The New Mexico Black Leadership Council says goodbye to Black icons who passed in 2020 and have now become ancestors.
This has been a year of many losses. Black icons who passed in 2020 include civil rights giants, sports legends, a mathematician who helped launch us into space, and our very own superhero. The Coronavirus ravaging the globe took some of our Black icons too early. As we prepare to send this year into antiquity, we bid farewell to those who inspired us, changed our world, and made our existence brighter.
Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers Basketball Star
January 26, 2020, Age 41, Helicopter Crash
The Lakers legend and his daughter Gianna died along with seven other passengers in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. The news hit just hours before the airing of the 2020 Grammy awards, shrouding the ceremony in a pall of surreal sorrow and inspiring last minute tributes by Lizzo, Alicia Keys, and Boyz II Men. The 6-foot-6 guard made his pro debut in the 1996-97 season opener against Minnesota; at the time he was the youngest player to appear in an NBA game. Bryant and leading scorer Shaquille O’Neal quickly morphed into one of the most lethal scoring and defensive combinations in the league. Bryant retired in 2016 as a two-time Olympic gold medalist .
“Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act.”
— Barack Obama
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7zSTQXFcHI/
B. Smith, Model and TV Host
February 22, 2020, Age 70, Alzheimer’s
B. Smith started off as one of the country’s first high-profile black models, becoming the second black model on the cover of Mademoiselle magazine in 1976. She went on to host a lifestyle show, “B. Smith With Style,” and was often dubbed the “Black Martha Stewart.”
“I’ve climbed a mountain of no’s to get one yes,” B. Smith once said.
She owned three restaurants and authored three cookbooks. Her loss was mourned by celebrities such as Viola Davis, Ava DuVernay, and Gabrielle Union.
“So supportive and so damn fly… she is, was, and forever will be an ICON”
— Gabrielle Union
Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician
February 24, 2020, Age 101, Natural Causes
Many people never heard of Katherine Johnson until Taraji P. Henson portrayed her in the 2016 hit movie Hidden Figures. Her calculations were critical to the success of the Apollo 11 moon landing. As one of a group of highly skilled mathematicians at NASA in the 1960s, Ms. Johnson and her cohorts were subjected to double segregation. As Black women, they were relegated to separate rooms and restrooms from their white female counterparts, who were in turn segregated from the male mathematicians and engineers.
A brilliant math student from youth, Johnson graduated summa cum laude with a double major in mathematics and French. In 1940, she became one of three black graduate students to integrate the all-white West Virginia University. She joined the NASA Flight Division in the early 1950’s and became part of the agency’s effort to put an astronaut into space.
In 1962, a few days before he was to orbit the Earth, John Glenn asked that Ms. Johnson, a flesh and blood human, double-check the orbital trajectory that had been calculated by a computer.
“If she says the numbers are good, I’m ready to go.”
— John Glenn, American Astronaut
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/science/katherine-johnson-dead.html
Barbara Neely, Novelist
March 2, 2020, Age 78, Illness
Her first book, Blanche on the Lam, won the Agatha Award, Anthony Award, and the Macavity Award for best first novel, which are three of the top literary prizes for mysteries and the Go on Girl! Award from Black Women’s Reading Club. As a social activist, she was director of Women for Economic Justice, a welfare reform advocacy group. She also taught prison inmates and fought violence against women. Her most well-known literary character, Blanche White, was a black maid who solved murders under cover of her invisible social status. Last December, she was named the Mystery Writers of America’s 2020 Grand Master.
“For all the chatelaine fantasies of some of the women for whom she worked, she really was her own boss, and her clients knew it. She ordered her employers’ lives, not the other way around.”
— Barbara Neely, Blanche on the Lam
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers-issue.html?issue=901#m15793
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/books/barbara-neely-dead.html
Reverend Joseph Lowery, Civil Rights Leader
March 27, 2020, Age 98, Natural Causes
Reverend Lowery was a figure in several pivotal events during the Civil Rights Movement. He helped coordinate the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, and led the delegation that delivered demands to segregationist Governor George Wallace in the 1965 voting rights march. He co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and stayed at the helm for two decades, restoring its financial health and pressuring businesses to boycott South Africa’s apartheid era regime. He was a staunch advocate for equal access to housing, employment, and healthcare. In his retirement, Lowery stayed at the forefront of social debates, being among the first old-guard civil rights figures to advocate for LGBTQ rights. Despite his life long fight for voting rights, he never imagined he would live to see a Black President of the United States.
In 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.
“I’ve never felt your ministry should be totally devoted to making a heavenly home. I thought it should also be devoted to making your home here heavenly.”
—Rev. Joseph Lowery
Bill Withers, R&B Singer-Songwriter
March 30, 2020 Age 81, Heart Complications
The three-time Grammy Award winner Bill Withers created gorgeous melodies, delivered with a voice that sounds like a sunny day and the promise of summer. His ability to convey complex emotions in a deceptively simple way has made him omnipresent in all things involving the range of human experience, from birthdays to weddings to heartbreak. His soulful songs such as “Lovely Day” and “Ain’t No Sunshine” are eternal, and the classic “Lean On Me” has been a source of solace and inspiration during the coronavirus pandemic, with health care workers, choirs, artists and more posting their own renditions of “Lean on Me” to help get through.
“Bill Withers is the closest thing black people have to a Bruce Springsteen.”
— Questlove to Rolling Stone
Ellis Marsalis, Jazz Musician
April 1, 2020, Age 85, Complications from Coronavirus
As the father of Wynton and Branford Marsalis, pianist Ellis Marsalis was the patriarch of a highly musical family. His music students included Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, Harry Connick Jr. and four of his sons: Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis. He taught at the first full-time public arts high school in New Orleans, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He also had a standing gig at Snug Harbor in New Orleans up until his retirement a few months before he died.
“Like many parents, he sacrificed for us and made so much possible. Not only material things, but things of substance and beauty like the ability to hear complicated music and to read books; to see and to contemplate art; to be philosophical and kind, but to also understand that a time and place may require a pugilistic-minded expression of ignorance.”
—Wynton Marsalis
Little Richard, Musician, Rock and Roll Pioneer
May 9, 2020, Age 87, Bone Cancer
Born Richard Wayne Penniman, the singer & piano player cut a number of hits that set the template for rock ‘n’ roll: “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Lucille,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly.” LIttle Richard came up with the iconic “a wop bob alu bob a wop bam boom” chorus while washing dishes at a Greyhound bus station in Macon, GA. His influence reaches musicians from Elton John to the Beatles to the Rolling Stones to Prince. Fellow rock icon Jerry Lee Lewis said in a statement following the news of Richard’s death: “He will live on always in my heart with his amazing talent and his friendship! He was one of a kind and I will miss him dearly.”
Lucky Peterson, Blues Musician
May 17, 2020, Age 55, Brain Hemorrhage
Master of the blues guitar, mentored by Willie Dixon, he recorded his first record when he was only five years old and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at the age of six. During his 50 year career as a professional musician, he toured and recorded such greats as Etta James, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Little Milton.
https://www.rockandbluesmuse.com/2020/05/17/american-blues-legend-lucky-peterson-dies-at-55/
Jimmy Cobb, Jazz Drummer
May 24, 2020, Age 91, Lung Cancer
Jimmy Cobb was the last surviving member of Miles Davis’ First Great Sextet. His playing on “Kind of Blue” contributed to its iconic status and undeniable bounce. He also played on canonical Davis albums like Sketches of Spain and In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk. Cobb accompanied high profile acts such as Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington before joining forces with Miles Davis in the late 1950s.
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/25/845814061/jimmy-cobb-the-pulse-of-kind-of-blue-dies-at-91
C.T. Vivian, Civil Rights Leader
July 17, 2020, Age 95, Natural Causes
Rep. John Lewis, Congressman, Civil Rights Leader
July 17, 2020, Age 80, Pancreatic Cancer
On Friday, July 17, 2020, we lost two civil rights icons: Rev. C.T. Vivian and Congressman John Lewis. The proximity of their passing brings to light the startling correlation and commonalities between these two leaders and activists.
Both men were inspired by hearing Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and were galvanized to join the nonviolent civil rights movement of the ‘60s. They attended American Baptist College in Nashville, and Rev. Vivian became a minister.
Vivian was a field general for King and later became the national director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Lewis founded and led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
They were warriors in the fight for racial equality, getting arrested and suffering blows and wounds multiple times over the course of their lives. They were beaten and spit on during freedom rides and lunch counter sit-ins. Vivian was punched in the face by Sheriff Clark outside the Selma courthouse during a voting rights drive. Lewis’s skull was cracked when he was struck by an Alabama state trooper at the March on Selma. Vivian was almost killed in St. Augustine during a peaceful protest. Lewis was left unconscious in a pool of his own blood outside the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Montgomery after an attack by hundreds of white people.
Vivian helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, and Lewis was one of the speakers.
Vivian received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2013. Lewis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2011.
“I am going to fight it and keep fighting for the Beloved Community. We still have many bridges to cross.”
— John Lewis
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/obituaries/ct-vivian-dead.html
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/19/890796423/civil-rights-leader-john-lewis-never-gave-up-or-gave-in
Lady Red, Drag Queen and Talk Show Host
July 25, 2020, Age 43, Complications from Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome
Though Lady Red was not chosen for Ru Paul’s Drag Race, her impact was unforgettable. She was selected to co-host the talk show “Hey Qween!” which rose in parallel with “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” A self-described transgender woman, other young drag performers looked up to her, earning her the nickname “Mother Hen.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/arts/lady-red-couture-dead.html
Charles Evers, Civil Rights Activist, Older Brother to Medgar Evers
July 22, 2020, Age 97, Natural Causes
Charles Evers was very different from his brother Medgar. He was a small time numbers runner and bootlegger who got run out of Mississippi to continue operations in Chicago. It all changed when his civil rights activist brother was assassinated. Charles Evers quit the rackets and replaced Medgar as the Mississippi field director of the N.A.A.C.P. He went on to change the racial face of politics in the state by leading Mississippi’s first integrated delegation to the Democratic National Convention and becoming the state’s first Black mayor since Reconstruction.
“Had he been born another color or in a more rational age, Charles Evers might have become a celebrated tycoon. He has a star salesman’s glibness, a trailblazer’s tenacity and the chutzpah of a P.T. Barnum.”
—Ellis Cose, Journalist and Author
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/charles-evers-dead.html
Malik B., Musician and Rapper
July 29, 2020, Age 47, Cause Unknown
Malik Abdul-Basit was best known as Malik B., an early member of The Roots. He joined Questlove and Black Thought in the early 1990s and worked on the first four albums. His final album as a member of The Roots, Things Fall Apart, was a high mark for the band, earning a Grammy for “You Got Me” and selling over 1 million in the U.S.
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/896769916/malik-b-early-member-of-the-roots-dies-at-age-47
Randall Kenan, Writer
August 28, 2020, Age 57, Cause Unknown
Randall Kenan’s award-winning fiction blended myth and magic, set in a small Southern town similar to the one he grew up in. He died just three weeks before his short story collection, “If I Had Two Wings,” was selected as one of 10 nominees for the National Book Award for fiction. He won the 1992 Lambda Literary Award for gay fiction. His other honors include a Guggenheim fellowship; a Whiting Award for emerging writers, in 1994; and, in 2002, the John Dos Passos Prize, given by Longwood University in Virginia.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/books/randall-kenan-dead.html
Chadwick Boseman, Actor and Movie Star
August 28, 2020, Age 43, Colon Cancer
The news came on a Friday night in August that Chadwick Boseman, iconic for his role as King T’Challa aka Black Panther, died after a four-year battle with cancer. The profound shock and sorrow that followed came not only from him being so young and in the peak of his career, but also because very few people knew he had cancer to begin with. His regal performance in Black Panther, a movie that had sold-out premieres and attendees showing up in theaters dressed in African garb, was filmed after his diagnosis. Boseman worked on several other films while privately undergoing severe health struggles, including two more Avengers movies and Spike Lee’s Da Five Bloods. He was lauded by many co-stars and industry colleagues for his down to earth generosity and impeccable work ethic. (Read our interview with a local Black entrepreneur who was so moved by Chadwick’s death, she created a jewelry line in his honor.)
“He was an artist. Someone who was willing to leave his vanity, his ego, everything at the door, and serve the character. He was absolutely one hundred percent a joy to work with,” said actress and co-star Viola Davis.
For his final on screen performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (just released on Netflix), he actually learned to play the trumpet.
“You can get a lot of actors working out to fit into a role. Yeah, they’re all into that. But to take the time to learn how to play the damn trumpet, get the fingerings right, that’s crazy.”
— Branford Marsalis on Chadwick Boseman’s dedication
John Thompson, Basketball Coach
August 30, 2020, Age 78, Cause Unknown
John Thompson was the first Black coach to win an NCAA championship, and architect of the Georgetown Hoya’s men’s basketball team. Thompson recruited and mentored some of the most influential players of our time, including Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Patrick Ewing, and Allen Iverson—all of whom were selected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He finished his career with 596 NCAA wins.
https://www.theroot.com/larger-than-life-georgetown-basketball-coach-john-tho-1844903052
Toots Hibbert, Reggae Musician
September 11, 2020, Age 77, Complications from Coronavirus
Frederick “Toots” Hibbert was the lead singer and songwriter of Toots and the Maytals and one of reggae’s foundational figures. His versions of “I Can’t Stand the Rain” by Ann Peebles and “Country Road” by John Denver are beloved. He won the 2005 Grammy for best reggae album for True Love. He was considered a national treasure in Jamaica and conferred with the country’s fifth highest honor in 2012. On Aug. 28, 2020, Hibbert released the final album of his career, Got To Be Tough. Two days after its release, he was admitted to the hospital in Kingston.
Stanley Crouch, Jazz Critic
September 16, 2020, Age 74, Health complications including Coronavirus
Stanly Crouch was a sometimes controversial yet always passionate critic of and writer on jazz music. Wynton Marsalis studied the texts of Stanley Crouch the way he did the music of Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong. Crouch’s many honors included a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant and a NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. He was one of the more prominent guest speakers on the definitive Ken Burns PBS series Jazz.
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/16/913619163/stanley-crouch-towering-jazz-critic-dead-at-74
Gale Sayers, “Kansas Comet,” NFL Football Player
September 23, 2020, Age 77, Complications from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
Known as the “Kansas Comet,” Sayers was the youngest athlete to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977. He is described as one of the best running backs of all time and an extraordinary man who overcame great adversity in his career and in life. Sayers’s fame went outside the football field due to the Emmy Award-winning 1971 television movie “Brian’s Song,” which was based on his friendship with teammate Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer at 26.
“Sayers is the greatest halfback I ever saw.” —Ernie Accorsi, NFL Team Manager
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/sports/football/gale-sayers-dead.html
Johnny Nash, Singer-songwriter
October 6, 2020, Age 80, Natural Causes
Singer-songwriter and actor Johnny Nash was best known for his hit song “I Can See Clearly Now.” The song sold more than a million copies and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. It remained number one for four weeks.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/entertainment/johnny-nash-death/index.html
Lucille Bridges, Mother of Civil Rights Activist Ruby Bridges
November 10, 2020, Age 86, Cancer
Lucille Bridges walked with her then 6-year-old daughter past crowds of people screaming racial slurs as Ruby became the first Black student to integrate her all-white elementary school in 1960.
“Today our country lost a hero. Brave, progressive, a champion for change. She helped alter the course of so many lives by setting me out on my path as a six year old little girl. Our nation lost a Mother of the Civil Rights Movement today. And I lost my mom. I love you and am grateful for you. May you Rest In Peace.”
—Ruby Bridges
https://www.instagram.com/p/CHgFoPrLF7M/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
David Dinkins, New York’s First Black Mayor
November 23, 2020, Age 93, Natural Causes
A barber’s son, David Dinkins became New York City’s first Black mayor in 1989. During a time when the city was racked with racial strife and violent crimes, Dinkins easily beat his incumbent in the primary and opponent Rudolph Giuliani in the November election. He lasted for one term. Due in part to his handling of the Crown Heights riots, voters favored Giuliani in the next election.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/nyregion/david-dinkins-dead.html
Charley Pride, Country Musician
December 12, 2020, Age 86, Complications from Coronavirus
Though other Black country musicians preceded him, Charley Pride was country music’s first Black superstar. In 1971, just four years after releasing his first hit record “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin,” he won the Country Music Association’s entertainer of the year award — the genre’s highest honor.
He scored 52 Top 10 country hits, including 29 Number Ones, and was the first African-American performer to appear on the Grand Ole Opry stage since Deford Bailey made his debut in the 1920s. In 2000, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Just a month before his death, he was awarded the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at the CMAs. On a sobering note, he contracted Coronavirus after performing at the CMAs. Unlike other recent awards shows, the CMAs contained an in person audience, most of whom were not wearing masks.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/charley-pride-dead-obit-192455/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/arts/music/charley-pride-country-race-covid-19.html
Stanley Cowell, Jazz Pianist
December 17, 2020, Age 79, Hypovolemic Shock
Jazz pianist Stanley Cowell worked with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, and Roy Haynes. His first album, released in 1969, contains elements of black history and pride. His 2015 album, “Juneteenth” featured original pieces inspired by the African-American struggle for empowerment and freedom.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/arts/music/stanley-cowell-dead.html