Corey Harris (born February 21, 1969) U.S. blues guitarist, singer/songwriter
Claudia Jones (born February 21, 1915) U.S. (born in Trinidad) Journalist, Communist Party activist, essayist
Read a biography of Claudia Jones here
Read this blog post about Claudia Jones'
1949 article about black women and civil rights:
"An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!"
Read another blog post about Jones here
Excerpt from "An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!":
"Historically, the Negro woman has been the guardian, the protector, of the Negro family. From the days of the slave traders down to the present, the Negro woman has had the responsibility of caring for the needs of the family, of militantly shielding it from the blows of Jim-Crow insults, of rearing children in an atmosphere of lynch terror, segregation, and police brutality, and of fighting for an education for the children.
Negro women are the real active forces -- the organizers and workers -- in all the institutions and organizations of the Negro people. ... The disdainful attitudes which are sometimes expressed -- that Negro women's organizations concern themselves only with 'charity' work -- must be exposed as of chauvinist derivation... This approach fails to recognize the special function which Negro women play in these organizations, which, over and above their particular function, seek to provide social services denied to Negro youth as a result of the Jim-Crow lynch system in the U.S.
The suffragists, during their first jailings, were purposely placed on cots next to Negro prostitutes to 'humiliate' them. They had the wisdom to understand that the intent was to make it so painful, that no woman would dare to fight for her rights if she had to face such consequences. But it was the historic shortcoming of the women's suffrage leaders, predominantly drawn as they were from the bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeoisie, that they failed to link their own struggles to the struggles for the full democratic rights of the Negro people following emancipation.
A developing consciousness on the woman question today, therefore, must not fail to recognize that the Negro question in the United States is prior to, and not equal to, the woman question, that only to the extent that we fight all chauvinistic expression and actions as regards the Negro people and fight for the full equality of the Negro people, can women as a whole advance their struggle for equal rights.
Hakan Nesser born February 21, 1950) Swedish crime novelist – Mind’s Eye (1993) (Inspector Van Veeteren series)
Read about Hakan Nesser here
Listen to an interview with Hakan Nesser speaking of his Inspector Van Veeteren character and crime novels in general
here
Anais Nin (born February 21, 1903) – French diarist – The Diary of Anais Nin
Read about Anais Nin here and here
Read a 1972 oral history interview with Anais Nin here
Listen to Anais Nin read from her diary
here
Hanne-Vibeke Holst born February 21, 1959 Danish novelist – Knud, den store / Canute the Great (2013}
Holst talks about her writing
here