Black History Month 2024: Hampton Roads Has Groomed And Produced Many Artistic Trailblazers

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

You probably know the names of several Hampton University graduates who left campus, became trailblazing artists, and put a human face on this year’s Black History Month theme, “African-Americans and the Arts.”

Hampton University graduates who went on to become famous artists include 1986 HU grad Wanda Sykes, 2000 HU grad Stephen Hill and 1982 HU grad Ruth Carter. Sykes’ list of accolades includes a 1999 Primetime Emmy Award and a 2003 comedy special. Hill, meanwhile, left Hampton, became an NFL player with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers before he became an in-demand actor whose credits include Magnum P.I.

But before Ruth E. Carter, age 63, picked up two Academy Awards and an Emmy or designed hundreds of costumes for actors appearing in “Black Panther” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” she probably strolled across Hampton’s campus with an armload of books, envisioning her future.

Eleven years after she graduated from Hampton in 1982, she was nominated for a 1993 Academy Award for “Malcolm X.” Five years later, she was nominated for costumes she designed for “Amistad.” Later, in 2016, she was nominated for an Emmy for costumes she designed for “Roots.” Carter also designed costumes for “Selma (2014),” as well as “The Butler (2013).”

Carter said her threads aim to capture Black America’s past, present and future. “That’s what we’ve been doing this whole time,” Carter told The New Yorker in a 2018 interview. “Exploring our past in our present.”

In other words, Carter puts a human face on this year’s Black History Month theme, due to the fact that she has impacted the entertainment industry and changed the world. Step by step, Carter designed costumes for Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” and “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” In keeping with this year’s Black History Month theme, the accomplished artist said she changed the landscape by connecting the past, present and future. Specifically, she launched change by creatively mixing beads, jewelry, shiny fabrics and 3-D printing technology in movies directed by Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, Ava DuVernay, and Ryan Coogler.

Carter is not only the first Black female to win two Academy Awards, but she is also the first person to win this prestigious award for both an original and a sequel.

What’s her secret? When Carter picked up her second Oscar on in March 2023, she told the audience, “She endures, she loves, she overcomes.”

Other famous Hampton University graduates include award-winning Comedian Wanda Sykes, and Actor Stephen Hill, who has appeared in “Law and Order,” as well as “Mission Impossible” and “Magnum PI.”

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Norfolk State University can boast of a share of trailblazing Blacks who graduated from the HBCU and became famous. One of the most recognizable is Tim Reid.

Chesapeake native Tim Reid graduated from NSU with a 1968 business administration degree, relocated to Hollywood, and began to land plum acting roles.

Reid is among a dozen or so Black artists and performers, who grew up in Hampton Roads and made it big in Hollywood. Reid also puts a face on this year’s Black History Month theme: “African-Americans and the Arts,” due to the fact that he returned home aiming to make an impact.

It is important to remember that Reid is one of many Virginia-born, Black actors. The list includes Afemo Omilami, whose screen credits includes “Forrest Gump.”  Drummer Al Foster, age 81, Actor Antonio D. Charity, B. Scott (The Skinny), Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Lynchburg Native Carl Anderson, who starred in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Reid returned home after he experienced a wildly successful acting career sparked by the popular “Tim and Tom” comedy show. Reid’s professional ascent continued as he earned starring roles on the “Lynn Redgrave” sitcom “Teachers Only” (1982) and as Lt. Marcel “Downtown” Brown on “Simon & Simon” (1981).

Reid and his wife, actress Daphne Maxwell Reid, launched the now-closed New Millennium Studio near Petersburg in the late 1990s, on a 60-acre plot.

“Ninety percent of the time, you’re going to hear no,” Reid once said, explaining the reality of auditions. “It took me seven years to make ‘Once Upon a Time … When We Were Colored.’ Nobody wanted to see the movie made. I got the movie made.”

Reid’s upward trajectory has included roles such as Venus Flytrap, in “WKRP in Cincinnati.” But after the show was canceled in 1982, and Reid earned a starting role in the detective drama “Simon & Simon,” in 1987, Reid went on to earn critical acclaim as the co-creator, producer, writer and lead actor of “Frank’s Place,” a dramedy that involves the exploits of a college professor who inherits a New Orleans restaurant.

The point is Reid is one of a dozen or so accomplished Virginia-born, Black performers in Hollywood.

Another example is a homegrown artist, “Timbaland, who was born in 1972 in Norfolk.” This famous rapper’s real name is Timothy Zachery Mosley. Timbaland went on to write and produce award-winning songs. Most recently, Timbaland, was featured on the Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Here is the name of another famous artist from Hampton Roads: Artist Clayton Singleton.

He was selected as the VEER Magazine 2020 Mural Artist of the Year and curator of “Light from All Sides.” His work was displayed at the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center.

The longer an artist works, the more he arrives at “revelations,” Singleton said.

Singleton’s exhibits include “Light from All Sides,” which was originally conceived in 2019 for a Virginia Beach venue.  Singleton, who is a teaching artist activist and a popular and longtime teacher at Lake Taylor High, has also held exhibits at The Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, the James Wise Gallery at Norfolk State University, and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

Visitors have also strolled past Singleton’s compelling exhibits at Walking on Paper at ArtWorks gallery.