A daily Black History Month fact that has nothing to do with George Washington Carver, MLK, Jr., or Harriet Tubman. Promise!

Katherine Dunham was a dancer, choreographer, actress who performed in Broadway's Cabin in the Sky and in like movies Star Spangled Rhythm (1941), Pardon My Sarong (1942), and the black musical, Stormy Weather (1943). In 1945, Dunham opened a dance and theater school, where she taught a young Eartha Kitt, James Dean, Shelly Winters, and Warren Beatty, among others. Despite her dedication to dance, Dunham was also outspoken about civil rights — she once refused to sign a Hollywood studio contract after execs requested she replace some of the darker members of her company and she frequently refused to play at venues that did not allow blacks. At the age of 82, she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s policy to repatriate Haitian refugees. Dunham, who was also a writer and anthropologist, died in May of 2006 at the age of 97.

This concludes your daily dose of BHM.