Black History Month Day 8 ~ Tony Firsts

First African-American to Win Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical: Ben Vereen, "Pippin" (1973)

First African-American to Win Best Performance by an Actor in a Play: James Earl Jones, "The Great White Hope" (1960)

First African-American to Win Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical: Juanita Hall, "South Pacific" (1950)

First African-American to Win Best Performance by an Actress in a Play: Phylicia Rashad, "A Raisin in the Sun (2004)

Only two African-Americans have been nominated for Best Director; neither won.

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Juanita: i thought that as i was typing it, but i figured: what are the odds wikipedia would be wrong!?!?!?!

thanks for the correction!

i can't presume to comment on whether a canadian is "close enough" -- even though some of my best friends ... :)

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Updated On: 2/8/11 at 06:54 PM

Little: that's two strikes for wikipedia; i wonder what other errors are in their lists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Tony_nominees_and_winners

the site actually does list Ms. Carroll for her 1962 win in "No Strings".

I'll correct these errors at the end of the month -- again: thanks!

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