Famous Index

Morrison began writing fiction as part of an informal group of poets and writers at Howard University who met to discuss their work.
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Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (; born April 16, 1973) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and actor. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of 'Locked Up', the first single from his debut album, Trouble.
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Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), often known as The Reverend Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer, best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including 'Take Me to the River', 'Tired of Being Alone', 'I'm Still in Love with You', 'Love and Happiness', and his signature song, 'Let's Stay Together'. Inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, Green was referred to on the museum's site as being 'one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music'. He has also been referred to as 'The Last of the Great Soul Singers'. Green was included in the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, ranking at No. 65, as well as its list of the 100 Greatest Singers, at No. 14.
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Alwin 'Al' Lopez Jarreau (March 12, 1940 – February 12, 2017) was an American singer and musician. He received a total of seven Grammy Awards and was nominated for over a dozen more. Jarreau is perhaps best known for his 1981 album Breakin' Away. He also sang the theme song of the 1980s television series Moonlighting, and was among the performers on the 1985 charity song 'We Are the World.'
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Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of black American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.Haley's first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with the subject, a major black leader.He was working on a second family history novel at his death. Haley had requested that David Stevens, a screenwriter, complete it; the book was published as Queen: The Story of an American Family. It was adapted as a miniseries, Alex Haley's Queen, broadcast in 1993.
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Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, actress and philanthropist. A classically-trained pianist, Keys was composing songs by age 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Columbia Records.
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Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III (born January 7, 1979), known as Aloe Blacc (), is a Panamanian-American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, actor, businessman and philanthropist. He is best known for his singles 'I Need a Dollar', 'The Man', which topped the charts in the United Kingdom, and for writing and performing vocals on Avicii's 'Wake Me Up', which topped the charts in 22 countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom. Aside from his solo career, Blacc is also a member of hip hop duo Emanon, alongside American record producer Exile.
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Alvin Ailey (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an African-American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, one of the most successful dance companies in the world. He created AAADT and its affiliated Ailey School as havens for nurturing black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. His work fused theatre, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with black vernacular, creating hope-fueled choreography that continues to spread global awareness of black life in America. Ailey's choreographic masterpiece Revelations is recognized as one of the most popular and most performed ballets in the world. On July 15, 2008, the United States Congress passed a resolution designating AAADT a “vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World.” That same year, in recognition of AAADT's 50th year anniversary, then Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared December 4 'Alvin Ailey Day' in New York City while then Governor David Paterson honoured the organization on behalf of New York State. See profile

Dr. Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (August 10, 1858 – February 27, 1964) was an American author, educator, sociologist, speaker, Black Liberation activist, and one of the most prominent African-American scholars in United States history. Born into slavery in 1858, Cooper triumphed against the odds of gender and race to receive a world-class education and claim power and prestige in academic and social circles. Upon receiving her PhD in history from the Sorbonne in 1924, Cooper became the fourth African-American woman to earn a doctoral degree. She was also a prominent member of Washington, D.C.'s African-American community and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Cooper made contributions to social science fields, particularly in sociology. She is sometimes called 'the mother of Black Feminism.'
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Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter, civil rights activist, actress, and pianist. Franklin began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was minister. At the age of 18, she embarked on a secular career recording for Columbia Records. However, she achieved only modest success. She found acclaim and commercial success after signing with Atlantic Records in 1966. Hit songs such as 'Respect', 'Chain of Fools', 'Think', '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman', 'I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)', and 'I Say a Little Prayer', propelled her past her musical peers. By the end of the 1960s, Aretha Franklin had come to be known as 'The Queen of Soul'.
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Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that influenced many later electric blues guitarists.
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Barack Hussein Obama II ( (listen); born August 4, 1961) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American to be elected to the presidency. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008.
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Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) was an American lawyer, educator and politician who was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. She was best known for her eloquent opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon, and as the first African-American as well as the first woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous other honors. She was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1978 to 1980. She was the first African-American woman to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery.Jordan's work as chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, which recommended reducing legal immigration by about one-third, is frequently cited by American immigration restrictionists.
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Barry Eugene Carter (September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003), better known by his stage name Barry White, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and composer. A three-time Grammy Award–winner known for his distinctive bass-baritone voice and romantic image, his greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with The Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring soul, funk, and disco songs such as his two biggest hits: 'You're the First, the Last, My Everything' and 'Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe'.
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Bayard Rustin (; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights.
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Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, record producer and dancer. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Beyoncé performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer of the R&B girl-group Destiny's Child. Managed by her father, Mathew Knowles, the group became one of the best-selling girl groups in history. Their hiatus saw Beyoncé's theatrical film debut in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) and the release of her first solo album, Dangerously in Love (2003).
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Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), better known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed 'Lady Day' by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, which made up for her limited range and lack of formal music education.
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Billy Porter (born September 21, 1969) is an American Broadway theater performer, singer, and actor. He attended the Musical Theater program at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School's School of Drama, graduated from Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, and achieved fame performing on Broadway before starting a solo career as a singer and actor.Porter won the 2013 Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Lola in Kinky Boots at the 67th Tony Awards. For the role, Porter also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. In 2014 Porter won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Kinky Boots. He currently stars in the television series Pose for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, becoming the first openly gay black man to be nominated and win in any lead acting category at the Primetime Emmys.

This list of black Academy Award winners and nominees is current as of the 91st Academy Awards ceremony which was held on February 24, 2019.
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Robert Nesta Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter who became an international musical and cultural icon, blending mostly reggae, ska, and rocksteady in his compositions. He started in 1963 with the group the Wailers and forged a distinctive songwriting and vocal style that became popular with audiences worldwide. The Wailers released some of the earliest reggae records with producer Lee 'Scratch' Perry.
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Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris alongside tenors Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman.
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Bryan A. Stevenson (born November 14, 1959) is an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, Stevenson has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system, especially children.

He has helped achieve United States Supreme Court decisions that prohibit sentencing children under 18 to death or to life imprisonment without parole. Stevenson has assisted in cases that have saved dozens of prisoners from the death penalty, advocated for poor people, and developed community-based reform litigation aimed at improving the administration of criminal justice.
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Cynthia Delores Tucker (née Nottage; October 4, 1927 – October 12, 2005) was an American politician and civil rights activist perhaps best known for her participation in the Civil Rights Movement and her stance against gangsta rap music beginning in the early 1990s.

Tucker had a long history in the Civil Rights Movement. Early on, her civil activities included participating in the 1965 march in Selma, Alabama alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and raising funds for the NAACP.
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Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875 – April 3, 1950) was an American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916, Woodson has been cited as the 'father of black history'.
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Charles Young (March 12, 1864 – January 8, 1922) was an American soldier. He was the third African-American graduate of the United States Military Academy, the first black U.S. national park superintendent, first black military attaché, first black man to achieve the rank of colonel in the United States Army, and highest-ranking black officer in the regular army until his death in 1922.
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Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actor. Born in Tappahannock, Virginia, he was involved in his church choir and several local talent shows from a young age. Having signed with Jive Records in 2004, Brown released his self-titled debut studio album the following year. It peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200 and was later certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), selling an overall three million copies worldwide.
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Colin Luther Powell (; born April 5, 1937) is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. During his military career, Powell also served as National Security Advisor (1987–1989), as Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989) and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993), holding the latter position during the Persian Gulf War. Powell was the first, and so far the only, Jamaican American to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under U.S. President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, the first black person to serve in that position.
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Condoleezza Rice (; born November 14, 1954) is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush. Rice was the first female African-American Secretary of State, as well as the second African-American Secretary of State (after Colin Powell), and the second female Secretary of State (after Madeleine Albright). Rice was President Bush's National Security Advisor during his first term, making her the first woman to serve in that position.
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David Goggins (born February 17, 1975) is an American ultramarathon runner, ultra-distance cyclist, triathlete, motivational speaker and author. He is a retired United States Navy SEAL and former United States Air Force Tactical Air Control Party member who served in the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. He is the former world record holder for the most pull-ups done in 24 hours. His self-help memoir, Can't Hurt Me, was released in 2018.
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Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer, actress, and record producer. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Ross rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, which, during the 1960s, became Motown's most successful act, and are the best charting girl group in US history, as well as one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. The group released a record-setting twelve number-one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including 'Where Did Our Love Go', 'Baby Love', 'Come See About Me', 'Stop! In the Name of Love', 'You Can't Hurry Love', 'You Keep Me Hangin' On', 'Love Child', and 'Someday We'll Be Together'.
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Donald Cortez Cornelius (September 27, 1936 – February 1, 2012) was an American television show host and producer who was best known as the creator of the nationally syndicated dance and music show Soul Train, which he hosted from 1971 until 1993. Cornelius sold the show to MadVision Entertainment in 2008. See profile

Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951 – October 17, 2019) was an American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for Maryland's 7th congressional district from 1996 until his death in 2019. The district includes just over half of the city of Baltimore, including most of the majority-black precincts of Baltimore County, as well as most of Howard County. He previously served in the Maryland House of Delegates. He was a member of the Democratic Party from 1996. Cummings served in the Maryland House from 1983 through 1996. That year, he was elected to the U.S. House. Cummings served as the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform from January 2019 until his death in October of that year.
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Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African American to hold the position of U.S. Attorney General (in both a confirmed and acting position).
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Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins; January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012) was an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz and gospel.
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Clerow 'Flip' Wilson Jr. (December 8, 1933 – November 25, 1998) was an American comedian and actor best known for his television appearances during the late 1960s and the 1970s. From 1970 to 1974, Wilson hosted his own weekly variety series, The Flip Wilson Show, and introduced viewers to his recurring character Geraldine. The series earned Wilson a Golden Globe and two Emmy Awards, and at one point was the second highest rated show on network television. Wilson was the first African-American to host a successful variety TV show. (Sammy Davis Jr. had had a short-lived variety show in 1966).
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Frederick Drew Gregory (born January 7, 1941), (Col, USAF, Ret.), is a former United States Air Force pilot, military engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut as well as former NASA Deputy Administrator. He also served briefly as NASA Acting Administrator in early 2005, covering the period between the departure of Sean O'Keefe and the swearing in of Michael Griffin.
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Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. (March 4, 1877 – July 27, 1963) was an African American inventor and businessman as well as an influential political leader. Morgan's most notable invention was a smoke hood. Morgan also discovered and developed a chemical hair-processing and straightening solution. He created a successful company based on the discovery along with a complete line of hair-care products.
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Gwendolyn L. Ifill ( EYE-fəl; September 29, 1955 – November 14, 2016) was an American Peabody Award-winning journalist, television newscaster, and author. In 1999, she became the first woman of African descent to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program with Washington Week in Review. She was the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor, with Judy Woodruff, of PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS. Ifill was a political analyst and moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice-presidential debates. She authored the best-selling book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.
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Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. March 1822 – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army.
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Helen Appo Cook (July 21, 1837 – November 20, 1913) was a wealthy, prominent African American community activist in Washington, D.C. and a leader in the women's club movement. Cook was a founder and president of the Colored Women's League, which consolidated with another organization in 1896 to become the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), an organization still active in the 21st century. Cook supported voting rights and was a member of the Niagara Movement, which opposed racial segregation and African American disenfranchisement. In 1898, Cook publicly rebuked Susan B. Anthony, president of the National Woman's Suffrage Association, and requested she support universal suffrage following Anthony's speech at a U.S. Congress House Committee on Judiciary hearing.
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Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931), more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American investigative journalist, educator, and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She arguably became the most famous black woman in America, during a life that was centered on combating prejudice and violence.
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Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. A prominent figure in popular culture, she is known for sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, and elaborate stage shows.
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Since the start of his career as a solo recording artist in 2009, Jason has sold over 30 million singles and has achieved five Top 5 singles.
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Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame in 2004 as a finalist on the third season of American Idol, placing seventh. Hudson made her film debut as Effie White in Dreamgirls (2006), for which she received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also appeared in Sex and the City (2008), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), and Black Nativity (2013). In 2015, she made her Broadway debut in the role of Shug Avery in The Color Purple.
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Jesse LeRoy Brown (October 13, 1926 – December 4, 1950) was a United States Navy officer. He was the first African-American aviator in the U.S. Navy, a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the first African-American naval officer killed in the Korean War. Born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to an impoverished family, Brown was avidly interested in aircraft from a young age. He graduated as salutatorian of his high school, notwithstanding its racial segregation, and was later awarded a degree from Ohio State University. Brown enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1946, becoming a midshipman.

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James Marshall Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most influential musicians of all time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as 'arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music'.
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John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, activist, and actor. Prior to the release of Legend's debut album, Get Lifted, (2004) he had collaborated with already established artists and signed to Kanye West's GOOD Music.
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John Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights leader who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. Lewis worked 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health-care reform and immigration.
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Jordin Brianna Sparks (born December 22, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She rose to fame in 2007 after winning the sixth season of American Idol at age 17, becoming the youngest winner in the series' history. Her self-titled debut studio album, released later that year, was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold over two million copies worldwide. The album spawned the Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles 'Tattoo' and 'No Air'; the latter, a collaboration with Chris Brown, is currently the third highest-selling single by any American Idol contestant, selling over three million digital copies in the United States.
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Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent, and civil rights activist. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. Baker was the first African-American to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.
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Kamala Devi Harris ( KAH-mə-lə; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the junior United States senator from California since 2017. She is the Democratic vice presidential nominee for the 2020 election.

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Kanye Omari West (; born June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion designer. His musical career has been marked by dramatic changes in styles, incorporating an eclectic range of influences including soul, baroque pop, electro, indie rock, synth-pop, industrial and gospel. Over the course of his career, West has been responsible for cultural movements and progressions within mainstream hip hop and popular music at large.
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James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. He moved to New York City as a young man, where he made his career.

He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. He famously wrote about the period that 'the negro was in vogue', which was later paraphrased as 'when Harlem was in vogue'.
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Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter and rapper, known for being a member of Fugees and for her solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which won many awards and broke several sales records. Raised mostly in South Orange, New Jersey, Hill began singing with her music-oriented family during her childhood. In high school, Hill was approached by Pras Michel for a band he started, which his friend, Wyclef Jean, soon joined. They renamed themselves the Fugees and released the albums Blunted on Reality (1994), and the Grammy Award–winning The Score (1996), which sold six million copies in the U.S.
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Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is a Bahamian-American singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. His 'retro' style incorporates elements of rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop, folk, and ballads. In addition to singing lead and backing vocals, Kravitz often plays all of the instruments himself when recording.
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Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. Richie's style of his ballads with the Commodores and solo career launched him as one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980s.
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For the country singer, see Loretta Lynn.Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York under both President Bill Clinton (1999–2001) and Barack Obama (2010–2015). As a U.S. Attorney, Lynch oversaw federal prosecutions in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.
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Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Throughout his career, Vandross was an in-demand background vocalist for several different artists including Todd Rundgren, Judy Collins, Chaka Khan, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Barbra Streisand, Ben E. King, and Donna Summer. He later became a lead singer of the group Change, which released its gold-certified debut album, The Glow of Love, in 1980 on Warner Bros. Records. After Vandross left the group, he was signed to Epic Records as a solo artist and released his debut solo album, Never Too Much, in 1981.
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Sarah Breedlove (December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919), known as Madam C. J. Walker, was an African-American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a political and social activist. Walker was considered the wealthiest African-American businesswoman and wealthiest self-made woman in America at the time of her death in 1919. Although she was eulogized as the first female self-made millionaire in the US, her estate was worth an estimated $600,000 upon her death. According to Walker's obituary in The New York Times, 'she said herself two years ago [in 1917] that she was not yet a millionaire, but hoped to be some time'.
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Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel in space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Jemison joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected to serve for the STS-47 mission, during which she orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992.
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Malcolm X (1925–1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist. Some saw him as a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; others accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.
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Musa I (c. 1280 – c. 1337) or Mansa Musa was the tenth Mansa, which translates to 'sultan', 'conqueror', or 'emperor', of the wealthy West African Islamic Mali Empire. At the time of Musa's rise to the throne, the Malian Empire consisted of territory formerly belonging to the Ghana Empire in present-day southern Mauritania and in Melle (Mali) and the immediate surrounding areas. Musa held many titles, including 'Emir of Melle', 'Lord of the Mines of Wangara', 'Conqueror of Ghanata', and at least a dozen others. Mansa Musa conquered 24 cities, each with surrounding districts containing villages and estates. During his reign, Mali may have been the largest producer of gold in the world; it was at a point of exceptional demand for the commodity. One of the richest people in history, he is known to have been enormously wealthy; reported as being inconceivably rich by contemporaries, Time magazine reported: 'There's really no way to put an accurate number on his wealth.'
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Marc B Auguste Sr was instrumental in the development and the prototyping of a multi-purpose portable coin-organizer, which he shares intellectual property rights with his eldest son Marc Jr. and his daughter-in-law Jacqueline.
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Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1969 or 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and entrepreneur. Referred to as the 'Songbird Supreme' by the Guinness World Records, she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, power, melismatic style, and signature use of the whistle register.
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Marie Van Brittan Brown (October 30, 1922 – February 2, 1999) was an African American inventor. She was the inventor of the home security system (U.S. Patent 3,482,037) in 1966, along with her husband Albert Brown. In the same year they jointly applied for a patent, which was granted in 1969. Brown was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York; she died there at the age of 76.
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She was born in 1896, in Monterey, Virginia. she was the granddaughter of a slave and a white slave-owner. She moved to Chicago in 1912, and shortly thereafter, she began studying cosmetology. She graduated A.B. Molar Beauty School in Chicago in 1916, the first African American to achieve this. That year, at the age of 20, she married podiatrist Robert E. Joyner and opened her salon. That was where she met Madam C. J. Walker, an African American beauty entrepreneur, and the owner of a cosmetic empire.

Always a lover of women's cosmetics, Joyner went to work for her and oversaw 200 of Madame Walker's beauty schools as the national adviser. A major role was sending Walker's hair stylists door-to-door, dressed in black skirts and white blouses with black satchels containing a range of beauty products that were applied in the customer's house. Joyner taught some 15,000 stylists over her fifty-year career. She was also a leader in developing new products, such as her permanent wave machine. She helped write the first cosmetology laws for the state of Illinois, and founded a sorority and fraternity, Alpha Chi Pi Omega on October 27, 1945 as well as a national association for black beauticians.
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Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 until his assassination in 1968. Born in Atlanta, King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, tactics his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi helped inspire.
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Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr.; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, including 'Ain't That Peculiar', 'How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)' and 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine', and duet recordings with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Diana Ross and Tammi Terrell, later earning the titles 'Prince of Motown' and 'Prince of Soul'.
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Mary Fields (c. 1832–1914), also known as Stagecoach Mary and Black Mary, was the first African-American female star route mail carrier in the United States. She was not an employee of the United States Post Office; the Post Office Department did not hire or employ mail carriers for star routes but rather awarded star route contracts to persons who proposed the lowest qualified bids, and who in accordance with the Department’s application process posted bonds and sureties to substantiate their ability to finance the route.
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Mary Jane Blige (; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She started her career as a backing singer on Uptown Records in 1989. She has released 13 studio albums, eight of which have achieved multi-platinum worldwide sales.
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Gerald Maxwell Rivera (born May 23, 1973), also known by his stage name Maxwell, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. Along with fellow musicians D'Angelo and Erykah Badu, Maxwell has been credited with helping to shape what has been termed the 'neo soul' movement that rose to prominence during the late 1990s.
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Maya Angelou ( born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
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Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (born Rachel Meghan Markle; August 4, 1981), is a retired American actress who became a member of the British royal family upon her marriage to Prince Harry.

In 2017, she announced her engagement to Prince Harry, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, and moved to London. She retired from acting, closed her social media accounts, and started undertaking public engagements as part of the British royal family. She became the Duchess of Sussex upon her marriage to Prince Harry in May 2018.
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Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Dubbed the 'King of Pop', he is widely regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest entertainers of all time. Jackson's contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.
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Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American writer, lawyer, and university administrator who was First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to the 44th U.S. President, Barack Obama, and was the first African-American First Lady.
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Miriam E. Benjamin (September 16, 1861 – 1947) was an American school teacher and inventor from Washington, D.C. On July 17, 1888 she obtained a patent for her invention, the Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels. The chair would 'reduce the expenses of hotels by decreasing the number of waiters and attendants, to add to the convenience and comfort of guests and to obviate the necessity of hand clapping or calling aloud to obtain the services of pages.' The chair worked when the person sitting would press a small button on the back of the chair which would then send a signal to a waiting attendant. A light would illuminate as well, allowing the attendant to see which guest needed help. The system was eventually adopted by the United States House of Representatives and was a precursor to the signaling system used on airplanes for passengers to seek assistance from flight attendants.
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Misty Danielle Copeland (born September 10, 1982) is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history.
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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, and philanthropist. He is nicknamed 'The Greatest' and is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century and as one of the greatest boxers of all time.
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The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed 'Negro Major Leagues'.
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Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

The sixth of eight children born to a poor family in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was denied admission despite a well-received audition, which she attributed to racial discrimination. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.
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Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

The sixth of eight children born to a poor family in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.

She then applied for a scholarship to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was denied admission despite a well-received audition, which she attributed to racial discrimination.
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Dubbed the 'Queen of All Media', she was the richest African American of the 20th century and North America's first multi-billionaire black person, and has been ranked the greatest black philanthropist in American history. Several assessments rank her as the most influential woman in the world.
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Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo comprise the record production duo The Neptunes, producing hip hop and R&B music. He is the lead vocalist of the band N*E*R*D, that he formed with Hugo and childhood friend, Shay Haley.
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Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, actor and filmmaker. A prominent music figure of the 1980s, Prince was known for his eclectic work, flamboyant stage presence, extravagant fashion sense and use of makeup, and wide vocal range. A multi-instrumentalist, he was considered a guitar virtuoso and was also skilled at playing the drums, percussion, bass, keyboards, and synthesizer.
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Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called 'Brother Ray'. He was often referred to as 'The Genius'. Charles started losing his vision at the age of 5, and by 7 he was blind.
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Robyn Rihanna Fenty (; born 20 February 1988) is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, and raised in Bridgetown, she was discovered by American record producer Evan Rogers in her home country in 2003. Throughout 2004, she recorded demo tapes under the direction of Rogers and signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for its then-president, rapper and hip hop producer Jay-Z.
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Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel (born 19 February 1963), known professionally as Seal, is a British singer and songwriter who has sold over 20 million records worldwide, his first international hit being the song 'Crazy', released in 1991 and his most celebrated song being 'Kiss from a Rose', released in 1994.
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Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player and former world No. 1. She has won 23 major singles titles, most by any man or woman in the Open Era. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ranked her world No. 1 in singles on eight separate occasions between 2002 and 2017. She reached the No. 1 ranking for the first time on July 8, 2002. On her sixth occasion, she held the ranking for 186 consecutive weeks, tying the record set by Steffi Graf. In total, she has been No. 1 for 319 weeks, which ranks third in the Open Era among female players behind Graf and Martina Navratilova.
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Sheku Kanneh-Mason (born 4 April 1999) is a British cellist who won the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year award. He was the first black musician to win the award since its launch 38 years earlier. He played at the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle on 19 May 2018 under the direction of Christopher Warren-Green.
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Shirley Anita Chisholm (née St. Hill; November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, and she represented New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, as well as the first woman to appear in a United States presidential debate.In 2015, Chisholm was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Simone Arianne Biles (born March 14, 1997) is an American artistic gymnast. Biles is the 2016 Olympic individual all-around, vault and floor gold medalist, and balance beam bronze medalist. She was part of the gold-medal-winning team dubbed the 'Final Five' at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Biles is a five-time World all-around champion (2013–15, 2018–19), five-time World floor exercise champion (2013–15, 2018–19), three-time World balance beam champion (2014–15, 2019), two-time World vault champion (2018–19), a six-time United States national all-around champion (2013–16, 2018–19), and a member of the gold-medal-winning American teams at the 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Additionally, she is a three-time World silver medalist (2013 and 2014 on vault, 2018 on uneven bars) and a three-time World bronze medalist (2015 on vault, 2013 and 2018 on balance beam). Having won a combined total of thirty Olympic and World Championship medals, Biles is the most decorated American gymnast and the third most decorated gymnast of all time, behind Vitaly Scherbo (33 medals) and Larisa Latynina (32 medals). I
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Sophia Charlotte may refer to: Sophia Charlotte of Hanover (1668 – 1705), daughter of Ernst August, Elector of Hanover Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744 – 1818), Queen of the United Kingdom as spouse of George III. First Black Queen of England is known to have supported and been taught music by Johann Christian Bach. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at age eight dedicated his Opus 3 piece to the Queen at her request. Queen Charlotte helped to establish Kew Gardens, bringing among others, the Strelitzia Reginae, a flowering plant from South Africa.
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Stacey Yvonne Abrams (born December 9, 1973) is an American politician, lawyer, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, and served as minority leader from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the party's nominee in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, but lost to Brian Kemp without conceding the election. Abrams was the first black female major-party gubernatorial nominee in the history of the United States. In February 2019, she became the first African-American woman to deliver a response to the State of the Union address.
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Stevland Hardaway Morris (né Judkins; born May 13, 1950), better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist.
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The Black Eyed Peas (originally simply Black Eyed Peas) is an American musical group, consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo and singer Jessica Reynoso. Originally an alternative hip hop group, they subsequently changed their musical sound to pop and dance-pop music.
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The Supremes were an American female singing group and the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and are, to date, America's most successful vocal group with 12 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland.
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The Temptations is an American vocal group who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group’s work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 10 hit single 'Cloud Nine' in October 1968, pioneered psychedelic soul, and was significant in the evolution of R&B and soul music. The band members are known for their choreography, distinct harmonies, and dress style.
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Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American lawyer, serving as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education.
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Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock, November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss singer-songwriter, dancer and actress. Turner rose to prominence with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm before recording hit singles both with Ike and as a solo performer. One of the world's best-selling recording artists of all time, she has been referred to as The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll and has sold more than 200 million records worldwide to date. Turner is noted for her energetic stage presence, powerful vocals, career longevity and trademark legs.
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Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, February 18, 1931) is an American novelist, essayist, editor, teacher and professor emeritus at Princeton University.
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Usher Raymond IV (born October 14, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. He was born in Dallas, Texas, but raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee until moving to Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 12, his mother put him in local singing competitions, before catching the attention of a music A&R from LaFace Records. He released his self-titled debut album, Usher (1994) but rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way (1997).
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Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1, Williams is generally credited with ushering in a new era of power on the women's professional tennis tour.Williams has been ranked world No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association on three occasions, for a total of 11 weeks. She first reached the No. 1 ranking on February 25, 2002, the first African American woman to do so in the Open Era, and the second all time since Althea Gibson. Williams' seven Grand Slam singles titles are tied for 12th on the all-time list, and 8th on the Open Era list, more than any other active female player except her sister. She has reached 16 Grand Slam finals, most recently at Wimbledon in 2017.

She has also won 14 Grand Slam Women's doubles titles, all with Serena Williams; the pair is unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals. Williams also has two Mixed Doubles titles. Her five Wimbledon singles titles tie her with two other women for eighth place on the all-time list, but gives her sole possession of No. 4 on the Open Era List, trailing only the nine titles of Martina Navratilova and the seven of Serena Williams and Steffi Graf. From the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2001 US Open, Williams won four of the six Grand Slam singles tournaments in that span. At the 2019 US Open, Williams extended her record as the all-time leader, male or female, in Grand Slams played, with 84.

With her run to the 2017 Wimbledon singles final, she broke the record for longest time between first and most recent grand slam singles finals appearances. Williams was twice the season prize money leader in 2001 and 2017.
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Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. She was cited as the most awarded female artist of all time by Guinness World Records and remains one of the best-selling music artists of all time with 200 million records sold worldwide.
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