During Black History Month at Disneyland Resort, guests can celebrate through curated music, art, and food throughout the resort. Guests can also learn more about Black leaders, artists, and innovators through display windows at Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and Downtown Disney District.
Celebrate Soulfully
You can pick up a card with more information about the offerings for Celebrate Soulfully. The front features watercolor images of some of the individuals honored through displays around the resort.
On the back of the card are the locations of the displays around Disneyland, California Adventure, and Downtown Disney, as well as some of the featured individuals.
As a note, as of publication, not all of the displays have been installed.
Disney California Adventure Displays
Lanny Smoot – Research Fellow, Disney Research
Location: Hollywood Land – near Off the Page
This window honors Lanny Smoot, a Disney Imagineer and member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Smoot has spent the last 26 years with the Walt Disney Company, is a Disney Research Fellow, and Disney’s most prolific inventor. He was also the first Disney inventor to receive 100 patents, which he accomplished in 2021.
Check out our conversation with Smoot below:
Marlon West – Visual Effects Supervisor
Location: Hollywood Land – near Off the Page
Marlon West is honored in this display. He is a visual effects supervisor for Walt Disney Animation Studios. Some of his past projects include The Lion King, Moana, The Princess and the Frog, and Pocahontas. Additionally, West was the co-Visual Effects Supervisor for Zootopia 2 and the VFX Supervisor on Iwájú. Beyond that, West was also the co-Head of Effects Animation for Frozen, Frozen 2, Encanto, and Moana.
Olun Riley – Lighting Supervisor
Location: Hollywood Land – near Off the Page
Olun Riley began his journey with Walt Disney Animation Studios with Meet the Robinsons and Bolt. From there, Riley became an integral part of the transition from classic animation to 3D. He has also worked on Frozen, Moana, and Encanto, and was a lighting supervisor for Big Hero 6, Strange World, and Zootopia 2.
Austin Traylor – Animator
Location: Hollywood Land – near Off the Page
Austin Traylor’s time with Disney began when he joined The Walt Disney Animation Studios Apprentice Program. His first work was doing animation for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. From there, Traylor has continued working as an animator with credits for projects including Moana 2 and Once Upon a Studio.
Floyd Norman – Animator, Storyboard Artist, and Writer
Location: Buena Vista Street – near Atwater Ink and Paint
Floyd Norman was Disney’s first Black animation and story artist. His illustrious career includes classic films such as Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, and The Jungle Book. His later work for Disney included Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Mulan. Norman also worked on Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch and The Kwicky Koala Show. In addition to his work at Disney, Norman co-founded AfroKids animation studio.
Disneyland
Martha Blanding – Disney Legend and Author
Martha Blanding was Disneyland’s first Black Tour Guide. She has spent many years working for Disney and later became Senior Manager of Disneyland Resort Merchandise and Special Events. Blanding also co-founded PULSE, an employee resource group for Black Disneyland cast members. Post-retirement, Blanding wrote a best-selling memoir entitled Groundbreaking Magic: A Black Woman’s Journey Through the Happiest Place on Earth. She was inducted as a Disney Legend in 2024 and became the first Black Disney Parks cast member to receive the honor.
Scott Joplin – Musician
Location: Main Street, U.S.A. – next to 20th Century Music Company
Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was known as The King of Ragtime. A composer and pianist, Joplin was responsible for a wide swath of ragtime music. his most popular song, “Maple Leaf Rag,” put him on the map, but he also composed 40 ragtime works, a ballet, and even two operas in the musical style. In 1976, he was awarded a special Pulitzer for his contributions to American music.
Frederick Douglass – Social Reformer, Abolitionist, Orator, Writer, and Statesman
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was born into slavery and rose to become one of the most important leaders of the civil rights movement of the 19th century. Douglass was foremost a national leader of the abolitionist movement, which led to his meeting with President Abraham Lincoln three times to fight for the emancipation of slaves and the inclusion of African Americans in the Union Army during the Civil War.
“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
― Frederick Douglass
Dom Flemons – Musician
Location: Frontierland – outside Pioneer Mercantile
Dom Flemons, also known as The American Songster, is an award-winning musician and recent inductee into the American Banjo Hall of Fame. He is a founding member of the band The Carolina Chocolate Drops and is known for his musical prowess in over a century’s worth of American roots music. Genres included in that are country, folk, bluegrass, the blues, and Americana.
Leah Chase – Entrepreneur and Restaurateur
Location: New Orleans Square – next to mobile order pickup at Tiana’s Palace
Leah Chase (1923-2019) was the inspiration behind Princess Tiana in The Princess and the Frog. Chase became known for her Creole cuisine because of the famed Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans, an eatery started by her mother and father-in-law. In her life, she became known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine. She won many awards in her lifetime, including induction into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America in 2010.
Ron Husband – Animator
Eventual location: New Orleans Square
Ron Husband has been with Walt Disney Animation Studios for over 40 years. He was the first Black supervising animator of the studio and has worked on films including The Rescuers, Pete’s Dragon, The Fox and the Hound, and The Rescuers Down Under. He went on to work on specific character animation alongside other animators, including Jafar in Aladdin, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Pumbaa in The Lion King, and Captain Long John Silver in Treasure Planet. He was also the supervising animator for projects including Doctor Joshua Strongbear Sweet in Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center in 2010.
Dr. Guion S. Bluford Jr., PH.D. (Colonel, USAF, Ret.) – Astronaut and Aerospace Engineer
Eventual location: Tomorrowland
Dr. Guion S. Bluford Jr. is a former NASA astronaut, American aerospace engineer, and retired United States Air Force officer and fighter pilot. Bluford was the first African American in space when he went on a mission aboard the Orbiter Challenger in 1983. During his tenure with NASA, Bluford conducted a total of four space missions. In 1997, he was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame, followed by the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2010, and finally the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2019.
Downtown Disney District
Nikkolas Smith – Artist and Activist
Location: Downtown Disney LIVE! Stage
Nikkolas Smith, as an artist and activist, is a self-described combination of the two or an “artivist.” He is an award-winning author, New York Times best-selling illustrator, and film concept artist. Smith spent 11 years working as a Disney Imagineer and, in that time, discovered the ways in which both art and architecture can tell stories and bring people together. He works to bring social justice into his art and centers marginalized voices. He even created the film concept art for Wakanda Forever and designed The Legacy Tower at the Downtown Disney District.
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