Those We Lost — September 28

Honoring those we lost on September 28 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Mantan Moreland

Born September 3, 1902 — died September 28, 1973

Comedian and actor.

One of the busiest Black actors of Hollywood’s studio era, Moreland’s split-second timing made him a star of the Charlie Chan films and all-Black cast comedies. Later generations debated the confined roles he was offered — while comedians from Redd Foxx onward honored the genius timing inside them.

Miles Davis

Full name: Miles Dewey Davis III

Born May 26, 1926 — died September 28, 1991

Trumpeter and restless genius of jazz.

Davis reinvented the music five times — birthing the cool, perfecting hard bop, painting Kind of Blue, unleashing fusion with Bitches Brew — and never once looked back. He remains the most influential jazz musician of the second half of the twentieth century.

Althea Gibson

Full name: Althea Neale Gibson

Born August 25, 1927 — died September 28, 2003

Tennis and golf trailblazer.

Gibson broke tennis’s color line and conquered the sport — eleven Grand Slam titles, back-to-back Wimbledon and U.S. National championships — then broke another barrier as the first Black woman in professional golf. Venus, Serena, and every player of color since walks through her door.

Constance Baker Motley

Born September 14, 1921 — died September 28, 2005

Civil rights attorney and first Black woman federal judge.

Motley wrote the original complaint in Brown v. Board of Education, won nine of ten Supreme Court arguments, walked James Meredith into Ole Miss, and opened the federal bench to Black women. The law bent toward justice because she pulled it.

Coolio

Birth name: Artis Leon Ivey Jr.

Born August 1, 1963 — died September 28, 2022

Rapper and 1990s hip-hop star.

Coolio rose from Compton to global fame with the Grammy-winning "Gangsta’s Paradise" — a meditation on fear, choices, and survival that became one of the defining rap records of its decade and carried hip-hop to every corner of the world.

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Wear the history: Miles Davis — from the Black Knowledge Wear collection.