January 1940. Seen as "only" a lower-ranking enlisted Black sailor, his superiors likely did not know that his upbringing in Texas as an excellent marksman. On Sunday 7 December 1941, Mess Attendant Third Class Doris Miller was retrieving laundry when the Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. He arrived on deck, where he encountered his mortally wounded commanding officer and carried him to safety. He proceeded to one of the machine guns and although black sailors never received training on the anti-aircraft guns, he opened fire on the Japanese planes overhead. After the gun ran out of ammunition, Miller assisted in evacuating sailors after the order to abandon ship and was one of the last three men to leave the vessel as it sank. Even after leaving the ship, he helped numerous sailors to safety, by physically carrying them. In a list the Navy issued during the following January of those to be lauded for their bravery at Pearl Harbor, the Navy mentioned a Black sailor -- Miller -- without explicitly identifying him. The NAACP pushed the Navy to honor Miller, eventually leading to the Navy awarding the sailor for his heroic acts. After his tour in the United States, Miller returned to active duty and was presumed killed in action at the Battle of Makin in the Pacific in November 1943, at the age of 22. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. Woy.
Black History 365 | # 198 Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston, a writer and folklorist, she is a product of The Harlem Renaissance, born in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. She attended Howard University from 1921 to 1924 and in 1925 won a scholarship to Barnard College, where she studied anthropology under Franz Boas, a German American anthropologist who is known as the father of American Anthropology. She graduated from Barnard in 1928 and for two years pursued graduate studies in anthropology at Columbia University. She also conducted field studies in folklore among African Americans in the South. Her trips were funded by folklorist Charlotte Mason, who was a patron to both Hurston and Langston Hughes. She would soon become a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best remembered for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. She would make several trips to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their stories. She studied her own people, an unusual practice at the time, and during her lifetime became known as the foremost authority on Black folklore. Much appreciations to her and her legacy!