choreographer, dance studio owner, and journalist, was born William Joseph Pierce in Purcellville, Virginia, the only child of Dennis Pierce and Nellie Shorter, who spent their childhoods enslaved and later became truck farmers. After attending the public schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, Pierce attended two colleges, Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and Howard University in Washington, D.C. During World War I he served with the Eighth Illinois Regiment in the United States Army.Pierce was a journalist, an often overlooked aspect of his life and work. He was a reporter and editor for the Chicago Defender, the (Washington, D.C.) Dispatcher, and the Washington Eagle adding to the stature of these newspapers in the area of arts coverage But Pierce s heart belonged to show business He made his dancing debut in the early 1920s at the Pekin Theater in Chicago During ...