Those We Lost — October 16

Honoring those we lost on October 16 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Benjamin Franklin Randolph

Born c. 1837 — died October 16, 1868

Minister, Union Army chaplain, educator, and South Carolina state senator

Randolph was born free and educated at Oberlin College. During the Civil War he was chaplain of the 26th U.S. Colored Troops, one of only fourteen African Americans commissioned to that post. He was a delegate to South Carolina’s 1868 constitutional convention and was elected state senator for Orangeburg County that spring. He was assassinated at Hodges Depot in Abbeville County while campaigning during the 1868 election. His killing is one of the best-known acts of political violence against Black officeholders during Reconstruction.

Victor Hugo Green

Born November 9, 1892 — died October 16, 1960

Postal carrier, travel-guide publisher, and businessman

Green was a Harlem-based mail carrier who first published The Negro Motorist Green Book in 1936. The guide listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that would serve Black travelers during segregation. He kept publishing it while working for the Postal Service, from which he retired in 1952. The Green Book remained in print until 1966, carried on after his death by his wife, Alma, and later publishers. It is now a key document of Black mobility and self-help under Jim Crow.

Art Blakey

Born October 11, 1919 — died October 16, 1990

Jazz drummer, bandleader, composer, and mentor

Blakey’s forceful polyrhythmic drumming drove hard bop, and his Jazz Messengers became a working school for generations of musicians including Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Wynton Marsalis, and Terence Blanchard. Few bandleaders combined a signature sound with such sustained mentorship. His ensembles renewed jazz repeatedly while giving young artists demanding professional experience.

Etta Jones

Born November 25, 1928 — died October 16, 2001

Jazz and blues singer

Jones recorded for more than fifty years, moved fluently among jazz standards and blues, and built a long partnership with tenor saxophonist Houston Person. Her gold-selling Don’t Go to Strangers and later Grammy-nominated recordings established her as a subtle, rhythmically flexible interpreter with emotional directness.

Anthony Chisholm

Born April 9, 1943 — died October 16, 2020

Stage, film, and television actor; U.S. Army veteran

Born in Cleveland, Chisholm served in the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War before building an acting career. He appeared on Broadway in four August Wilson plays: Two Trains Running (1992), Gem of the Ocean (2004), Radio Golf (2007), and Jitney (2017). On television he played the prisoner Burr Redding on HBO’s Oz. His Radio Golf performance earned a Tony nomination. He was one of the actors most closely associated with bringing August Wilson’s cycle of plays about twentieth-century Black life to the stage.