AP AFAM - Prominent Figures

Bantu-speaking Peoples

• Spread their linguistic influences across the African continent (hundreds of languages from Bantu linguistic group spoken in Africa presently).

• Created innovations such as ironworking and agriculture.

King Ezana (Aksum)

• Under his leadership, Aksum was established as the first African society to convert to Christianity.

• His military acquisitions helped increase the territory and influence of Aksum.

Nok Society

• Holds the title of the first iron-working society.

• The meticulousness of Nok sculptures and their potential themes (wisdom, solemnity, etc.) reveal the sophistication of the Nok society.

Sundiata Keita (Mande)

• Conquered Ghana and established the Mali Empire in 1240.

• Gained control of the gold mines, contributing to the Mali Empire’s economic prosperity.

Shona (Kings)

• Influenced agricultural advancements in the Kingdom of Zimbabwe by trading the Kingdom’s cattle on the Swahili Coast.

• The architectural feats and military defenses of Great Zimbabwe display the autonomy of the Shona kings.

Mansa Musa

• Under his leadership, the Mali Empire flourished as he established the empire as center for trade, learning, and cultural exchange.

• His lavish pilgrimage to Mecca and his wealth brought global attention to the Mali Empire.

Griots

• Preserved history through oral traditions, such as the Epic of Sundiata which maintains the history of the Mande community.

• Also served as praise singers, employing instruments such as the balafon, kora, the khalam (or xalam), the ngoni, the kontigi, and the goje.

King Nzinga a Nkuwu (João I)

• Under his leadership, the Kingdom of Kongo adopted Christianity.

• Helped strengthen Kongo’s trade relationship with Portugal, contributing to the kingdom’s economic prosperity.

Nzinga Mbemba (Alfonso I)

• Helped his father convert the Kingdom of Kongo to Roman Catholicism.

• Wrote a letter to Portuguese King João III, urging an end to the slave trade.

Queen Idia of Benin

• Contributed to Benin’s military accomplishments through her spiritual abilities and medicinal knowledge.

• Regarded as a great influence on her son Esigie’s success as the ruler of Benin.

Queen Njinga of Ndongo-Matamba

• Helped maintain Matamba’s independence by participating in guerilla warfare against the Portuguese.

• Her success as a leader resulted in the reign of many other women rulers in Matamba in the following century.

João de Sá Panasco

• An African Portuguese knight of the Order of Saint James.

• Represented the wide variety of roles held by Africans in urban Iberian port cities.

Ladinos

• Free and enslaved Africans who traveled with Europeans on their explorations of the Americas.

• They had a sense of social mobility dye to their familiarity with many languages, cultural norms, and commercial practices.

Solomon Northup

• A free Black musician who was kidnapped and illegally sold into slavery.

• He discussed his experience being enslaved in his narrative, Twelve Years a Slave.

Maria Stewart

• An African American teacher, journalist, and abolitionist.

• Advocated for the end to slavery and specifically spoke to the experience of African American women and their rights.

Toussaint L’Ouverture

• A key figure in the Haitian Revolution.

• He was formerly enslaved in Haiti and later led a successful slave revolt which freed the enslaved people in the French colony of Saint Domingue, Haiti.

Queen Njinga

• Leader of Matamba and Ndongo.

• Her success as a military and political leader led to nearly a century more of women leaders in Matamba.

Paul Cuffee

• Supported emigrationism and was a supporter of Black nationalism.

• He played a key role in helping previously enslaved Africans emigrate to Sierra Leone.

 Creoles

• Ladinos were a generation known as Atlantic Creoles.

• Atlantic Creoles had a familiarity with many languages, cultural norms, and commercial practices, which gave them some sense of social mobility.

Francis Ellen Watkins Harper

• African American abolitionist, suffragist, and poet.

• She was one of the first African American women to be published in the U.S.

Frederick Douglass

• A prominent abolitionist and writer.

• In the 19th-century, he became the most photographed man.

Maroons

• Formerly enslaved people and people who were born free who created autonomous spaces for themselves.

• Maintained their autonomy and political sovereignty through military defense.

Escravo

• An enslaved person who arrived in Brazil as a child.

• Most likely arrived around the time of the collapse of the Oyo Empire.

Martin Delaney

• Emigrationist and abolitionist who embraced Black nationalism.

• One of the first African Americans to publish a novel and became the first Black field officer in the U.S. army.

Juan Garrido

• A free man who became the first known African who arrived in North America.

• Explored present-day Florida during a Spanish expedition and maintained his freedom by serving in the Spanish military forces.

Gullah

• An African American ethnic group who resided on the coast of South Carolina.

• Their language was the Gullah language, which was employed by enslaved people to maintain linguistic traditions.

Henry Highland Garnett

• Supporter of African American emigration.

• Helped establish the Cuban Anti-Slavery Society in New York (1872) and was appointed U.S. minister to Liberia after the Civil War.

Charles Deslondes

• Led around 500 enslaved people in the largest slave revolt in the U.S., the Louisiana Revolt of 1811.

• Led the people from local plantations and maroon communities on a march toward New Orleans.

Cherokee

• One of the five major nations of the Indigenous community.

• The Cherokee people, along with other Indigenous nations, enslaved African Americans.

Harriet Tubman

• One of the most prominent conductors of the Underground Railroad who helped around 80 African Americans achieve freedom.

• Photos of her were critical to demonstrating Black achievement and potential.

 Phillis Wheatley

• African American author.

• The first African American to publish a book of poetry.

Dred Scott

• Sued for his freedom.

• His Supreme Court case resulted in the declaration that enslaved people were not and could never become U.S. citizens.

Paul Lawerence Dunbar

• An African American poet and novelist.

• One of his most prominent poems was “We Wear the Mask.” 

Madison Washington

• An enslaved cook aboard the slave brig, Creole.

• Led a mutiny aboard this slave ship, which was transporting people from Virginia to New Orleans.

 Creek

• Among the 5 large nations of the Indigenous community who enslaved African Americans.

• Creek economy relied heavily on corn, bean, and squash production.

Sojouner Truth

• Went on speaking tours to spread the cause of abolitionism and recruited Black soldiers to the Union army.

• Photos of her displayed the centrality of Black women’s leadership in the fight for freedom.

Scipio Moorehead

• An enslaved African painter.

• Created the first known individual portrait of an African American, Philis Wheatly.

Elizabeth Key

• Had a White father and an enslaved Black mother.

• She became the first Black woman in North America to successfully sue for her freedom.

David Drake

• An enslaved potter in South Carolina who defied bans on literacy.

• Practiced creative expression by exercised creative expression by writing poems on the jars he created on many topics, it including love, family, spirituality, and slavery.

 Palenques and Quilombos

• Palenques were the name of Maroon communities in Spanish America.

• In Brazil, these communities were known as Quilombos. The Quilombo dos Palmares, the largest maroon society in Brazil, lasted nearly 100 years.

Choctaw

• One of the 5 large nations of the Indigenous community who enslaved African Americans.

• Choctaw freedmen advocated for their rights as tribal citizens, leading to the Arkansas Petition for Freedmen’s Rights, 1869.

Harriet Jacobs

• African-American abolitionist and writer.

• Wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl  in 1861.

Willie Cole

• A contemporary artist who repurposed the iconography of slave ships to honor those who were transported in the Mid Atlantic slave trade.

• Used an everyday object (an iron) to symbolize the history of his ancestors in his art piece, Stowage.

Nat Turner

• Led the Southampton Insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. 

• This was the deadliest slave revolt in U.S. history.

Francisco Menéndez

• An enslaved Senegambian who fought against the English in the Yamasee War.

• Found refuge in Saint Augustine.

Bayano

• Captured from the Yoruba community in West Africa.

• Led a maroon community in wars against the Spanish for several years in Panama in the 16th century.

Chickasaw

• One of the 5 large nations of the Indigenous community who enslaved African Americans.

• Along with the Choctaw, Chickasaw freedmen advocated for their rights as tribal citizens, but were unsuccessful.

Thomas Jefferson

• American Founding Father who served as the 3rd U.S. president.

• In a letter to Rufus King in 1802, he expressed the desire of other leaders to exile the enslaved people who resisted to Africa.

Sengbe Pieh Joseph Cinqúe

• A Mende captive from Sierra Leone.

• Led a group of enslaved people on one of the most famous revolts aboard a slave ship (the Amistad).

Denmark Vesey

• A free Black and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina.

• Was accused and convicted of planning a substantial slave revolt in 1822.

Jemmy

• An enslaved man from the Angola region.

• Led nearly 100 enslaved Africans on a march toward Spanish Florida (Stono Rebellion).

Queen Nanny

• Led a community of formerly enslaved Africans known as the Windward Maroons.

• Led maroons in Jamaica in the wars against the English in the 18th century.

Seminole

• Some maroons found refuge among the Seminoles in Florida and were welcomed as family.

• Later on, the Seminole adopted slave codes and assisted in the recapture of enslaved Black people who fled for freedom.

 Wallace Willis

• A contemporary artist who repurposed the iconography of slave ships to honor those who were transported in the Mid Atlantic slave trade.

• Used an everyday object (an iron) to symbolize the history of his ancestors in his art piece, Stowage.

Nat Turner

• Led the Southampton Insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831. 

• This was the deadliest slave revolt in U.S. history.

Francisco  Menéndez

• An enslaved Senegambian who fought against the English in the Yamasee War.

• Found refuge in Saint Augustine.

Bayano

• Captured from the Yoruba community in West Africa.

• Led a maroon community in wars against the Spanish for several years in Panama in the 16th century.

Chickasaw

• One of the 5 large nations of the Indigenous community who enslaved African Americans.

• Along with the Choctaw, Chickasaw freedmen advocated for their rights as tribal citizens but were unsuccessful.

Thomas Jefferson

• American Founding Father who served as the 3rd U.S. president.

• In a letter to Rufus King in 1802, he expressed the desire of other leaders to exile the enslaved people who resisted to Africa.

Sengbe Pieh Joseph Cinqúe

• A Mende captive from Sierra Leone.

• Led a group of enslaved people on one of the most famous revolts aboard a slave ship (the Amistad).

Denmark Vesey

• A free Black and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina.

• Was accused and convicted of planning a substantial slave revolt in 1822.

Jemmy

• An enslaved man from the Angola region.

• Led nearly 100 enslaved Africans on a march toward Spanish Florida (Stono Rebellion).

Queen Nanny

• Led a community of formerly enslaved Africans known as the Windward Maroons.

• Led maroons in Jamaica in the wars against the English in the 18th century.

Seminole

• Some maroons found refuge among the Seminoles in Florida and were welcomed as family.

• Later on, the Seminole adopted slave codes and assisted in the recapture of enslaved Black people who fled for freedom.

 Wallace Willis

• A formerly enslaved Black person in Choctaw territory in Mississippi who was displaced to Oklahoma territory during the Trail of Tears.

• Documented and composed “Steal Away.”

Hiram R. Revels

• First African American to serve in either house of the U.S. Congress. 

• In addition to his political leadership, he was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

John R. Lynch

• The first African American Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

• The only African American to represent Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ida B. Wells

- An African American journalist, civil rights advocate, and feminist active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

- Her writings raised awareness about how lynching terrorized African Americans and prevented them from progressing.

Booker T. Washington

- Advocated for industrial education and training to contribute to African Americans’ economic progress and independence.

- Debated methods for Black advancement with W.E.B. Du Bois, who furthered a civil rights agenda.

William Wilberforce

- A British politician who advocated for the abolishment of the slave trade in the parliament.

- Helped found the Anti-Slavery Society in 1787.

Carter G. Woodson

- Son of formerly enslaved people, founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).

- Created Negro History Week, which later became Black History Month.

James T. Rapier

- Founded Alabama’s first Black-owned newspaper.

- Alabama’s second Black representative.

Union General William T. Sherman

- Issued Special Field Orders No. 15 in 1865.

- This redistributed around 400,000 acres of land between South Carolina and Florida to newly freed African American families in segments of 40 acres.

Claude McKay

- A Jamaican poet who was a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

- Through his writings, he sought to  encourage African Americans to preserve their dignity and fight back against racial violence.

Nannie Helen Borroughs

- Daughter of enslaved people and an educator, suffragist, and church leader.

- Helped create the National Association of Colored Women in 1896.

Alain Locke

- An African American writer, philosopher, and educator who was the first African American Rhodes scholar in 1907.

- In The New Negro: An Interpretation, he encouraged young Black artists to reject being the sole representative of a race.

Jacob Lawrence

- An African American painter whose work depicted historical moments, social issues, and the everyday lives of African Americans.

- Created The Migration Series to display African Americans’ hopes and challenges during the Great Migration.

Blanche K. Bruce

 - He was born enslaved.

- The first African American elected to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate.

Andrew Johnson

- 17th U.S. President (1865 - 1869)

- Revoked Special Field Orders No. 15 → African Americans evicted or shifted into sharecropping contracts.

James Weldon Johnson

- An African American writer and activist who coined the term “Red Summer.”

- Wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is often referred to as the Black National Anthem.

Anna Julia Cooper

- The daughter of an enslaved woman and her enslaver. 

- Her writings detailed the mistreatment of Black women and brought attention to how U.S. historical narratives exclude the voices of Black women.

Marcus Garvey

- A Pan-Africanist who founded UNIA.

- Encouraged African Americans to embrace their shared African heritage and achieve industrial, political, and educational progress and self-determination through separatist Black institutions.

Joseph H. Rainey

- Born enslaved, the first African American to serve in the House of Representatives.

- The longest-serving Black lawmaker in Congress during Reconstruction.

Ray W. Logan

- A Pan-Africanist and African-American historian.

- Studied the post-Reconstruction period, who characterized this period as “the nadir.”

W.E.B. Dubois

- In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois presented the metaphor of the “color line” to refer to the racial discrimination and segregation in the U.S. even after slavery. 

- Used photography to show what “the New Negro” looked like at the Paris Exhibition in 1900.

Madame C.J. Walker

- The first woman millionaire in the U.S.

- An African American entrepreneur who created products that highlighted the beauty of Black people.

James Vanderzee

- An African American photographer who reshaped peoples’ views of African Americans by displaying what the “New Negro” looked like.

- His photographs highlighted the liberated spirit, beauty, and dignity of Black people.

Langston Hughes

- An African American poet and social activist.

- His work was critical to connceting the New Negro, négritude, and negrismo movements as he translated works from French and Spanish to English and vice versa.

Wilfredo Lam

• An Afro-Cuban artist who was a leading artists of the negrismo periods.

• His painting: “The Jungle” (1943) represents the legacies of slavery and colonicalism in Cuba.

A. Phillip Randolph

• President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

•  Directed the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

John Lewis

• President of the SNCC.

• His prominent speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom advocated for the urgency of civil rights.

Pauli Murray 

• A pioneering lawyer.

• Her denial from Harvard law for being a woman developed guidelines for desegregation regarded as critical to Brown v. Board of Education.

Aime Cesaire

• A significant proponent of négritude and negrismo. 

• He coined the term négritude in French.

Lois Mailou Jones

• Created Les Fétiches in 1938, conveying the strength, beauty, and proytection in African ancestral heritage.

• Worked as an illustartor for some of the first Black history magazines published by W.E.B. Du Bois and Carter G. Woodson.

Martin Luther King Jr.

• President of SCLC.

• Advocated for nonviolent direct resistance inspired by Christian principles and the work of Gandhi.

Roy Wilkins

• President of NAACP.

• Participated in Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965.

Fannie Lou Hamer

• Emphasized racial and gender discrimination during the Black Freedom movement.

• Co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to counter the local Democratic Party's attempts at blocking Black participation (1964).

Frantz Fanon

• A prominent advocate of négritude and negrismo.

• An Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist whose works are significant to post-colonial studies, critical theory, and Marxism.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

• Co-founder of the NAACP.

• A journalist whose works advocated for an end to lynching.

Ella Baker

• Often regarded as the “mother of the civil rights movement” due to her influences in the NAACP, the SCLC, and the SNCC. 

• Advocated for group-centered leadership rather than leader-centered groups in the civil rights movement.