African American Men (A-I)
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Eugene Earl Bostic was born in Tulsa in 1913. He was only a teenager when he became a professional musician and joined a band. In 1945 Bostic started his own band, and went on to have hit songs including “Flamingo”, “Temptation”, and “Cherokee.” Although Bostic played multiple instruments, he is most well known for playing the alto saxophone. Because of his talent, Bostic performed with and wrote music for many other great jazz and R&B musicians. His music is said to have influenced other jazz greats such as John Coltrane and Benny Golson. |
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Charlie Christian was born on July 29, 1916 in Bonham, Texas, but was raised in Oklahoma City. During his time at Douglass High School, he studied under respected teacher Zelia Breaux and eventually began playing in Oklahoma City’s “Deep Deuce.” In 1939 Christian joined the famouse Benny Goodman band and gained national attention. Christian’s talented life was cut short when he died at age of 25. Charlie Christian was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and his influence is still celebrated with Oklahoma City’s yearly Charlie Christian Jazz Festival.
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Roscoe Dunjee was born in West Virginia in 1883. His family came to Oklahoma Territory in 1892. In 1915 Dunjee founded the “Black Dispatch,” which became one of the most successful African American newspapers in the United States. Dunjee was involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Oklahoma Federation for Constitutional Rights, and was appointed to the Oklahoma Council of Defense, Negro Division during World War I. Roscoe Dunjee died in 1865, at the age of 81.
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Henry Ossian Flipper was the first African American to graduate from West Point. Flipper was born in Georgia in 1856. During his military service, Flipper was sent to Ft. Sill, which was in Indian Territory. During his time at Fort Sill, many of the soldiers were suffering from malaria. Flipper was put in charge of engineering a drainage system that would prevent the spread of the disease. This became known as “Flipper’s Ditch.” Henry Flipper’s autobiography, The Colored Cadet at West Point, tells about his life as an African American soldier on the western frontier.
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