Brigadier General Charles McGee (December 7, 1919- January 16, 2022) was the eldest of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen. His life of dedicated service included flying combat aircraft in three major wars. On his 22nd birthday, Japanese aircraft bombed Pearl Harbor, and the next day America officially entered World War II. After earning his wings and 2nd Lieutenant’s commission in June 1943, McGee joined the 302nd Fighter Squadron, part of the racially segregated 332nd Fighter Group, one of the units of the Tuskegee Airmen. McGee ended his combat time in World War II after 136 missions. When the Korean War began in 1950, McGee quickly joined the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron and flew his favorite aircraft, the P-51 Mustang on 100 combat missions. By 1967, with the Vietnam War in full swing, the Air Force assigned McGee to command the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in South Vietnam. Flying RF-4 Phantom II jet fighters, McGee completed 172 combat missions and earned his first Legion of Merit.
With a total of 409 combat missions across three wars, he had earned the Legion of Merit twice, earned three Distinguished Flying Crosses, and was awarded a Bronze Star, among many other awards. In 2020, McGee received a promotion to Brigadier General. Then-Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General David Goldfein, noted the importance of recognizing McGee’s legacy: “Charles McGee is a genuine American hero whose courage in combat helped save a nation, and whose legacy is felt to this day across the entire US Air Force.”
André Leon Talley (October 16, 1948 - January 18, 2022) was an American fashion journalist, stylist, creative director, and editor-at-large of Vogue magazine. He was the magazine's fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, its first African-American male creative director from 1988 to 1995, and then its editor-at-large from 1998 to 2013. He was the first Black man to hold his position at Vogue, and oftentimes he was the only Black person in the front row at fashion shows. “He was like the Black Rockette… he was the one,” said Whoopi Goldberg, pointing out the whiteness of the industry in the 2018 biopic The Gospel According to André. In that documentary, Talley says, “you don’t get up and say, ‘look, I’m Black and I’m proud,’ you just do it and it impacts the culture.”
Coolio (August 1, 1963 – September 28, 2022) was one of the most popular rappers during the 1990s, most famously for his hit single “Gangsta’s Paradise”. Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., he cut his first single in the late 1980s, “Watcha Gonna Do,” By 1994, he had established himself in the Los Angeles rap scene and signed to Tommy Boy Records, where he released his debut studio album, It Takes a Thief.
Betty Davis, born Betty Gray Mabry, (July 26, 1944-February 9, 2022) was a pioneering singer, songwriter, and model during the 1960s and 70s. The one-time wife of Miles Davis, she was considered a salacious trendsetter whose influence can be seen in the work of black female artists such as Erykah Badu, Macy Gray, Missy Elliott and Janelle Monáe, to whom she represented a pioneer and exemplar.
Thom Bell (January 27, 1943 – December 22, 2022) was a singer, songwriter, and record producer who was a driving influence for Philadelphia R&B artists during the 1960s and 70s. A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, his work included among his many collaborations his R&B recordings by the Spinners, the Delfonics and the Stylistics during this time period.
Takeoff (June 18, 1994 – November 1, 2022) was a rapper in the hip hop group Migos. Born Kirshnik Khari Ball, the rapper was a key member of the trend-setting Atlanta-based hip hop trio whose hits include "Bad and Boujee" featuring rapper Lil Uzi Vert, "MotorSport" and "Walk It Talk It."
PNB Rock (December 9, 1991 – September 12, 2022) was a Philadelphia rapper with Atlantic Records. Born Rakim Hasheem Allen, he released his first mixtape in 2014 and dropped his debut single a year later, titled “Fleek,” followed by “Selfish” in 2016, which reached No. 16 on the Billboard rap chart and sold more than 3 million copies. PnB Rock frequently performed at venues in Philadelphia, including the Theater of Living Arts and The Met on North Broad Street.
Trouble (November 4, 1987 – June 5, 2022) was an Atlanta-based rapper who collaborated with artists like Drake, Migos and the Weeknd. Following a string of mixtapes that began with 2011’s December 17th — which featured “Bussin,” his breakout song, as well as a remix of that track that boasted Yo Gotti, Waka Flocka Flame and Trae the Truth — Trouble signed Mike Will’s Ear Drummer label under the Interscope umbrella. Edgewood arrived in 2018, featuring tracks with Drake (“Bring It Back”), the Weeknd (“Come Thru”), members of Migos (“Rider” with Quavo, “Kesha Dem” with Offset) and Boosie Badazz (“Ms. Cathy & Ms. Connie”).
DJ Kay Slay, born Keith Grayson, (August 14, 1966 - April 17, 2022) was a swaggering graffiti artist, record executive and radio host who helped shape four decades of New York hip-hop but was best known as the “Drama King.” His tapes served as a venue for diss songs exchanged between 50 Cent and Ja Rule, as well as between Ja Rule and Eminem. They also helped launch his own career as a recording artist: In 2003, he made his major-label debut with “The Streetsweeper Vol. 1,” which featured guests including 50 Cent, Mobb Deep, Nas and Eminem.
Arthur Lee "Archie" Eversole (July 26, 1984 - April 3, 2022) was an American rapper best known for his 2002 single "We Ready". Eversole’s standout hit “We Ready,” which features Bubba Sparxxx and samples Steam’s 1969 No. 1 Hot 100 hit “Na Na Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” reached No. 64 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in July 2002 and became the anthem for the Atlanta United soccer club and its fans, the Five Stripes nation.
Tarrian LaShun Pace (September 6, 1961 - March 21, 2022), professionally known as LaShun Pace and sometimes credited as LaShun Pace-Rhodes or Shun Pace-Rhodes, was an American Grammy Award–nominated gospel singer–songwriter and evangelist. Pace was also a Stellar Award winner. She declared the Lord’s victory on a revival circuit in the 1970s, on the Billboard charts in the 1990s, and on TikTok in the 2020s. She sang of a God revealed in times of trouble—belting it out, even as she went through her own unbearable suffering.
Traci Braxton (April 2, 1971 - March 12, 2022) an American singer, reality television personality, and radio personality. Traci released a solo debut album, titled Crash & Burn, in October 2014. The LP was released after her popular single, "Last Call." She released another single "Perfect Time" in 2015, before later releasing her second studio album, On Earth, in 2018. That project featured the single "Lifeline," as well as another, "Broken Things.” Traci also appeared on her family's reality show, Braxton Family Values, which premiered in 2011.
Donny Gerrard (March 19, 1946 - February 3, 2022) was a member of the band 
Skylark in the early 1970s, and in later years performed and recorded as a baritone backup singer for such artists as Mavis Staples. The Canadian rhythm-and-blues vocalist was meticulous with his craft and almost equally reserved in his social life. While he signed as a solo artist on Elton John's Rocket Record Company, he also began picking up more jobs as a back-up singer to the stars. Offstage, Gerrard was a sketch artist known for drawing pictures of his bandmates, his friends and people on the street. He also designed and built furniture as a hobby.
Sly (July 1, 1936 - February 6, 2022) and Jimmy Johnson (November 25, 1928 - January 31, 2022) were musically talented brothers who learned about working for the long haul growing up in Holly Springs, Mississippi, back when they were known as James and Sylvester Thompson. They spent their youth laboring in the fields, but music surrounded them. They left the south as soon as they could, around 1950. During the 1980s, Syl occasionally performed with Jimmy. The Johnsons continued their relatively low profile into the 1990s, but they both made endearing albums. In 2002 the brothers joined forces for Two Johnsons Are Better Than One.
Johnny Brown (June 11, 1937 - March 2, 2022) was an American actor and singer. He was most famous for his role as building superintendent Nathan Bookman on the 1970s CBS sitcom, Good Times. Brown portrayed Bookman until the series was canceled in 1979. Aside from “Good Times,” Brown guest starred on many sitcoms during that era, including “Maude,” “Julia,” “Love, American Style,” “The Rookies,” “Lotsa Luck” and “Chico and the Man.” After “Good Times” ended in 1979, he would continue to make appearances on notable TV shows for the next two decades.
Chester Bruce Johnson (June 5, 1950 - April 3, 2022) was an American television news anchorman and reporter for WUSA 9 TV in Washington, D.C. He focused on politics and urban affairs as a journalist. In 2018, Johnson was honored by NATAS with its Board of Governors Award. When he moved from Cincinnati to the District to begin his on-air tenure on March 16, 1972, he would count as the youngest reporter to ever deliver the news in the D.C. market.
Stephen “tWitch” Boss (September 29, 1982 – December 13, 2022) was a hip hop dancer and choreographer most famous for his role as the DJ on the Ellen Degeneres Show. The dancer-DJ also appeared in films like “Step Up: All In” and “Magic Mike XXL” and was featured in Disney+’s “The Hip Hop Nutcracker.” He also had placed as a runner-up on “So You Think You Can Dance” and later judged season 17 of the dance competition show.
Clarence Gilyard (December 24, 1955 – November 28, 2022) landed his first role on the TV show “Diff’rent Strokes” in 1981. In 1986, Gilyard made his film debut in “Top Gun,” in which he played Sundown, one of the elite fighter pilots. Two years later, he was cast as Theo, the computer expert who helps Hans Gruber’s terrorist group, in the thriller “Die Hard.” He got his big primetime TV break in 1989, when he landed the role of Conrad McMasters on the NBC legal drama “Matlock,” starring opposite Andy Griffith. He then portrayed Chuck Norris’ crime-fighting partner Jimmy Trivette on “Walker, Texas Ranger.” Despite his accomplished acting career, Gilyard stepped away from acting in 2006 to start teaching at UNLV and directing productions at the university’s Nevada Conservatory Theatre.
Ashley Frederick Bryan (July 13, 1923 - February 4, 2022) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Most of his subjects are from the African-American experience. He was a U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006 and he won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his contribution to American children's literature in 2009. In a career spanning more than six decades, Bryan's vibrantly colored collage and paper-cut illustrations adorned the pages of some 50 books, folktales and poetry collections by such acclaimed writers as Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni and Walter Dean Myers.
George William Lamming OCC was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and poet. He first won critical acclaim for In the Castle of My Skin, his 1953 debut novel. Critics were also impressed: “Mr. Lamming is a poet by instinct rather than a novelist, a man with an individual and almost private approach to the English language,” Orville Prescott of the Times wrote. “His prose is poetic, sensuous, imaginative, adorned with fanciful figures of speech and surprising twists of language.”
Charles H. Fuller Jr. (March 5, 1939 - October 3, 2022) was an American playwright, best known for his play A Soldier's Play, for which he received the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2020 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Born in Philadelphia, Fuller attended Villanova University and then joined the Army in 1959, serving in Japan and South Korea. He later studied at La Salle University. Fuller's plays were filled with complex characters and an undercutting of conventions. Fuller said he was drawn to the military in his plays because, "historically, it's the only place where Black men have risen equal to white men," he told Newsday in 1988.
Bill Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American basketball player and coach in the NBA, most notably for his Celtics tenure. He was the NBA’s first black star, five times the league’s most valuable player. His defensive leaping ability transformed basketball from a horizontal to a vertical game. And in 1966, when the Celtics coach Red Auerbach stepped down and named Russell his successor, he became the first black head coach in modern America’s four major sports leagues.
Pelé (23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022) was one of the most famous soccer players of all time. A national hero in his native Brazil, Pelé was beloved around the world — by the very poor, among whom he was raised; the very rich, in whose circles he traveled; and just about everyone who ever saw him play. He won three World Cup tournaments with Brazil and 10 league titles with Santos, his club team, as well as the 1977 North American Soccer League championship with the New York Cosmos. Having come out of retirement at 34, he spent three seasons with the Cosmos on a crusade to popularize soccer in the United States.
Franco Harris (March 7, 1950 – December 20, 2022) was a running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers during their 1970s dynasty run. Most famously known for the “Immaculate Reception”, he was a four-time Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl IX MVP, 1972 Rookie of the Year, 1976 NFL Man of the Year, and a Pro Football Hall of Famer. His greatest achievements, however, were made off of the playing field. His steadfast dedication to helping others throughout his life serve as an inspiration to all and a testament to his commitment to kindness, charity, decency, and humility.
Marion Sylvester Barber III (June 10, 1983 - June 1, 2022) was an American football running back for seven seasons in the National Football League. After playing college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, he was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. From 2005 to 2011, Barber made every one of his seven seasons in the NFL count thanks to his tenacious running style. He retired in March 2012. Barber totaled 4,780 rushing yards, 1,330 receiving yards and 59 touchdowns during his NFL career.
