Birthday Celebrations — November 13

Born on this day. These are the birthdays we celebrate on November 13 — the people whose lives added to the story of Black history.

James T. Rapier

Full name: James Thomas Rapier

Born November 13, 1837 — died May 31, 1883

Reconstruction-era congressman from Alabama.

James Rapier was born free in Alabama, educated in Canada and returned after the Civil War to organize Black labor and Republican politics. He served in the U.S. House from 1873 to 1875, where he argued for the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He was later collector of internal revenue in Montgomery.

Bennie Moten

Full name: Benjamin Moten

Born November 13, 1894 — died April 2, 1935

Kansas City jazz bandleader whose band became Count Basie’s.

Bennie Moten led the most important band in Kansas City jazz in the 1920s and early 1930s, recording for Okeh and Victor. His orchestra included Count Basie, Ben Webster, Hot Lips Page and Jimmy Rushing, and its 1932 ‘Moten Swing’ helped define the Kansas City style. After his death in 1935, Basie formed his own orchestra from its core.

Halley Harding

Full name: William Claire Halley Harding

Born November 13, 1904 — died April 1, 1967

Negro league shortstop and sportswriter who pushed to integrate the NFL.

Halley Harding played shortstop in the Negro leagues from 1926 to 1937 and later became a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Tribune. In 1946 he challenged the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission over the NFL’s ban on Black players, pressuring the Rams to sign Kenny Washington and Woody Strode.

Buck O’Neil

Full name: John Jordan ‘Buck’ O’Neil Jr.

Born November 13, 1911 — died October 6, 2006

Negro Leagues star, first Black MLB coach and Hall of Famer.

Buck O’Neil played first base for the Kansas City Monarchs, who won four straight Negro American League pennants from 1939 to 1942, and managed them from 1948, developing Ernie Banks and Elston Howard. As a Chicago Cubs scout he signed Lou Brock, and in 1962 the Cubs made him the first Black coach in Major League Baseball. He was chairman of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum when it was established in 1990 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2022.

Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid

Born November 13, 1927 — died February 26, 1985

Mathematician of probability theory and random equations.

Albert Bharucha-Reid wrote foundational work on Markov processes and random equations, publishing more than 70 papers and seven books. He earned a B.S. at Iowa State in 1949 and did graduate research at the University of Chicago but never took a doctorate. He taught at Wayne State University from 1961 to 1981 and at his death directed the Center for Computational Sciences at Atlanta University.

Hampton Hawes

Full name: Hampton Barnett Hawes Jr.

Born November 13, 1928 — died May 22, 1977

West Coast bebop pianist and memoirist.

Hampton Hawes was among the leading pianists of West Coast bebop, recording the ‘Trio’ albums for Contemporary Records in 1955. Sentenced in 1958 to ten years in prison on drug charges, he was granted clemency by President Kennedy in 1963. His memoir ‘Raise Up Off Me’ won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.

Benny Andrews

Born November 13, 1930 — died November 10, 2006

Painter and co-founder of the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition.

Benny Andrews created collaged paintings of Southern Black life and social struggle, including the ‘Bicentennial Series.’ In 1969 he co-founded the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, which protested the Metropolitan Museum’s ‘Harlem on My Mind’ exhibition and opened art programs in prisons. He directed the visual arts program of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Idris Muhammad

Full name: Idris Muhammad (born Leo Morris)

Born November 13, 1939 — died July 29, 2014

Jazz and funk drummer heard on ‘Power of Soul’.

Idris Muhammad drummed on Fats Domino’s ‘Blueberry Hill’ as a teenager and later recorded with Ahmad Jamal, Lou Donaldson and Pharoah Sanders. His solo albums ‘Power of Soul’ and ‘Turn This Mutha Out’ are heavily sampled in hip-hop. He was the drummer for the Broadway musical ‘Hair.’

Timmy Thomas

Full name: Timothy Earle Thomas

Born November 13, 1944 — died March 11, 2022

Soul singer of ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’.

Timmy Thomas recorded ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’ in 1972 using only an organ and a drum machine; it reached No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 3 on the pop chart. The song was later sampled by Drake on ‘Hotline Bling.’ He worked as a session musician in Miami.

Whoopi Goldberg

Full name: Caryn Elaine Johnson

Born November 13, 1955

EGOT-winning actress, comedian and ‘The View’ moderator.

Whoopi Goldberg won a Golden Globe for ‘The Color Purple’ (1985) and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for ‘Ghost’ (1990), the second Black woman to win an acting Oscar. She is one of the few entertainers to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. She has moderated ABC’s ‘The View’ since 2007.

Aisha Hinds

Born November 13, 1975

Actress in ‘9-1-1’ who played Fannie Lou Hamer and Harriet Tubman.

Aisha Hinds plays Henrietta ‘Hen’ Wilson on the series ‘9-1-1.’ She played Fannie Lou Hamer in the HBO film ‘All the Way’ and Harriet Tubman in WGN’s ‘Underground.’ Her other credits include ‘True Blood’ and ‘Under the Dome.’

Metta Sandiford-Artest

Full name: Metta Sandiford-Artest (born Ronald Artest)

Born November 13, 1979

NBA champion, Defensive Player of the Year and mental health advocate.

Metta Sandiford-Artest, known as Ron Artest, won the 2004 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award and the 2010 championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was suspended for the rest of the 2004-05 season after a brawl with fans in Detroit, and in 2007 he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge. He became an advocate for mental health, raffling his championship ring for charity. He played at St. John’s University.