Those We Lost — November 4

Honoring those we lost on November 4 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Buddy Bolden

Born September 6, 1877 — died November 4, 1931

New Orleans cornetist, the first king of jazz

Buddy Bolden led the loudest, most popular dance band in New Orleans around 1900, and he is remembered as one of the founding fathers of jazz. No recording of him is known to survive. Diagnosed with what was then called dementia praecox, now known as schizophrenia, he was committed to the state asylum at Jackson in 1907 and died there on November 4, 1931, after 24 years inside.

James Hampton

Born April 8, 1909 — died November 4, 1964

Janitor who built ‘The Throne of the Third Heaven’

James Hampton, a government janitor in Washington, D.C., spent about 14 years building The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly in a rented garage, often working after midnight: about 180 pieces of furniture and cardboard wrapped in gold and silver foil, guided by what he described as visions. The work was discovered after he died of cancer in November 1964, and it is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Essex Hemphill

Born April 16, 1957 — died November 4, 1995

Poet and activist, voice of Black gay life

Essex Hemphill of Washington, D.C., wrote poetry and essays about Black gay men’s lives in collections such as Ceremonies, edited the anthology Brother to Brother, and appeared in Marlon Riggs’s film Tongues Untied. He confronted both white gay racism and homophobia in Black communities. He died of AIDS-related complications in Philadelphia on November 4, 1995, at 38.

Daisy Bates

Born November 11, 1914 — died November 4, 1999

NAACP leader who guided the Little Rock Nine

Daisy Bates and her husband published the Arkansas State Press, and as president of the Arkansas NAACP she mentored the nine students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957; segregationists repeatedly attacked her home, and the family stood guard at night. She later worked on President Johnson’s anti-poverty programs. She died of a heart attack in Little Rock on November 4, 1999.

Anna Diggs Taylor

Born December 9, 1932 — died November 4, 2017

Michigan’s first Black woman federal judge

Anna Diggs Taylor, a Yale Law graduate who went to Mississippi in 1964 to represent jailed civil rights workers, was appointed to the federal bench in Detroit by President Carter in 1979, becoming Michigan’s first Black woman federal judge and the first Black woman federal district judge in the Sixth Circuit; she later served as chief judge of the Eastern District of Michigan. In 2006 she ruled the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program unconstitutional; an appeals court overturned the ruling on standing. She died after a brief illness in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, on November 4, 2017, at 84.

Naomi Long Madgett

Born July 5, 1923 — died November 4, 2020

Detroit poet laureate, founder of Lotus Press

Naomi Long Madgett published her first poetry collection in 1941, just out of high school, and went on to teach in Detroit schools and at Eastern Michigan University. In 1972 she founded Lotus Press, which published more than 90 books of Black poetry, and she was named Detroit’s poet laureate in 2001. She died in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on November 4, 2020, at 97.

Barbara-Rose Collins

Born April 13, 1939 — died November 4, 2021

First Black woman elected to Congress from Michigan

Barbara-Rose Collins served on the Detroit school board, in the Michigan House and on the Detroit City Council before winning a U.S. House seat in 1990, the first Black woman to represent Michigan in Congress. She served three terms and later returned to the city council. She died of complications of COVID-19 in Detroit on November 4, 2021, at 82.

Tyka Nelson

Born May 18, 1960 — died November 4, 2024

Singer; Prince’s sister and only full sibling

Tyka Nelson, Prince’s younger sister and only full sibling, released four albums beginning with Royal Blue in 1988 and became a public keeper of her brother’s legacy after his death in 2016. She had planned a farewell concert in Minneapolis in June 2024 but was too ill to perform. She died at North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, on November 4, 2024, at 64.