May 28 - BlackFacts.com Black History Minute

BlackFacts.com: Learn/Teach/Create Black History

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for May 28.

Gladys Knight was born.

She is an American singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and author.

Knight is known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her group Gladys Knight & the Pips.

Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, she would sing in the church choir.

She first achieved minor fame by winning Ted Mack's "The Original Amateur Hour" TV show contest at the age of eight in 1952.

The Pips were invented when she joined with her brother Merald and cousin William Guest to perform at a family party.

Knight has acted in films, such as “Pipe Dreams” (1976), and on television, including a season as Flip Wilson’s wife on the comedy series “Charlie and Company”.

She has also produced television musical specials, among them the highly acclaimed “Sisters in the Name of Love” (HBO, 1986), which featured the voices of Patti LaBelle and Dionne Warwick.

With the Pips, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation in 1998.

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