Those We Lost — September 18

Honoring those we lost on September 18 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Blind Willie Johnson

Born in 1897 — died September 18, 1945

Gospel-blues singer and slide guitarist.

Johnson’s "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" — a wordless moan over slide guitar — is among the most haunting recordings ever made, chosen for the Golden Record aboard the Voyager spacecraft to represent humanity to the stars. He died in poverty in Texas; his music is now literally eternal, sailing through interstellar space.

Jimi Hendrix

Birth name: Johnny Allen Hendrix

Born November 27, 1942 — died September 18, 1970

The most revolutionary electric guitarist who ever lived.

From Seattle through the chitlin circuit backing Little Richard and the Isley Brothers, Hendrix reinvented the instrument — feedback as melody, "The Star-Spangled Banner" as protest. Dead at twenty-seven, he left four years of recordings guitarists have chased for over fifty.

Kathleen Collins

Full name: Kathleen Conwell Collins

Born March 18, 1942 — died September 18, 1988

Filmmaker, playwright, and pioneer.

Collins’s Losing Ground was among the first feature films ever directed by a Black American woman — a luminous story of a Black woman intellectual that distributors ignored in her lifetime. Rediscovered decades later, it is now hailed as a classic, and her influence runs through every Black woman filmmaker working today.

Bob Hayes

Full name: Robert Lee Hayes

Born December 20, 1942 — died September 18, 2002

Olympic champion and Pro Football Hall of Famer.

"Bullet Bob" won 100-meter gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics with a legendary relay anchor leg, then starred for the Dallas Cowboys — the only man in history with both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. He was so fast that defenses invented the zone to survive him.

Ken Norton

Full name: Kenneth Howard Norton Sr.

Born August 9, 1943 — died September 18, 2013

Heavyweight champion and Boxing Hall of Famer.

The Marine Corps veteran broke Muhammad Ali’s jaw in their first fight in 1973 and battled him through one of boxing’s great trilogies, earning his place among the defining heavyweights of the 1970s.

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Wear the history: Jimi Hendrix — from the Black Knowledge Wear collection.