Those We Lost — September 14

Honoring those we lost on September 14 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

John Adams Hyman

Born July 23, 1840 — died September 14, 1891

North Carolina’s first Black congressman.

Born enslaved and sold away from his family for teaching himself to read, Hyman was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1874 during Reconstruction. His rise from bondage to Congress in a single lifetime embodied freedom’s brief first promise.

Johnny Adams

Full name: Laten John Adams

Born January 5, 1932 — died September 14, 1998

New Orleans singer, "The Tan Canary."

Adams’s swooping, effortless voice — from gospel falsetto to deep blues — made "Reconsider Me" a classic and made him the singer’s singer of New Orleans for four decades.

Beah Richards

Full name: Beulah Elizabeth Richardson

Born July 12, 1920 — died September 14, 2000

Actress, poet, and playwright.

The Vicksburg, Mississippi native earned an Oscar nomination for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, won two Emmys — the second weeks before her death — and wrote the prophetic poem "A Black Woman Speaks." She made every role Hollywood allowed her bigger than what was written.

LaWanda Page

Birth name: Alberta Peal

Born October 19, 1920 — died September 14, 2002

Comedian and actress.

After decades on the chitlin circuit as "The Bronze Goddess of Fire," Page joined her old friend Redd Foxx on Sanford and Son as Aunt Esther — Bible in hand, insults at the ready — and created one of the funniest characters in television history.