Sissle, Noble, 1889-1975

American musician Noble Sissle, who was born on July 10, 1889, in Indianapolis, Indiana, was also an actor, publisher, lyricist, and author.

A singer with touring bands in the early 1900s, Sissle later teamed up with Eubie Blake for vaudeville acts and wrote the lyrics for several Blake scores, including "Shuffle Along," a successful Broadway production. Among the many songs that Sissle and Blake wrote are "I'm Just Wild About Harry," "Hello Sweetheart, Hello," and "I Was Meant for You."

Sissle, who was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, appeared in several motion pictures and founded the Negro Actors Guild. Sissle continued performing until 1972, when he received Yale's Ellington Medal for a distinguished career in music. Noble Sissle died on December 17, 1975, in Tampa, Florida.

American poet Langston Hughes, who was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri, also wrote novels, stories, plays, as well as edited several anthologies.

Regarded as a pioneer of modern black literature, Langston Hughes frequently wrote about the attitudes and experiences of everyday black Americans. In 1926, his first book of poems, The Weary Blues, was published by Knopf. During the 1960s Hughes's poetry reflected the racial turbulence of the times. Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz contained poems offered scenarios for resolving racial segregation.

On May 22, 1967, Langston Hughes died of congestive heart failure in New York City. The Panther and the Lash, Hughes's final book of poetry, was published posthumously, and included such protest poems as "Black Panther" and "The Backlash Blues."

"Noble Sissle." Contemporary Authors Online. (reproduced in Biography In Context). http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ (accessed May 2, 2013).

"Langston Hughes." Contemporary Black Biography . Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1993. (reproduced in Biography In Context). http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ (accessed May 2, 2013).