Known as the ‘Matriarch of Dance”, Katherine Dunham is known for her outstanding dance career. She is also known as a singer, anthropologist, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator, and activist. “The Queen of Black Dance” for combining ballet with Caribbean dance.

Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1910 in Joliet, Illinois of an African-American dry-cleaner owner and white mother who worked as a schoolteacher. At around age 15 she organized a fund-raising nightclub for Brown's Methodist Church in Joliet. After completing high school, she moved to Chicago to live with her brother, Albert. In the 1930s, she attended the University of Chicago for dance and anthropology. She was awarded the Travel Fellowships from the Julius Rosenwald and Guggenheim Foundations to study the different dances of the Caribbean. This helped Dunham understand the roots of dance in the Caribbean and U.SA. She visited Accompong, Jamaica where she was inspired to write the book "Journey to Accompong". She also visited Martinique, Trinidad, Tobago, and Haiti. As she stayed in Haiti she studied Voodoo and became a priestess in the religion.

On July 10, 1939, Katherine married a white man named John Thomas-Pratt. John Thomas-Pratt was a well-known costume and theatrical set designer, who helped Katherine control her career until his death. They adopted a girl named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt. Dunham founded the Katherine Dunham Company, the first African American modern dance company that consisted of singers, actors, dancers, and musicians. In 1937 she was dance director for the Chicago unit. She choreographed Run Lil Chillun and produced The Emperor Jones and Barrelhouse. She later produced L'Ag Ya with her husband John Thomas-Pratt. In 1939, they left Chicago to New York where Katherine became dance director of the Labor Stage of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union for the making of Pins and Needles. Also in 1939, her company and she performed at Windsor Theater in Tropics and Le Hot Jazz which was extended to a13 week performance instead of one show.

In 1943, her company and herself where soon in the Broadway production, Cabin in the Sky. She also appeared in Woman with Cigar and Shore Excursion. In 1945 she founded Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre near Times Square in New York City. Katherine made her first appearance in the movies appearing in the short film Cumbia. This was the first Hollywood dance film to be seen in color. Throughout 1941-1943, she appeared in other films such as Star Spangled Rhythm, Abbott and Costello, Pardon My Sarong, and Stormy Weather. Dunham went international Europe, North Africa, South America, and Australia a total of 57 countries. With all the traveling she did, there was always discrimination. Katherine once refused to play in Tennessee because blacks were not allowed to purchase tickets. While she was in Brazil she was neglected a suite because of her race. Without a fight, Katherine announced this to the media and the Afonso Arinos law in 1951 making segregation in public places illegal.

As Katherine Dunham she became older she became more involved in politics. In 1992, at age 82, she went on 47-day strike against the U.S. because they did not help Haitian refugees. She then stopped when Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Jesse Jackson begged her to. Jean-Bertrand Aristide than gave her a medal and called her “The Spiritual Mother of Haiti”. She wrote 4 books called Island Possessed, A Touch of Innocence, Dances of Haiti and Journey to Accompong. Katherine received about 7 awards including the Kennedy Center Awards and a place in the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

After Katherine’s retirement from dance, she appeared on many interviews. She spoke mainly of opinions and thoughts and Haiti’s government. She died on May 21, 2006, at age 96, in New York City while sleeping.

*anthropologist- a person the scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans.