- Paul Robeson
Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (April 9, 1898 - January 23, 1976) was a multi-lingual American actor, athlete, bass-baritone concert singer, writer, civil rights activist, Communist sympathizer, Spingarn Medal winner, and Stalin Peace Prize laureate. - Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the main leaders of the American civil rights movement, a political activist, a Baptist minister, and is regarded as one of America's greatest orators. King's most influential and well-known public address is the "I Have A Dream" speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1963. In 1964, King became the youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (for his work as a peacemaker, … - Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 - May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. - John Hope
John Hope (June 2, 1868 - February 20, 1936), born in Augusta, Georgia, was an African-American educator and political activist. He was the son of a white father, who was a farmer, and a black mother. Hope graduated from Worcester Academy in 1890, then taught at Brown University. After he graduated from Brown in 1894 he taught at Roger Williams University. In 1897 he married Lugenia Burns Hope, who would become a well-known social reformer. - Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchannan Parks (November 30, 1912 - March 7, 2006) was a groundbreaking African-American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director. He is best remembered for his photo essays for "Life" magazine and as the director of the 1971 film "Shaft". - Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Prior to becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in "Brown v. Board of Education". Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908. - Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks ( February 4 1913 a October 24 2005 ) was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement ". ... Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee , Alabama on February 4 , 1913 , to James McCauley and Leona Edwards , respectively a carpenter and a teacher, and was of African-American , Cherokee - Creek , [1] and Scots-Irish [2] ancestry. - John Lewis
John Robert Lewis is an American politician and was an important leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played a key role in the struggle to end segregation. Lewis, a member of the Democratic Party, has represented Georgia's 5th Congressional District (map) in the United States House of Representatives since 1987. The district encompasses almost all of Atlanta. - W. E. B. du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (pronounced) (February 23, 1868 - August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95. David Levering Lewis, a biographer, wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, … - Daisy Bates
Daisy Lee Gatson Bates (born November 11, 1914 in Huttig, Arkansas - died November 4, 1999 in Little Rock, Arkansas) was an American civil rights leader, journalist, publisher, and author who played a leading role in the Little Rock integration crisis of 1957. - Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954) is the American multiple-Emmy Award winning host of "The Oprah Winfrey Show", the highest rated talk show in television history. She is also an influential book critic, an Academy Award-nominated actress, and a magazine publisher. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the most philanthropic African American of all time, and the world's only black billionaire for three straight years. - Max Yergan
Max Yergan (born 1892 in Raleigh, North Carolina; died 1975) was an African American activist notable for being a Baptist missionary for the YMCA, then a Communist working with Paul Robeson, and finally a staunch Anti-Communist who complimented the government of apartheid-era South Africa. He was a mentor of Govan Mbeki, who later achieved distinction in the African National Congress. He served as the second president of the National Negro Congress, … - Colin Powell
General Colin Luther Powell, United States Army (Ret.) (born April 5, 1937) is a former American military leader and statesman. He became the first African-American to be confirmed as United States Secretary of State. As the 65th United States Secretary of State (2001-05) under President George W. Bush, Powell became the highest ranking African American government official in the history of the United States. - Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born October 8, 1941) is a professional civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, and is a prominent leader of the American Christian left. He is the father of Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. - Percy Sutton
Percy Sutton is a civil rights activist, lawyer and entrepreneur. Born November 24, 1920, Percy Sutton is a San Antonio, Texas native. Percy Sutton was the last of fifteen children. His parents Samuel and Lillian were both educators with his father being one of the first blacks in Bexar County. He also served as principal of three high schools. All of his siblings graduated from college. His brothers included G J Sutton (the first black elected official in San Antonio, … - Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was an African American jazz composer, pianist, and band leader who has been one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music. As a composer and a band leader especially, Ellington's reputation has increased since his death, with thematic repackagings of his signature music often becoming best-sellers. A man of suave demeanor and puckish wit that masked occasional brusqueness, … - Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American civil rights activist, former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, and was the United States' first African-American ambassador to the United Nations. Young is the namesake of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. International Boulevard, near the Centennial Olympic Park, has been re-named Andrew Young International Boulevard, … - John Hope Franklin
John Hope Franklin (born January 2, 1915) is a United States historian and past president of the American Historical Association. Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University, he is best known for his work "From Slavery to Freedom", first published in 1947, and continuously updated. More than three million copies have been sold. In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. - James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson was a leading American author, critic, journalist, poet, anthropologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, early civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson is best remembered for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and collections of folklore. He was also one of the first African-American professors at New York University. Later in life he was a Professor of Creative Literature and Writing at Fisk University. - Richard Wright
Richard Wright was an American author of novels, short stories and non-fiction. - Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins (August 30, 1901 - September 8, 1981) was a prominent civil rights activist in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins was active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and between 1931 and 1934 was assistant NAACP secretary under Walter Francis White. When W. E. B. Du Bois left the organization in 1934, Wilkins replaced him as editor of "Crisis", the official magazine of the NAACP - Constance Baker Motley
Constance Baker Motley (14 September 1921-28 September 2005) was an African American civil rights activist, lawyer, judge, and state senator. She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the ninth of twelve children. Her parents had immigrated from Nevis, in the Caribbean; her mother was the founder of the New Haven chapter of the NAACP. With financial help from a local philanthropist, Clarence Blakeslee, she initially attended Fisk University, … - Bill Cosby
He joined the Navy and served at the Marine Base at Quantico, Virginia and at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. It was there that he realized the importance of education and he finished his equivalency diploma through correspondence courses. In 1961, he won a track and field scholarship to the Temple University in Philadelphia. There, he studied physical education and was part of the track team and the football team. - Elizabeth Eckford
Elizabeth Eckford (born October 1941) is one of the African American students known as the Little Rock Nine. On September 4, 1957, she and eight other African American students attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School, which had previously only accepted white students. They were stopped at the door by Arkansas National Guard troops called up by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus. They tried again without success to attend Central High on September 23, 1957. - Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson became the first African-American professional baseball player of the modern era in 1947. While not the first African American professional baseball player in history, his Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately eighty years of baseball segregation, also known as the baseball color line. The Baseball Hall of Fame inducted Robinson in 1962 and he was a member of six World Series teams. - A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph (April 15 1889 - May 16 1979) was a prominent twentieth century African-American civil rights leader and founder of the first black labor union in the U.S. - Richard B. Harrison
Richard Berry Harrison was a renowned actor, teacher, dramatic reader and lecturer. He was featured on the cover of "TIME" magazine on March 4, 1935. The son of fugitive slaves, Harrison was born in London, Ontario, Canada, on September 28, 1864, the eldest of five siblings. Harrison became extremely well-known after playing "de Lawd" in more than 1,650 performances of Marc Connelly’s play, "The Green Pastures", which opened on Broadway on February 26, 1930. - Leon Sullivan
Reverend Dr. Leon Howard Sullivan (October 16, 1922 - April 24, 2001) was a Baptist minister, a civil rights leader and social activist focusing on the creation of job training opportunities for African-Americans, a longtime General Motors Board Member, and an anti-Apartheid activist. Sullivan died on April 24, 2001, of leukemia at a Scottsdale, Arizona hospital. He was 78. - Douglas Wilder
Lawrence Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931) is an American politician. He was the first African American to be elected as governor of a U.S. state, and the second of three to serve as governor. Wilder served as Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He is currently Mayor of Richmond, Virginia, having taken office in 2005. - Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson, was an American contralto, perhaps best remembered for her performance on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She joined a junior church choir at the age of six, and applied to an all-white music school after her graduation from high school in 1921, but was turned away because she was black. - Roland Hayes
Roland Hayes (3 June 1887-1 January 1977), a lyric tenor, is considered the first African American male concert artist to receive wide international acclaim as well as at home. Hayes was born in Curryville, Georgia, near Calhoun, on June 3, 1887, to Fanny and William Hayes, who were former slaves. When Hayes was eleven his father died, and his mother moved the family to Chattanooga, Tennessee. - Tom Bradley
Thomas J. "Tom" Bradley (December 29, 1917 - September 29, 1998) was the mayor of Los Angeles, California from 1973 to 1993 (five terms) and only the second African American mayor of a major U.S. city. The first was Carl Stokes of Cleveland, Ohio, who was elected in 1967. He unsuccessfully ran for Governor of California in 1982 and 1986. The racial dynamics that appeared to underly Bradley's narrow and unexpected loss in 1982 gave rise to the term "the Bradley effect". - Earl G. Graves
Graves is a nationally recognized authority on Black business development and the founder and publisher of Black Enterprise Magazine. In 1972, he was named one of the ten most outstanding minority businessmen in the country by the President and received the National Award of Excellence in recognition of his achievements in mi ... - Hank Aaron
Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (born February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama), nicknamed "Hammer","Hammerin' Hank", or "Bad Henry", is a retired American baseball player whose Major League Baseball (MLB) career spanned the 1950s through the 1970s. After playing with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League and in the minor leagues, Aaron started his Major League Baseball career in 1954. He played 21 seasons with the Milwaukee Braves and the Atlanta Braves, … - Marguerite Annie Johnson
Maya Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman. A poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, Dr. Angelou continues to travel the world making appearances, spreading her legendary wisdom. A mesmerizing vision of grace, swaying and stirring when she moves, Dr. Angelou captivates her audiences lyrically with vigor, fire and perception. - Damon Keith
Damon Jerome Keith (b. July 4, 1922) is a Senior Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Keith has served on the Court of Appeals since 1977 and previously served as Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Keith is a graduate of West Virginia State College (B.A. 1943), Howard University School of Law (J.D. 1949), and Wayne State University Law School (L.L.M. 1956). - Ernest Green
Ernest G. Green (born September 22, 1941) was one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Green, the eldest of the nine, was the first black to graduate from the school. In 1999, he and the other members of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton. - Charles R. Drew
Dr. Charles Richard Drew was an American physician and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge in developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. He protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation of blood from donors of different races since it lacked scientific foundation. - Joel Elias Spingarn
Joel Elias Spingarn (May 17,1875 - July 26,1939) was an American educator and literary critic. Spingarn was born in New York City. He was professor of comparative literature at Columbia University from 1899 to 1911. In 1919 he was a co-founder of the publishing firm of Harcourt, Brace and Company. Spingarn was an influential liberal who helped settle a dispute between W.E.B. DuBois, whom he'd known at Harvard, and the followers of Booker T. Washington, … - Charles Hamilton Houston
Charles Hamilton Houston (September 3, 1895-April 22, 1950) was a black lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School and NAACP Litigation Director who helped play a role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws and helped train future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. He was educated at Amherst College, where he was valedictorian, and at Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude and was a member of the "Harvard Law Review".
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