1922

Dorothy Dandridge, in full Dorothy Jean Dandridge (b. November 9, 1922, Cleveland, Ohio - d. September 8, 1965, West Hollywood, California), was a singer and film actress who was the first African American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for best actress.

Dandridge's mother was an entertainer and comedic actress who, after settling in Los Angeles, had some success in radio and. later, television.  The young Dorothy and her sister Vivian began performing publicly as children and in the 1930s joined a third (unrelated) girl as the Dandridge Sisters, singing and dancing.  In the 1940s and early '50s Dorothy secured a few bit roles in films and developed a highly successful career as a solo nightclub singer, eventually appearing in such popular clubs as the Waldorf Astoria's Empire Room in New York City.

Dandridge then won the title role in Otto Preminger's all-black Carmen Jones (1954), earning an Oscar nomination for best actress.  (Dandridge did not sing in Carmen Jones, however, the singing was dubbed by mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne.)  Because she was an African American woman in a racially tense era, film offers did not come readily, though she did appear in Island in the Sun (1957), which dealt with miscegenation and costarred Harry Belafonte, as well as in The Decks Ran Red (1958), Tamango 1959), and Moment of Danger (1960).  One of her most important roles was Bess  in Preminger's handsomely produced Porgy and Bess (1959), starring opposite Sidney Poitier.  

In the 1960's, Dandridge's life and career were wracked by divorce, personal bankruptcy, and the absence of offers of work.  At age 42, she was found dead in her West Hollywood apartment, either the victim of an accidental drug overdose or a brain embolism. 

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Ruby Dee, byname of Ruby Ann Wallace   (b. October 27, 1922, Cleveland, Ohio,  - d. June 11, 2014, New Rochelle, New York), was an American actress and social activist who was known for her pioneering work in African American theatre and film and for her outspoken civil rights activism. Dee’s artistic partnership with her husband, Ossie Davis, was considered one of the theatre and film world’s most distinguished.

After completing her studies at Hunter College in Manhattan, Dee served an apprenticeship with the American Negro Theatre and began appearing on Broadway. She met Davis on the set of the play Jeb and married him in 1948. She often appeared with her husband in plays, films, and television shows over the next 50 years. Among Davis and Dee’s most notable joint stage appearances were those in A Raisin in the Sun (1959; Dee also starred in the film version in 1961) and the satiric Purlie Victorious (1961), which Davis wrote; Davis and Dee also appeared in the film version of the latter (Gone Are the Days, 1963). The couple acted in several movies by director Spike Lee, including Do the Right Thing (1989) and Jungle Fever (1991). Among their television credits are Roots: The Next Generation (1978), Martin Luther King: The Dream and the Drum (1986), and The Stand (1994). The couple’s partnership extended into their activism as well; they served as master and mistress of ceremonies for the 1963 March on Washington, which they had helped organize.

Dee continued to act into the early 21st century, and her later films include The Way Back Home (2006) and American Gangster (2007). Her performance as the mother of a drug kingpin (played by Denzel Washington) in the latter film earned Dee her first Academy Award nomination. She also appeared in numerous television productions, notably Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005), an adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's novel. In addition to her acting, Dee authored several books. Dee and Davis were jointly awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1995 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2004.

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Frank Wellington Wess (January 4, 1922 – October 30, 2013) was an American jazz saxophonist and flautist. 

Wess was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of a school principal father and a schoolteacher mother. He began with classical music training and played in Oklahoma in high school. He later switched to jazz upon moving to Washington, D. C., and by nineteen was working with Big Bands. His career was interrupted during World War II although he did play with a military band during the period. After leaving the military, he joined Billy Eckstine's orchestra.  He returned to Washington, D. C. a few years afterwards and received a degree in flute at the city's Modern School Of Music. From 1953 on, he joined Count Basie's band, playing flute and tenor sax. He reverted to alto sax in the late 1950s, and left Basie's band in 1964. From 1959 to 1964 he won Down Beat's critic poll for flute.

He was a member of Clark Terry's big band from 1967 into the 1970s and played in the New York Jazz Quartet (with Roland Hanna).  He also did a variety of work for TV. In 1968 Wess contributed to the landmark album The Jazz Composer's Orchestra. 

In the 1980s and 1990s, Wess worked with Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid, Buck Clayton, Benny Carter, Billy Taylor, Harry Edison, Mel Torme, Ernestine Anderson, Louie Bellson, John Pizzarelli, Howard Alden, Dick Hyman, Jane Jarvis, Frank Vignola and was a featured member of the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra.   In the 2000s, Wess released two albums with Hank Jones. In 2007, Wess was named an NEA Jazz Master by the United States National Endowment for the Arts.  

Frank Wess died from a heart attack related to kidney failure on October 30, 2013.

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The Americas

Canada

Lincoln MacCauley Alexander (January 21, 1922, Toronto, Ontario, Canada – October 19, 2012) was a Canadian politician and statesman who served as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, the federal Minister of Labour, and later as the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, from 1985 to 1991. Alexander was also a governor of the Canadian Unity Council.

Alexander was born in a row house on Draper Street in Toronto, Ontario, to Mae Rose, who migrated from Jamaica, and Lincoln Alexander, Sr., a porter on the Canadian Pacific Railway who came to Canada from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Alexander went to Earl Grey Public and Riverdale Collegiate.  As a teen Alexander moved to Harlem with his older half-brother Ridley and his mother after she was the victim of a violent altercation with his father. In New York he went to DeWitt Clinton High School, but returned to Canada in 1939. He first distinguished himself in service to Canada in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. After the war, Alexander completed his studies at Hamilton Central Collegiate and then to McMaster University in 1946 to study economics and history. Alexander graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto in 1953. He then practiced law in Hamilton with the firms Okuloski & Okuloski; Duncan & Alexander; and Millar, Alexander, Tokiwa & Issacs.

In 1968, Alexander ran in the Canadian federal election as the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada candidate in the Hamilton West electoral district.  He won, becoming Canada's first Member of Parliament of African descent.He held the seat through four successive elections until stepping down in 1980.

While in office, he spoke to the press about then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's alleged profanity in the fuddle duddle incident and was an observer to the United Nations in 1976 and 1978. In the brief government headed by Joe Clark from 1979 to 1980, Alexander served as Minister of Labour. He resigned his seat in 1980 to serve as chairman of the Ontario Workers' Compensation Board. 

In 1985, on the advice of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Governor Jeanne Sauve appointed Alexander as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. He became the first person of African descent to serve in a viceregal position in Canada. (James Douglas, who was of mixed descent, was Governor of Vancouver Island and of British Columbia prior to Canadian Confederation when these were British colonies with no connection to the Canadas.) During his appointment, he focused attention on education, racism and youth issues.

In 1992, Alexander was appointed to the Order of Ontario. He also became a Companion of the Order of Canada.  From 1991 to 2007, he served as Chancellor of the University of Guelph.  His term exceeded that of any of his predecessors, and he assumed the office of Chancellor Emeritus.

In 2000, Alexander was named Chair of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, where he remained an active spokesman on race relations and veterans' issues. Until the time of his death, he was the Honorary Patron of the Hamilton, Ontario branch of St. John Ambulance, as well as Honorary Chief of the Hamilton Police Service. 

In November 2006, his autobiography Go to School, You're a Little Black Boy: The Honourable Lincoln M. Alexander: A Memoir was published.

Alexander died in his sleep on the morning of October 19, 2012, at the age of 90. The national and provincial flags outside the Ontario Legislative Building were flown at half-mast and tributes were given by various viceroys and politicians. His body lay in state, first inside the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen's Park, followed by Hamilton City Hall. He was survived by his second-wife Marni Beal and by his son Keith Lincoln Alexander (from his marriage to his first wife Yvonne Harrison (predeceased in 1999)) and by his daughter-in-law Joyce Alexander and grandchildren Erika and Marissa Alexander.

Alexander was accorded a state funeral with the co-operation of thousands of officials, both Provincial and Federal, and Police Services across Canada. The Province of Ontario proclaimed January 21. as Lincoln Alexander Day in Ontario. It became law in December 2013. As of December 3, 2014, Lincoln Alexander Day January 21, Lincoln's birthday, is now recognized officially as Lincoln Alexander Day across Canada, with Royal Assent by the Governor General December 9, 2014.

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Leon Bibb (February 7, 1922 – October 23, 2015) was an American folk singer and actor who grew up in Kentucky, studied voice in New York, and worked on Broadway.  His career began when he became a featured soloist of the Louisville Municipal College glee club as a student. He lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, after 1969.

Bibb was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and was one of the performers at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959.  He also had his own NBC television talk show. During the late-1950s and early-1960s, Bibb was one of a number of American entertainers, such as his good friend Paul Robeson, who were blacklisted for alleged ties to left-wing groups and causes. 

Bibb became involved in the civil rights movement early on, taking part in voter-registration drives in the South and performing at the 1963 March on Washington.  Bibb traveled to Mississippi to join Dick Gregory and others in the fight against racial segregation in the United States. In 1965, he performed in front of the statehouse in Montgomery with Joan Baez, Oscar Brand and Harry Belafonte, whom he had known since their acting days at the American Negro Theater in Harlem.

In addition to his civil rights activism, Bibb continued to perform, and around 1963–64 he was featured singing on the national TV show, Hootenanny, on The Ed Sullivan Show and performed with Bill Cosby on tours.  Bibb also provided the soundtrack to Luis Bunuel's 1960 film The Young One. His a cappella vocals blend his classical, spiritual and blues influences.

While on tour with the revue “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” Bibb became enchanted with Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and moved there in the early 1970s. For the next 40 years he performed frequently in Canada and the United States. In 2009, Bibb was made a Member of the Order of British Columbia. At the time of receiving this honor, at the age of 87, Bibb was still an active performer.

Leon Bibb died on October 23, 2015.   His two marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter Dorie and his son, Eric, a singer and musician, he was survived by his partner, Christine Anton; another daughter, Amy Bibb-Ford; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. He was the father of the Helsinki, Finland-based acoustic singer/songwriter Eric Bibb, and grandfather of Swedish dancer and performer Rennie Mirro.