{"id":10879,"date":"2016-02-18T10:23:16","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T15:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=10879"},"modified":"2016-02-18T10:23:16","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T15:23:16","slug":"12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html","title":{"rendered":"12 Interesting Facts About African Americans in Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bey-grammys\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Black History Month is a time to celebrate achievements of African Americans past and present. This February we\u2019re honoring African Americans who have made their mark on the Entertainment industry with record-breaking moments, first accomplishments, and more. Check out these quick (and perhaps surprising!) facts about African Americans in Entertainment through the years.<\/p>\n

1. In 2006, Whitney Houston was named the most awarded female artists of all time by the Guinness World Records.<\/p>\n

2. Model Tyra Banks was the first African-American Woman on the covers of CQ magazine and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. In 1997, Banks became the first ever African-American on the cover of the Victoria’s Secret lingerie catalog.<\/p>\n

3. Oprah Winfrey became the first female African-American U.S. billionaire in 2003. Robert Johnson, owner of Black Entertainment Television, was the first male African-American billionaire in 2001.<\/p>\n

4. Michael Jackson created a sensation with the album Thriller\u00a0<\/em>in 1982, which becomes one of the most popular albums of all time, selling more than 40 million copies! This opened doors for other African-American musicians, including Prince, Janet Jackson, Lionel Richie and Tina Turner.<\/p>\n

5. Halle Berry became the first African-American woman to win the Academy Award for\u00a0best actress for her role in\u00a0Monster’s Ball\u00a0<\/em>in 2002.<\/p>\n

6. Jackie Robinson became the first major league baseball player in 1947 for the Brooklyn Dodgers.<\/p>\n

7. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, legendary singer James Brown performed in front of a televised audience in Boston. He’s credited with preventing riots with his performance.<\/p>\n

8. At the 2010 Grammy Awards, Beyonce Knowles came home with six awards. This was the most wins in a single night by a female artist in the history of the Grammy’s.<\/p>\n

9. Hip-Hop group Run-D.M.C. became the first rap act to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. They also were the first African-American group to make a video appearance on MTV.<\/p>\n

10. In 1964, Sidney Poitier was the first African-American to win an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in\u00a0Lilies of the Field.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

11. On June 30th, 2015, Misty Copeland became the first African-American woman to be promoted to principal dance for the American Ballet Theatre, one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States.<\/p>\n

12. In 1959, Berry Gordy founded Motown Records, the first record label to primary feature African-American artists. The label helped the career of Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and The Miracles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black History Month is a time to celebrate achievements of African Americans past and present. This February we\u2019re honoring African Americans who have made their mark on the Entertainment industry with record-breaking moments, first accomplishments, and more. Check out these quick (and perhaps surprising!) facts about African Americans in Entertainment through the years. 1. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2903,2900,260,2904,650],"class_list":["post-10879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television","tag-african-american","tag-black-history","tag-celebrity","tag-fun-facts","tag-hollywood"],"yoast_head":"\n12 Interesting Facts About African Americans in Hollywood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"African American's have a stunning history in entertainment. Check out these fun black history facts.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"12 Interesting Facts About African Americans in Hollywood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"African American's have a stunning history in entertainment. Check out these fun black history facts.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-18T15:23:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2016\/02\/bey-grammys-277x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Megan Bailey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"12 Interesting Facts About African Americans in Hollywood","description":"African American's have a stunning history in entertainment. Check out these fun black history facts.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"12 Interesting Facts About African Americans in Hollywood","og_description":"African American's have a stunning history in entertainment. Check out these fun black history facts.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2016-02-18T15:23:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2016\/02\/bey-grammys-277x300.jpg"}],"author":"Megan Bailey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html","name":"12 Interesting Facts About African Americans in Hollywood","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2016\/02\/bey-grammys-277x300.jpg","datePublished":"2016-02-18T15:23:16+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-18T15:23:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/03d3c6d022f04655d71d8c66b4614dc2"},"description":"African American's have a stunning history in entertainment. Check out these fun black history facts.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2016\/02\/bey-grammys-277x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2016\/02\/bey-grammys-277x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/02\/12-interesting-facts-about-african-americans-in-hollywood.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"12 Interesting Facts About African Americans in Hollywood"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/03d3c6d022f04655d71d8c66b4614dc2","name":"Megan Bailey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/069\/06974c669f30cf83f15ef2892dfe26cex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/069\/06974c669f30cf83f15ef2892dfe26cex96.jpg","caption":"Megan Bailey"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/mbailey"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/600"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10879"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10897,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10879\/revisions\/10897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}