... HBCUs have a long history of turning out legendary actresses dating back to 1942 when Esther Rolle, the matriarch in the 1970s TV sitcom “Good Times,” graduated from Spelman College. Others include Oprah Winfrey from Tennessee State University; Wanda Sykes from Hampton University; Lynn Whitfield from Howard; Bonita J. Hamilton, who stars in “The Lion King,” and Tangi Miller of the TV series “Felicity,” both from Alabama State University; and Zonya Love Johnson and NaTasha Williams, both from N.C. A&T and both starring in “The Color Purple” on Broadway.“I’m so proud of my students,” says professor Frankie Day of N.C. A&T. “I tell them all the time that their success is my success.”
Day and Matthews are both late 1970s graduates of another HBCU, South Carolina State University, which they say instilled in them the fundamentals of discipline and hard work — at a time when many Black actors in Hollywood and on Broadway were limited to stereotypical roles, if they were cast at all.
