Notable Black figures

Notable Black Figures

Pioneers and Influencers

  • Bessie ColemanBirth year: 1892

  • Claudette ColvinBirth year: 1939

  • Mae JemisonBirth year: 1956

  • Ruby BridgesBirth year: 1954

  • Bayard RustinBirth year: 1912

  • Jane BolinBirth year: 1908

  • Marsha P. JohnsonBirth year: 1945

  • Alice CoachmanBirth year: 1923

  • Dorothy HeightBirth year: 1912

  • Gordon ParksBirth year: 1912

  • Alvin AileyBirth year: 1931

  • Robert Sengstacke AbbottBirth year: 1870

  • Rosa ParksBirth year: 1913

  • Arthur AsheBirth year: 1943

  • Charles DrewBirth year: 1904

Key Contributors

  • Eunice CarterBirth year: 1899

  • George Washington Carver

  • Gwendolyn BrooksBirth year: 1917

  • Muhammad Ali

  • Marian Anderson

  • Maya Angelou

  • James Baldwin

  • Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)

  • Mary McLeod Bethune

  • Elaine Brown

Activists and Politicians

  • H. Rap Brown (Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin)

  • Ens. Jesse L. Brown

  • Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)

  • Shirley Chisholm

  • Rep. Bill Clay

  • Eldridge Cleaver

  • Kathleen Cleaver

  • Rep. George W. Collins

Civil Rights Leaders

  • Rep. John Conyers

  • Dr. Angela Y. Davis

  • Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.

  • Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.

  • Rep. Ron Dellums

  • Rep. Charles Diggs

  • Frederick Douglass

  • Dr. Charles Drew

  • Medgar Evers

Cultural Figures and Activists

  • Walter Fauntroy

  • Marcus Garvey

  • Nikki Giovanni

  • Fannie Lou Hamer

  • Fred Hampton

  • Lorraine Hansberry

  • Rep. Augustus Hawkins

  • Ericka Huggins

  • Jack Johnson

Icons in the Civil Rights Movement

  • Rep. Barbara Jordan

  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • Rep. John Lewis

  • Miriam Makeba

  • Justice Thurgood Marshall

  • Rep. Ralph Metcalfe

  • Dorie Miller

  • Rep. Parren Mitchell

  • Elijah Muhammad

Contemporary Leaders

  • Huey P. Newton

  • Rep. Robert N.C. Nix

  • President Barack Obama

  • Dr. Harold T. Pinkett

  • A. Phillip Randolph

  • Rep. Charles Rangel

  • Gloria Richardson

  • Paul Robeson

  • Jackie Robinson

Innovators and Inventors

  • Bayard Rustin

  • Dred Scott

  • Bobby Seale

  • Mary Church Terrell

  • Harriet Tubman

  • Booker T. Washington

  • Ida B. Wells-Barnett

  • Dr. Carter G. Woodson

  • Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz)

Musicians

  • Aretha Franklin

    • Genre: R&B/Soul, Alternative/Indie, Dance/Electronic

  • Stevie Wonder

  • Louis Armstrong

    • Genre: Jazz, Children's Music

  • Ray Charles

  • Usher

    • Genre: R&B/Soul, Pop

  • Ella Fitzgerald

    • Genre: Jazz, Holiday

  • Tina Turner

    • Genre: R&B/Soul

  • Whitney Houston

    • Genre: Pop

  • Alicia Keys

    • Genre: R&B/Soul

  • Chaka Khan

    • Genre: R&B/Soul

  • Marian Anderson

    • Genre: Classical

  • Nina Simone

    • Genre: R&B/Soul, Jazz, Blues

  • Billie Holiday

  • Charley Pride

    • Genre: Country

Inventors

  • Garrett Morgan

  • Marie Van Brittan Brown

  • Frederick McKinley Jones

  • Lewis Latimer

  • Mark Dean

  • Elijah McCoy

  • Thomas Jennings

  • Alexander Miles

  • James West

  • Madam C. J. Walker

  • George Edward Alcorn Jr.

  • George Crum

  • Otis Boykin

  • Patricia Bath

  • Philip B. Downing

  • Alice H. Parker

  • Jan Ernst Matzeliger

  • Lonnie Johnson

  • Marian Croak

Cultural and Sports Figures

  • Oprah Winfrey

  • Kobe Bryant1978–2020

  • Rashida Jones

  • Michelle Obama

  • Sammy Davis Jr.1925–1990

  • Vanessa Williams

  • Langston Hughes1901–1967

  • Tina Turner1939–2023

  • Michael Jordan

  • Queen Latifah

  • Don Cornelius1936–2012

  • Al Sharpton

  • Shaquille O'Neal