found: African American National Biography, accessed October 12, 2014, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Abdul, Raoul; opera singer, gay rights activist, book editor/publisher, secretary/personal assistant; born 07 November 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio, United States; worked as a journalist for Cleveland Call and Post; earned a diploma from the Vienna Academy of Music (1962); studied at Harvard University, the New School for Social Research, the Cleveland Institute of Music; sang at Vermont's Marlboro Music Festival (1956) and the Vienna Music Festival (1962); literary assistant to Langston Hughes (1961-1967); was a gay rights pioneer; his lectures on famous gays in the African American community at Riverside Church and elsewhere became legendary; active in organizations devoted to gay rights, including the Stonewall Mattachine Society and One Incorporated; was the entertainment editor for the New York Amsterdam News; died 15 January 2010 in New York, New York, United States)
