Birthday Celebrations — September 9

Born on this day. These are the birthdays we celebrate on September 9 — the people whose lives added to the story of Black history.

Marjorie Lee Browne

Full name: Marjorie Lee Browne

Born September 9, 1914 — died October 19, 1979

Mathematician and educator.

One of the first Black women to earn a mathematics PhD (Michigan, 1949), Browne led North Carolina Central’s math department for decades and mentored generations into the field.

Elvin Jones

Full name: Elvin Ray Jones

Born September 9, 1927 — died May 18, 2004

Jazz drummer and bandleader.

Jones’s rolling polyrhythms powered the John Coltrane Quartet and A Love Supreme, influencing virtually every drummer after him.

Sonia Sanchez

Birth name: Wilsonia Benita Driver

Born September 9, 1934

Poet, playwright, and Black Arts Movement architect.

Sanchez fused jazz rhythms, haiku, and Black speech into liberation poetry and helped pioneer the first Black studies courses in American universities.

Otis Redding

Full name: Otis Ray Redding Jr.

Born September 9, 1941 — died December 10, 1967

Singer, songwriter, and king of Southern soul.

Redding built Stax into a soul powerhouse; "(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay," recorded days before his death at 26, became the first posthumous No. 1 in American history.

Inez Foxx

Born September 9, 1942

Singer.

With her brother Charlie, Foxx turned a lullaby into the million-selling 1963 classic "Mockingbird"; some sources give her birth year as 1937.

Dee Dee Sharp

Birth name: Dione LaRue

Born September 9, 1945

Singer.

Sharp topped the charts as a teenager with "Mashed Potato Time," an early crossover triumph for Black girl pop-soul.

B.J. Armstrong

Full name: Benjamin Roy Armstrong Jr.

Born September 9, 1967

Three-time NBA champion and player agent.

A steady guard on the Bulls’ first three-peat, Armstrong became one of basketball’s most respected agents.