Those We Lost — November 10

Honoring those we lost on November 10 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Lott Cary

Born 1780 — died November 10, 1828

Born enslaved; Baptist missionary and a founder of Liberia

Lott Cary, born enslaved about 1780, most likely in Charles City County, Virginia, bought freedom for himself and his two children with $850 he had saved, became a Baptist preacher, and in 1821 sailed for West Africa. He and his congregation organized Providence Baptist Church in Monrovia, the settlers twice elected him vice agent, and in 1828 he led the colony. He died on November 10, 1828, two days after an accidental gunpowder explosion.

Joshua Halsey

Born c. 1858 — died November 10, 1898

Victim of the 1898 Wilmington massacre

Joshua Halsey, a deaf Black man about 40, was shot and killed outside his home on November 10, 1898, as armed white supremacists overthrew Wilmington’s elected biracial government and killed an unknown number of Black residents. He was buried in an unmarked grave at Pine Forest Cemetery; researchers located it in 2021, and city and county leaders arranged a funeral for him 123 years after his death.

Ida Cox

Born February 25, 1894 — died November 10, 1967

Classic blues singer, ‘Uncrowned Queen of the Blues’

Ida Cox of Toccoa, Georgia, ran away with a minstrel show as a girl and recorded 78 songs for Paramount in the 1920s, including her own ‘Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues’, then toured with her own revue and sang at John Hammond’s 1939 Spirituals to Swing concert. A stroke ended her career in 1945 except for a final 1961 album. She died of cancer in Knoxville on November 10, 1967.

Carmen McRae

Born April 8, 1920 — died November 10, 1994

Jazz singer and pianist

Carmen McRae of Harlem, a protege of Billie Holiday, became one of the great jazz singers of the postwar era, known for her ironic phrasing and for albums such as Carmen Sings Monk. She recorded for five decades until emphysema ended her career in 1991. She died in Beverly Hills on November 10, 1994, at 74, after a stroke.

Gerald Levert

Born July 13, 1966 — died November 10, 2006

R&B singer, LeVert and LSG

Gerald Levert, son of O’Jays singer Eddie Levert, led the group LeVert to hits like ‘Casanova’, formed LSG with Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill, and had a long run of solo R&B hits. He was found dead at his home outside Cleveland on November 10, 2006, at 40; the coroner ruled it an accidental overdose of prescription painkillers and over-the-counter medicines.

Augustus F. Hawkins

Born August 31, 1907 — died November 10, 2007

28-year congressman; Humphrey-Hawkins Act author

Augustus Hawkins, born in Shreveport and raised in Los Angeles, served 28 years in the California Assembly and in 1962 became the first Black Californian elected to Congress, where he sponsored the equal employment section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that created the EEOC, helped found the Congressional Black Caucus, co-wrote the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, and chaired the Education and Labor Committee. He died in Bethesda, Maryland, on November 10, 2007, at 100.

Dorothy Vaughan

Born September 20, 1910 — died November 10, 2008

NASA mathematician and supervisor, ‘Hidden Figures’

Dorothy Vaughan, a mathematics teacher from Farmville, Virginia, joined the segregated West Area Computing unit at Langley in 1943 and in 1949 became NACA’s first Black supervisor. She taught herself and her staff FORTRAN as the agency moved to electronic computers and worked on the Scout launch vehicle before retiring from NASA in 1971. She died in Hampton, Virginia, on November 10, 2008, at 98, eight years before Hidden Figures made her famous.

Miriam Makeba

Born March 4, 1932 — died November 10, 2008

‘Mama Africa’; Grammy winner, exile, wife of Stokely Carmichael

Miriam Makeba brought South African music to the world with ‘Pata Pata’ and ‘The Click Song’, shared a 1966 Grammy with Harry Belafonte, and testified against apartheid at the United Nations, which cost her her citizenship. Her 1968 marriage to Stokely Carmichael ended her American career and sent them both to Guinea. She collapsed after singing at an anti-Mafia concert in Castel Volturno, Italy, and died of a heart attack on November 10, 2008, at 76.

Allen Toussaint

Born January 14, 1938 — died November 10, 2015

New Orleans songwriter-producer, ‘Southern Nights’

Allen Toussaint was the songwriter and producer behind New Orleans R&B of the 1960s and 70s, from Ernie K-Doe’s ‘Mother-in-Law’ and Lee Dorsey’s ‘Working in the Coal Mine’ to ‘Southern Nights’, and produced Labelle’s ‘Lady Marmalade’ and Dr. John’s ‘Right Place, Wrong Time’. Hurricane Katrina pushed him back on stage as a performer. He suffered a heart attack after a concert in Madrid and died early on November 10, 2015, at 77.