A
| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Abdurraqib, Hanif | b. August 25, 1983, Columbus, Ohio, United States
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic. He is known for the poetry collections The Crown Ain't Worth Much and A Fortune for Your Disaster. His non-fiction works include A Little Devil in America: Notes In Praise Of Black Performance, and They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us. |
| Abernathy, Ralph | b. March 11, 1926, Linden, Alabama, United States
d. April 17, 1990, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Ralph Abernathy was a religious leader and civil rights activist, who was Martin Luther King’s chief aide. He was pastor of Montgomery’s First Baptist Church, financial secretary-treasurer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. |
| Adair, Thelma C. Davidson | b. August 29, 1920, Iron Station, North Carolina, United States
Thelma C. Davidson Adair is a Christian leader and early child educator. She was the first African American woman to hold the office of moderator of the General Assembly for the Presbyterian Church. She also organized day care centers for the children of migrant farm workers. |
| Adams, J. Alston | b. July 22, 1904, New Gretna, New Jersey, United States
d. August, 1963, United States J. Alston Adams was a banking executive. He was member of Home Loan Bank board, which oversaw the Home Owners Loan Corporation. HOLC, a federal agency created as part of the New Deal, systemically denied housing loans to African American families. |
| Adams, Russell L. | b. August 13, 1930, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Russell Adams is a professor and leading thinker in Afro-American Studies. He was previously professor, now chair of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. He is a contributor to the Journal of Negro Education and primary advisor to the book series African Americans: Voices of Triumph. |
| Alexander, Elizabeth | b. May 30, 1962, Harlem, New York, United States
Elizabeth Alexander is a poet and scholar. She is president of the Mellon Foundation, an education funding organization. Her poetry collections include American Sublime, Antebellum Dream Book, and The Black Interior. She has held professorships at Yale, Columbia, and Pennsylvania Universities. |
| Allen, Anita L. | b. March 24, 1953, Place unknown
Anita L. Allen is a professor of law and philosophy at Pennsylvania University with special expertise in privacy and data protection law, ethics, bioethics, legal philosophy, women’s rights, and higher education diversity. She was previously Penn’s vice provost for faculty. |
| Allen, Danielle S. | b. November 3, 1971, Takoma Park, Maryland, United States
Danielle S. Allen is an American classicist and political scientist. She is the James Bryant Conant professor and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. She is author of Talking to Strangers, Our Declaration, and Education and Equality. |
| Allen, William B. | b. 1944, Fernandina Beach, Florida, United States
William B. Allen is a political scientist and academic scholar. He is emeritus dean of James Madison College and emeritus professor of political philosophy at Michigan University. He is former visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy at Colorado University Center for Western Civilization. |
| Anderson, Elijah | b. 1943, Mississippi, United States
Elijah Anderson is a sociologist and the Sterling professor of sociology and African American studies at Yale University, where he teaches and directs the Urban Ethnography Project. He was previously Charles and William L. Day distinguished professor of social sciences at Pennsylvania University. |
| Anderson, James D. | b. November 21, 1944, Eutaw, Alabama, United States
James D. Anderson is dean of the college of education at Illinois University, where he is also the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor of Education, and affiliate professor of History, African American Studies, and Law. He is author of The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. |
| Angelou, Maya | b. April 4, 1928, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
d. May 28, 2014, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States Maya Angelou was a memoirist and poet, who wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography describing her childhood in the Jim Crow South. Her poetry collections include And Still I Rise and I Shall Not Be Moved and she recited On the Pulse of Morning at President Clinton’s inauguration. |
| Asante, Molefi Kete | b. August 14, 1942, Valdosta, Georgia, United States
Molefi Kete Asante is professor and chair of African American studies at Temple University. He is also international organizer for Afrocentricity International and president of the Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies. He wrote An Afrocentric Manifesto and The History of Africa. |
| Atkins, Russell | b. 1926, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Russell Atkins is a poet, composer, and co-founder of Free Lance, a Black avant-garde magazine. His poetry collections include A Podium Presentation, Phenomena, Objects, Objects 2, Heretofore, The Nail, to Be Set to Music, Maleficium, and Whichever. |
| Aubert, Alvin | b. 1930, Lutcher, Louisiana, United States
d. January 7, 2014 New Jersey, United States Alvin Aubert was a poet and scholar, who wrote South Louisiana, Harlem Wrestler and other poetry collections. He was editor-founder of Obsidian: Black Literature in Review and director of the Center for Black Studies as well as chair of Africana Studies at Wayne State University. |
B
| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Bacote, Clarence Albert | b. February 24, 1906, Kansas City, Missouri, United States
d. May 1, 1981, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Clarence Albert Bacote was a historian and activist. He chair and professor of history at Atlanta University, where he was also university marshall. He was a member of the executive council of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and wrote The Story of Atlanta University. |
| Baker, Ella | b. December 13, 1903, Norfolk, Virginia, United States
d. December 13, 1986, Manhattan, New York, United States Ella Baker was an organizer and activist. She was national director of the Young Negroes Cooperative League and New York president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She co-founded the organization In Friendship to raise money to fight Jim Crow Laws in the South. |
| Baker Jr., Houston A. | b. March 22, 1943, Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Houston A. Baker, Jr. is a scholar and poet. He is a distinguished professor in English and African American Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. He previously directed the Afro-American studies program at Pennsylvania University and has written and edited several volumes of poetry. |
| Banks, Jr., Allan A. | b. 1913, Bryan, Texas, United States
d. 1977, Detroit, Michigan, United States Allan A. Banks, Jr. was assistant pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington D.C.. He was later pastor of Detroit's Second Baptist Church and then president of the Metropolitan Detroit Council of Churches. He was also a member of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. |
| Baraka, Amina | b. December 5, 1942, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Amini Baraka is a poet, singer, actor, and activist. Her debut poetry collection was Blues in All Hues. She founded the African Free School, a community center for children. She has been an organizer for the Congress of African People and the Women’s Division of the Committee for a Unified Newark. |
| Barrax, Gerald | b. June 21, 1933 Attalla, Alabama, United States
d. December 7, 2019, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States Gerald Barrax was a poet and professor. He was poet-in-residence and emeritus professor of creative writing at North Carolina University. He was editor of Obsidian II: Black Literature in Review and poetry editor of Callaloo, an African diaspora literary journal. |
| Barrow, Willie | b. December 7, 1924, Burton, Texas, United States
d. March 12, 2015, Chicago, Illinois, United States Willie Barrow was a church leader and activist. She was associate minister of Chicago’s Vernon Park Church. She was also an organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Council of Negro Women, and co-chair of human right organization the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. |
| Battle, Thomas | b. March 19, 1946, Washington, D.C. Washington, United States
Thomas Battle is a historian. He has been a curator and director of the manuscript division at Moorland-Spingarn Research Collection, a center for Black studies. He is also co-author of Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History and he has taught history at Maryland University. |
| Beadle, Samuel Alfred | b. August 17, 1857, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
d. 1932 Chicago, Illinois, United States Samuel Alfred Beadle was a lawyer and poet. He ran a civil practice with fellow African American lawyer Perry Howard. He also wrote poetry about the Black Southern experience. His most acclaimed volume of poetry was Lyrics from the Underworld. |
| Bearden, Romare | b. September 2, 1911, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
d. March 12, 1988 New York, New York, United States Romare Bearden was a painter, collagist, and poet. He was a member of the Harlem Artists Guild and a cartoonist for the Baltimore Afro-American. He was art director of African American advocacy group the Harlem Cultural Council and also wrote poetry and songs. |
| Bennett, Gwendolyn B. | b. July 8, 1902, Giddings, Texas, United States
d. May 30, 1981, Reading, Pennsylvania, United States Gwendolyn B. Bennett was a poet, writer, artist, and teacher. She published poems, short stories, and nonfiction in various literary journals, including Opportunity, a magazine published by civil rights group the National Urban League, and also Fire!!, an African American literary journal. |
| Bennett, Lerone Jr. | b. October 17, 1928, Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States
d. Feburary 14, 2018, Chicago, Illinois, United States Lerone Bennett Jr. was a historian, journalist, and poet, who developed Black political consciousness. He was executive editor of African-American magazine Ebony. His best-known book was Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, 1619-1962. |
| Berry, Mary Frances | b. February 17, 1938, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Mary Frances Berry is a professor, lawyer, and activist. She is Geraldine R. Segal professor of American social thought and professor of history at Pennsylvania University. She is a former chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights and author of And Justice For All and Black Resistance/White Law. |
| Bethune, Mary McLeod | b. July 10, 1875, Maysville, South Carolina, United States
d. May 18, 1955, Daytona Beach, Florida, United States Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator and civil rights pioneer. She was co-founder of Bethune-Cookman University and the United Negro College Fund. She was founder of the National Council of Negro Women and vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. |
| Billops, Camille | b. August 12, 1933, Los Angeles, California, United States
d. June 1, 2019, Manhattan, New York, United States Camille Billops was an artist, filmmaker, archivist, and professor. She taught in the arts faculties at Rutgers University and the City University of New York. Billops and her husband founded the Hatch-Billops Collection, an archive of African American cultural history. |
| Black, Timuel | b. December 7, 1918, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Timuel Black is a historian and activist. He was previously professor emeritus of social sciences at the City Colleges of Chicago and wrote Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Great Migration. He was an organizer for the Negro American Labor Council and the Chicago League of Negro Voters. |
| Blake, J. Herman | b. March 15, 1934, Mount Vernon, New York, United States
J. Herman Blake is a sociologist. He is professor emeritus of sociology and founding provost of Oakes College at UC Santa Cruz. He is former director of African American studies at Iowa State University and the Eugene M. Lang visiting professor for issues of social change at Swarthmore College. |
| Blakely, Allison | b. March 31, 1940, Alabama, United States
Allison Blakely is a scholar and historian. He is professor emeritus of European and comparative history at Boston University. He was previously the George and Joyce Wein professor of African American studies at Howard University. He is author of Blacks in the Dutch World and Russia and the Negro. |
| Blassingame, John W. | b. March 23, 1940, Covington, Georgia, United States
d. Februrary 13, 2000, New Haven, Connecticut, United States John W. Blassingame was scholar and historian. He was professor of African-American studies, American studies, and history at Yale University. He was editor of The Frederick Douglass Papers and wrote The Slave Community and New Perspectives on Black Studies. |
| Blockson, Charles L. | b. December 16, 1933, Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States
Charles L. Blockson is a scholar and historian. He amassed a vast collection of books about African American history, which he donated to Temple University. He is curator emeritus of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection and co-founder of Philadelphia’s African American Museum. |
| Bond, Horace Julian | b. January 14, 1940, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
d. August 15, 2015, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, United States Horace Julian Bond was a civil rights leader who served in the Georgia House of Representatives. He was communications director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder. |
| Bond, Horace Mann | b. November 8, 1904, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
d. December 21, 1972, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Horace Mann Bond was a scholar and historian. He was president of Lincoln University, where he was also officer of the American Society for African Culture. He was later dean of the school of education at Atlanta University. He wrote Black American Scholars and Education for Freedom. |
| Bontemps, Arna | b. October 13, 1902, Alexandria, Louisiana, United States
d. June 4, 1973, Nashville, Tennessee, United States Arna Bontemps was a poet and writer. His poetry won prizes from Opportunity, the National Urban League journal and also Crisis, the publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was head librarian at Fisk University and wrote the novel God Sends Sunday. |
| Bracey, John H. Jr. | b. Date and year unknown, Chicago, Illinois, United States
John H. Bracey Jr. is a scholar. He is co-director of African diaspora studies and former chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois department of Afro-American studies at Massachusetts University. He co-edited Black Nationalism in America and also SOS—Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader. |
| Branham, Charles Russell | b. May 25, 1945 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Charles Russell Branham is a historian and professor. He is senior historian at DuSable Museum of Afro-American History. He has taught history at Chicago State University and Roosevelt University and wrote The Transformation of Black Political Leadership in Chicago, 1865–1943. |
| Brawley, Benjamin | b. April 22, 1882, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
d. February 1, 1939, Washington D.C., Washington, United States Benjamin Brawley was a professor and scholar. He was the first dean of Morehouse College and head the English department at Howard University. He wrote A Short History of the American Negro, Early Negro American Writers, and The Negro Genius. |
| Brewer, James H. | b. October 18, 1910, Georgia, United States
d. March 10, 1974, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States James H. Brewer was a scholar. He was a history professor and director of the African American studies program at North Carolina University. He also taught at Duke, New York State, and Virginia State Universities. He won the Mayflower Cup for outstanding contributions to black history. |
| Brisbane, Robert Hughes | b. March 21, 1913, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
d. January 23, 1998 Atlanta, Georgia, United States Robert Hughes Brisbane was a social scientist and historian. He was a professor of political science at Morehouse College and founder of the Negro Voters League in Atlanta. He served on the executive council of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. |
| Brown, Fredi | b. December 4, 1923, Bradenton, Florida, United States
d. March 9, 2021, Tamarac, Florida, United States Fredi Brown was a collector and archivist. She was the co-founder and director of the Family Heritage House Museum, which displays artifacts and literature, chronicling the history and cultural achievements of African Americans. |
| Brown, Letitia Woods | b October 24, 1915, Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
d. August 3, 1976 Washington, D.C, Washington, United States Letitia Woods Brown was a scholar and activist. She was a Youth Council member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She taught history at Tuskegee Institute, LeMoyne-Owen College, and Howard University and wrote Free Negroes in the District of Columbia, 1790-1846. |
| Buffa, Joseph P. | b. 1906, Place unknown
d. 1974, Place unknown Joseph P. Buffa was a real estate broker and developer who had substantial property holdings in Detroit. He and John Dalzel worked for the Seven Mile Fenelon Improvement Association, an organization which campaigned to prevent black families moving into historically white neighborhoods. |
| Burroughs, Margaret | b. November 1, 1917, Saint Rose, Lousiana, United States
d. November 21, 2010, Chicago, Illinois, United States Margaret Burroughs was an artist, poet and educator. She was co-founder of DuSable Museum of African American History and a professor of humanities at Kennedy-King College. Her poetry collections include, For Malcolm, What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black?, and Africa, My Africa!. |
| Bush, Roderick Douglas | b. November 12, 1945, Sanford, Florida, United States
d. December 5, 2013, Manhattan, New York, United States Roderick Douglas Bush was a scholar and activist. He wrote We are Not What We Seem: Black Nationalism and the Class Struggle in the American Century and The End of White World Supremacy. He was also a member of the Congress of African People and the African Liberation Support Committee. |
| Butler, Broadus N. | b. May 28, 1920, Mobile, Alabama, United States
d. January 9, 1996, Washington D.C., Washington, United States Broadus Nathaniel Butler was a philosopher. He was president of the Robert R. Morton Center, which provided scholarships for Black philosophy. He was a chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and assistant for special education for the US Commissioner of Education. |
| Butler, Octavia E. | b. June 22, 1947, Pasadena, California, United States
d. February 24, 2006, Lake Forest Park, Washington, United States Octavia E. Butler was a novelist and science fiction author. Her novels include the Parable of the Sower, Dawn, and the Patternist series. She also wrote poetry. In the poem Earthseed Butler writes, “All that you Change / Changes you.” |
| Butts, June Dobbs | b. June 11, 1928 Atlanta, Georgia, United States
d. May 13, 2019, Johns Creek, Georgia, United States June Dobbs Butts was a sex educator and therapist. She was a psychology professor at Fisk University, a Planned Parenthood board director, and also a sex therapist for the Masters and Johnson Institute. She wrote about sex for the American Journal of Health Studies and also Jet and Ebony Magazines. |
C
| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Caliver, Ambrose | b. February 25, 1894, Saltville, Virginia, United States
d. January 29, 1962, Washington D.C., Washington, United States Ambrose Caliver was an educator. He was senior specialist in the education of negroes for the US Office of Education, later chief of the adult education section. He was also dean of Fisk University and director of the Project for Literacy Education. |
| Carmichael, Waverly | b. 1881, Snow Hill, Alabama,United States
d. 1936, Place unknown Waverly Turner Carmichael was a postal clerk and poet. During World War I, he served in the 37th Regiment, “The Buffaloes”. He later worked as a postal clerk and also wrote several poetry anthologies, including From the Heart of a Folk: A Book of Songs (1918). |
| Carpenter, J. Henry | b. January 7, 1893 Auburn, New York, United States
d. June 16, 1954, Brooklyn, New York, United States J. Henry Carpenter was a religious leader and Presbyterian minister. He was executive secretary of Brooklyn Protestant Council and president of the Brooklyn Council for Social Planning. He opposed black migration to the Northern states, believing it would “inevitably bring interracial conflict”. |
| Carroll, Constance M. | b. 1946, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Constance M. Carroll is an academic. She is chancellor of San Diego Community College District. She was previously a member of the National Council on the Humanities, also assistant professor of classics and associate dean of arts and sciences at Maine University. |
| Carruthers Jr., Jacob H. | b. February 15, 1930, Dallas, Texas, Unitied States
d. January 5, 2004, Chicago, Illinois, United States Jacob H. Carruthers, Jr. was a historian. He was professor of history and education at North Eastern Illinois University, founding president of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, and founder of the Kemetic Institute, dedicated to the renewal of African civilization. |
| Carson, Clayborne | b. 1944, Buffalo, New York, United States
Clayborne Carson is a historian. He is emeritus Martin Luther King, Jr. centennial professor of history at Stanford University. He is founder of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute and author of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. |
| Carter, Lawrence Edward | b. September 23, 1941, Dawson, Georgia, United States
Lawrence Edward Carter is a historian and civil rights scholar. He is dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College, where he is also professor of religion and college archivist and curator. He was formerly a coordinator of Afro-American studies at Simmons College. |
| Carter, Purvis M. | b. Date unknown, Columbus, Texas, United States
d. February 13, 2013, Place unknown Purvis M. Carter was a scholar and historian. He was a professor of history at Prairie View A&M University for fifty year and before that taught American history at Harlingen Independent School District. He was recipient of the Texas Historical Commission and Texas Historical Foundation Award. |
| Carter, Randall Albert | b. January 1, 1867, Fort Valley, Georgia, United States
d. February 6, 1954, Place unknown Randall Albert Carter was a bishop and ordained minister of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. He organized the construction and purchase of over 250 churches to serve a new congregation migrated from the South. |
| Carter, Robert L. | b. March 11, 1917, Caryville, Florida, United States
d. January 3, 2012, Manhattan, New York, United States Robert L. Carter was a lawyer and civil rights activists. He was a US district court judge, a lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the co-founder of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. He taught law at the Universities of Michigan, New York, and Yale. |
| Cascone, Jeanette Lake | b. August 10, 1918, Gainesville, Florida, United States
d. September 29, 1998, Place Unknown Jeanette Lake Cascone was an educator who advanced the teaching of black history. She was national president of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. She taught in the New York School System and then lectured at Seton Hall University and other higher education institutions. |
| Cassells, Cyrus | b. 1956, Dover, Delaware, United States
Cyrus Cassells is a poet who writes about healing, trauma, and the restorative power of love. He is the author of The Gospel According to Wild Indigo and teaches on the MFA program at Texas State University. He is also a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry and cultural critic for The Washington Spectator. |
| Catts, Sidney J. | b. July 31, 1863, Pleasant Hill, Alabama, United States
d. March 9, 1936, DeFuniak Springs, Florida, United States Sidney J. Catts was a baptist minister and Prohibition party governor of Florida. He opposed the Great Migration. At Jacksonville’s Negro Masonic Temple, Catts delivered an address titled What God has Done for the Colored Race, urging black Southerners to remain where the “Creator had put [them]”. |
| Chambers, Ernest | b. July 10, 1937, Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Ernie Chambers is a politician and civil rights activist. He is the longest serving state senator of Nebraska, campaigning to abolish the death penalty, end corporal punishment in schools, reform criminal justice, and improve police accountability. |
| Chambers, Julius L. | b. October 6, 1936, Mount Gilead, North Carolina, United States
d. August 2, 2013, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States Julius L. Chambers was a civil rights lawyer and activist. He opened the first integrated law firm in North Carolina. He was director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People legal defense and educational fund and also chancellor of North Carolina Central University. |
| Chandler, Virgil | b. October 20, 1905, Alpena, Michigan, United States
d. December 13, 1991 Sterling Heights, Michigan, United States Virgil Chandler was an auto industry worker and vice president of the Seven Mile Fenelon Improvement Association, a White-led, anti-African American residents group. He was indicted by federal grand jury on charges of “seditious conspiracy to prevent Negro occupancy of Sojourner Truth project.” |
| Chase-Riboud, Barbara | b. June 26, 1935, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Barbara Chase-Riboud is an artist, author, and poet. She wrote Sally Hemings, a novel about Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with an enslaved woman on his plantation. Her poetry collections include Echo of Lions, centering on Joseph Cinqué, who led a revolt aboard the Spanish slave ship the Amistad. |
| Cheaney, Henry E. | b. 1913, Henderson, Kentucky, United States
d. July 18, 2006, Frankfort, Kentucky, United States Henry E. Cheaney was a scholar of African American history. He was a professor of history at Kentucky State University, a member of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and co-author of Kentucky’s Black Heritage. |
| Childress, Alice | b. October 12, 1916, Charleston, South Carolina, United States
d. August 14, 1994, Queens, New York, United States Alice Childress was a playwright, novelist, actor, and poet. She wrote the young adult novel A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich, which is about a 13-year-old black heroin user. Childress also produced poetry, including Martinsville Blues, and won the 1985 African Poets Theatre Award. |
| Clark-Lewis, Elizabeth | b. Date and year unknown, Place unknown
Elizabeth Clark-Lewis is a historian. She is a professor of History at Howard University, co-founder of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Association, former director of the Association of Black Women Historians, and author of Keep it Locked: 106 Tributes To AJ From The Mecca. |
| Clark, Mark | b. June 28, 1947, Peoria, Illinois, United States
d. December 4, 1969, Chicago, Illinois, United States Mark Clark was a civil rights activist and Black Panther. He was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and also helped set up the first free breakfast program for Peoria’s youth. |
| Clark, Septima Poinsette | b. May 3, 1898, Charleston, South Carolina, United States
d. December 15, 1987, Johns Island, South Carolina, United States Septima Poinsette Clark was an educator, known as the “Mother of the Movement”. She fought for African American rights and education through the Young Women’s Christian Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. |
| Clarke, John Henrik | b. January 1, 1915, Union Springs, Alabama, United States
d. July 16, 1998 Manhattan, New York, United States John Henrik Clarke was a Pan-Africanist historian and professor. He was co-founder of the Harlem Quarterly, founding chair of the Black and Puerto Rican studies department at Hunter College, and he lectured at the New School for Social Research, Ghana University, and Ibadann University in Nigeria. |
| Clayton, Mayme Agnew | b. August 4, 1923 Van Buren, Arkansas, United States
d. October 13, 2006, Place unknown Mayme Agnew Clayton was a librarian and historian who founded the Western States Black Research Center. She was a consultant and founding member of the Afro-American Studies Center Library, law librarian at the University of California, Los Angeles, and founder of the Black American Cinema Society. |
| Clement, Rufus Early | b. June 26, 1900, Salisbury, North Carolina, United States
d. November 7, 1967, Manhattan, New York, United States Rufus Early Clement was an educator and scholar. He was a history professor and later first dean of Louisville Municipal College, president of Atlanta University Center, and an elected member of the Atlanta Board of Education. |
| Clifton, Lucille | b. June 27, 1936, Depew, New York, United States
d. February 13, 2010, Baltimore, Maryland, United States Lucille Clifton was a poet and author of The Poetry of the Negro, Good Woman, and Blessing the Boats. She was distinguished professor of humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and writer in residence at Coppin State College. |
| Cobb, Jelani | b. Date and year unknown, Queens, New York, United States
Jelani Cobb is a writer, journalism professor at Columbia University, New Yorker staff writer, and author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress. He was formerly associate professor of history and director of the Africana Studies Institute at Connecticut University. |
| Coleman, Ronald Gerald | b. April 3, 1944 San Francisco, California, United States
Ronald Gerald Coleman is a scholar and historian. He is emeritus associate professor of history and ethnic studies at Utah University, where he is also advisor to the Black Cultural Center, and advisor to the vice president for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. |
| Coleman, Wanda | b. November 13, 1946, Los Angeles, California, United States
d. November 22, 2013, Los Angeles, California, United States Wanda Coleman was a poet and writer. Her poetry collections include Bathwater Wine, Native in a Strange Land, and Mambo Hips & Make Believe. She was a Guggenheim fellow for poetry and a literary fellow for the City of Los Angeles. |
| Colemon, Johnnie | b. February 18, 1920 Centerville, Alabama, United States
d. December 23, 2014, Chicago, Illinois, United States Johnnie Colemon was a reverend and religious leader. She was the founder-minister of Christ Universal Temple and pioneer of the New Thought church movement, which focusses on meditation and positive thought. She is the author of Open Your Mind and Be Healed. |
| Collier-Thomas, Bettye | b. February 18, 1941, Macon, Georgia, United States
Bettye Collier-Thomas is a historian and scholar. She is professor of history and director of the Center for African American History and Culture at Temple University, and also founder and first director of the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial Museum and the National Archives for Black Women’s History. |
| Collins, Patricia Hill | b. 1948, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Patricia Hill Collins is a sociologist and scholar. She is distinguished professor emerita of sociology at Maryland University and former president of the American Sociological Association. She is author of Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. |
| Cone, James H. | b. August 5, 1938, Fordyce, Arkansas, United States
d. April 28, 2018, Manhattan, New York, United States James H. Cone was a religious leader and scholar. He was the distinguished professor of systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary and the founder of Black Liberation Theology, a form of Christianity founded upon culture and history of African Americans. |
| Conley, Dorothy Allen | b. 1904, Virginia, United States
d. December 7, 1989, Berlin, New Jersey, United States Dorothy Allen Conley was a high school teacher, who advanced black studies. She was an executive committee member of the Study of Afro American Life and History and produced a film about Harriet Tubman, the “conductor” of the Underground Railroad that carried slaves from the South to the free North. |
| Contee, Clarence G. | b. September 15, 1929 Baltimore, Maryland, United States
d. February 8, 1988 Washington D.C., Washington, United States Clarence G. Contee was a scholar and historian. He was a professor of Afro American history at Howard University and American University. He also lectured on history at Prairie View College and Morgan State. His articles appeared in Ebony Magazine and the African Historical Studies Journal. |
| Cook, Joyce Mitchell | b. October 28, 1933, Sharon, Pennsylvania, United States
d. June 6, 2014, Place unknown Joyce Mitchell Cook was a philosopher and scholar. She was a philosophy lecturer at Howard University, an analyst for African affairs in the State Department in Washington, a speech writer and correspondence editor for president Carter, and she also worked in the Office of Economic Opportunity. |
| Cook, Samuel DuBois | b. November 21, 1928, Griffin, Georgia, United States
d. May 29, 2017, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Samuel DuBois Cook was a political scientist and activist. He was president emeritus at the Dillard University, founder the National Center for Black-Jewish Relations, president of the Southern Political Science Association, and professor of philosophy at Southern University. |
| Cook, Suzan Johnson | b. January 28, 1957, Harlem, New York, United States
Suzan Johnson Cook is a religious leader and advisor. She is a distinguished fellow at the Freedom Forum Institute’s Religious Freedom Center and US ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom. She was previously chaplain of New York City Police Department. |
| Crawford, Evans | b. July 2, 1923 Temple, Texas, United States
d. February 16, 2019, Place unknown Evans Crawford was a theologian and academic administrator. He was dean of Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel at Howard University, where he was also professor emeritus of social ethics, and interim vice president for university advancement. |
| Crenshaw, Kimberlé | b. 1959, Canton, Ohio, United States
Kimberlé Crenshaw is a lawyer and leading scholar of critical race theory, who helped draft the South African Constitution’s equality clause. She is a law professor at Columbia Law, founder of the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, and African American Policy Forum co-founder. |
| Crew, Spencer | b. January 7, 1949, Poughkeepsie, New York, United States
Spencer Crew is a scholar and museum director. He is professor of history at George Mason University and emeritus director of the National Museum of African American History and the National Museum of American History. He was previously president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. |
| Cruse, Harold | b. March 8, 1916, Petersburg, Virginia, United States
d. March 25, 2005 Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States Harold Cruse was a scholar and social critic who wrote The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual. He was professor of African-American studies at Michigan University, co-founder of Harlem’s Black Arts Theater, and member of the Communist party who wrote literary criticism for The Daily Worker. |
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| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Dalzell, John | b. Date and year unknown, Place unknown
d. Date and year unknown, Place unknown John Dalzell was a real estate broker and developer who had substantial property holdings in Detroit. He and Joseph P. Buffa worked for the Seven Mile Fenelon Improvement Association, an organization which campaigned to prevent black families moving into historically white neighborhoods. |
| Daniel, Robert Prentiss | b. November 2, 1902, Ettrick, Virginia, United States
d. January 5, 1968, Petersburg, Virginia, United States Robert Prentiss Daniel was a psychologist, who pioneered research into the psychology of African American male children. He was professor of education and psychology and director of educational psychology and philosophy at Virginia Union University. He was later president of Virginia State College. |
| Danner, Margaret | b. January 12, 1915, Pryorsburg, Kentucky, United States
d. January 1, 1984, Chicago, Illinois, United States Margaret Danner was a poet and editor. Her collections of poetry include Impressions of African Art Forms, To Flower, and The Down of a Thistle. She was a member of the South Side Community Art Center and assistant editor at Poetry magazine. |
| Darden, Ethel | b. February 17, 1900, Dallas, Texas, United States
d. July 17, 2011 Chicago, Illinois, United States Ethel Darden was an educator at the pioneering Howalton Day School, which was founded by three black women and encouraged learning through discovery, enthusiasm, creativity, arts and humanities. She donated teaching materials to Chicago Regional Library’s Howalton School Archives. |
| Davis Jr., Benjamin J. | b. September 8, 1903, Dawson, Georgia, United States
d. August 22, 1964, New York, New York, United States Benjamin Jefferson Davis, Jr. was a lawyer and civil rights activist. He was chair of the New York State Communist party, attorney for the International Labor Defense in the defense of communist Angelo Herndon, editor of the Negro Liberator and Daily Worker, and council representative for New York. |
| Davis, Angela | b. January 26, 1944, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Angela Davis is political activist and scholar. She is distinguished professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz and a founding member of Critical Resistance, which aims to dismantle the prison industrial complex. She is author of Women, Race, and Class and Are Prisons Obsolete?. |
| Delaney, Ted | b. October 18, 1943, Lexington, Virginia, United States
d. December 18, 2020, Lexington, Virginia, United States Ted DeLaney was a scholar and historian. He was professor of history emeritus and co-founder of the Africana Studies Program at Washington and Lee University, teaching on colonialism and slavery in North America, the civil rights movement, and lesbian and gay history. |
| Delany, Bessie | b. September 3, 1891, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
d. September 25, 1995, Mount Vernon, New York, United States Bessie Delany was a dentist and, over her 27 years in practice, never raised her rates. Her and her sister Sadie were the subject of the book and Broadway play Having Our Say. With Sadie, she co-authored the memoir The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom. |
| Delany, Clarissa Scott | b. 1901, Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
d. October 11, 1927, Washington, D.C., Washington, United States Clarissa Scott Delany was a poet, teacher, and social worker during the Harlem Renaissance. She wrote book reviews and poems in Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, taught at Washington’s Dunbar High School, and gathered research data for the National Urban League and Women’s City Club of New York. |
| Delany, Sadie | b. September 19, 1889, Lynch Station, Virginia, United States
d. January 25, 1999, Mount Vernon, New York, United States Sadie Delany was educator, who taught home economics in New York City public schools. Her and her sister Bessie were the subject of the book and Broadway play Having Our Say. With Bessie, she co-authored the memoir The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom. |
| Dent, Thomas Covington | b. March 20, 1932 New Orleans, Lousiana, United States
d. June 6, 1998, New Orleans, Lousiana, United States Thomas Covington Dent was a poet, playwright, and oral historian. He published two poetry volumes: Magnolia Street and Blue Lights and River Songs. He was founder of the African American literary journal Callaloo and recorded oral histories of Mississippi civil rights workers. |
| Derricotte, Toi | b. April 12, 1941 Hamtramck, Michigan, United States
Toi Derricotte is a poet. Her 1978 poetry collection The Empress of the Death House is inspired by her early experiences of her grandparents’ Detroit funeral home. She is professor emerita of Pittsburgh University and co-founder of Cave Canem, a nonprofit which supports African American poets. |
| Dickey, Ralph | b. September 18, 1945, Michigan, United States
d. December 3, 1972 San Francisco, California, United States Ralph A. Dickey was a poet, who believed the only way to turn fear and negativity into inspiration was through poetry. He committed suicide young. His poems were published posthumously in the collected volume Leaving Eden. |
| Dismond, Henry Binga | b. December 27, 1891, Richmond, Virginia, United States
d. November 21, 1956, Harlem, New York, United States Henry Binga Dismond was an athlete, medical inventor, physician, and poet. He founded the physical therapy department at Harlem’s Sydenham Hospital and invented the Radex Steam Infuser, a respiratory device. His collection of poems We Who Would Die also included essays on Haiti and romantic prose. |
| Divers, William K. | b. April 12, 1905, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
d. April 19, 1998, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States William K. Divers was a banking executive. He was chair of Home Loan Bank board, which oversaw the Home Owners Loan Corporation. HOLC, a federal agency created as part of the New Deal, systemically denied housing loans to African American families. |
| Dixon, Melvin | b. May 29, 1950, Stamford, Connecticut, United States
d. October 26, 1992, Stamford, Connecticut, United States Melvin Dixon was a poet, scholar, and novelist who wrote about the complexities of black male homosexuality. He wrote two poetry collections: Change of Territory and Love’s Instruments. He was also an English literature professor at Wesleyan University and Queens College. |
| Dodson, Howard | b. June 1, 1939, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States
Howard Dodson is a scholar and historian. He is director emeritus of Howard University Libraries. He was previously director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, also director of the Institute of the Black World, and the director of minority recruitment for the Peace Corps. |
| Dove, Rita | b. August 28, 1952, Akron, Ohio, United States
Rita Dove is a poet, writer, and educator. She was US poet laureate from 1993-1995. Her poetry collections include The Yellow House on the Corner, On the Bus with Rosa Parks, and Sonata Mulattica. She is professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia. |
| Drake, St. Clair | b. January 2, 1911, Suffolk, Virginia, United States
d. June 1990, Palo Alto, California, United States St. Clair Drake was an anthropologist and sociologist. He was founding director of Stanford University’s African and African American studies department. He wrote Churches and Voluntary Associations among Negroes in Chicago and co-authored Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. |
| Driskell, David | b. June 7, 1931, Eatonton, Georgia, United States
d. April 1, 2020, Hyattsville City, Maryland, United States David Driskell was an artist, art historian, and curator who furthered scholarship in African American art. He was a distinguished professor of art at Maryland University. He curated the exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art, which featured 200 works by 63 artists. |
| Dumas, Henry | b. July 20, 1934, Sweet Home, Arkansas, United States
d. May 23, 1968, New York, New York, United States Henry Dumas was a poet and short fiction writer influenced by African American music and culture. He was killed by police in a case of mistaken identity. Posthumously published poetry collections include Knees of a Natural Man and Play Ebony, Play Ivory, a blues-inspired volume of verse. |
| Dungy, Camille T. | b. December 30, 1972, Denver, Colorado, United States
Camille T. Dungy is a poet and essayist. She is an English professor at Colorado State University and author of essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History. Her poetry collections include Trophic Cascade and Suck on the Marrow. |
| Durham, Richard | b. September 6, 1917, Raymond, Mississippi, United States
d. April 27, 1984, New York, New York, United States Richard Durham was the scriptwriter and producer for Destination Freedom, a radio program about African American abolitionists and political activists like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. He was also the ghostwriter of Muhammad Ali’s 1975 autobiography, The Greatest: My Own Story. |
| Dykes Jr., De Witt S. | b. January, 1938, Tennessee, United States
De Witt S. Dykes Jr. is scholar and historian. He is associate professor of history at Oakland University, co-founder and president of the Michigan Black History Network, and co-founder and former first president of Detroit’s African American Genealogy Society. |
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| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Eady, Cornelius | b. January 7, 1954, Rochester, New York, United States
Cornelius Eady is a poet and co-founder of Cave Canem, a nonprofit which supports African American poets. His poetry collections include The Gathering of My Name, Brutal Imagination, and Hardheaded Weather. He was previously director of the Poetry Center at Stony Brook University. |
| Edelman, Marian Wright | b. June 6, 1939, Bennettsville, South Carolina, United States
Marian Wright Edelman is a lawyer and civil rights activist. She is founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund. She was previously director of Harvard University’s Law and Education Center, and staff attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. |
| Edmond, Lez | b. Date and year unknown, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
d. April, 2017, Place unknown Lez Edmond was a scholar and activist. He was professor of psychology and social sciences at St. John's University, chair of Africana Studies at Seton Hall University, co-author of African History, and part of the ‘brain trust” of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity. |
| Edmonds, Gray Helen | b. December 3, 1911, Lawrenceville, Virginia, United States
d. May 9, 1995, Durham, North Carolina, United States Helen Gray Edmonds was a historian and educator. She was professor of history, chair of the department of history, and dean of the graduate school at North Carolina Central University. Her books include The Negro and Fusion Politics in North Carolina, 1894-1901 and Black Faces in High Places. |
| Ellison, Ralph | b. March 1, 1914, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
d. April 16, 1994, Manhattan, New York, United States Ralph Ellison was a fiction writer, essayist, and scholar. He wrote Invisible Man, a novel about racial discrimination and African American social and intellectual identity. He lectured on creative writing and Black culture at New York, Chicago, Rutgers, and Yale Universities. |
| Engs, Robert F. | b. November 10, 1943, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
d. January 14, 2013, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States Robert F. Engs was a historian and scholar. He was professor of history at Pennsylvania University and William & Mary College, teaching on the history of the Southern states, African American history and culture, and the US Civil War and Reconstruction. |
| Evans, Clay | b. June 23, 1925, Brownsville, Tennessee, United States
d. November 27, 2019, Chicago, Illinois, United States Clay Evans was a minister and gospel singer. He was founding pastor of the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church of Chicago, founding national chair of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and founding president of the African American Religious Connection. |
| Evers, Medgar | b. July 2, 1925, Dectaur, Mississippi, United States
d. June 12, 1963, Jackson, Mississippi, United States Medgar Evers was a civil rights leader who campaigned to desegregate universities, primary schools, and public spaces. He was president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and Mississippi’s first field officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. |
| Ewing, Eve L. | b. 1986, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Eve L. Ewing is a poet and sociologist of education. She is author of the poetry collections Electric Arches and 1919 and also the non-fiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard. She is assistant professor at Chicago University Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. |
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| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Fabio, Sarah Webster | b. January, 20, 1928, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
d. November 7, 1979, Pinole, California, United States Sarah Webster Fabio was a poet and scholar, who helped set up the first black studies departments at California Arts College and California University. Her poetry collections include Black Talk and Rainbow Signs and she performed a poetry recital at the First World Festival of Negro Art, Dakar. |
| Fahey, John H. | b. February 19, 1873, Manchester, New Hampshire, United States
d. November 19, 1950 Washington D.C., Washington, United States John H. Fahey was a government official. He was chair of the Home Loan Bank board and of the Home Owners Loan Corporation. HOLC, a federal agency created as part of the New Deal, systematically denied housing loans to African American families. |
| Farmer, James | b. January 12, 1920, Marshall, Texas, United States
b. July 9, 1999, Fredericksburg, Virginia, United States James Farmer was a civil rights leader who promoted racial integration and nonviolent action. He was race relations secretary for the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation and co-founder-director of the Congress of Racial Equality, which led sit-ins, jail-ins, and Freedom Rides on segregated buses. |
| Fields, Barbara J. | b. 1947, Place unknown
Barbara J. Fields is a historian and scholar. She is a professor of history at Columbia University, specializing in Southern history and 19th century social history. She is author of Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground and coauthor of The Destruction of Slavery and Free at Last. |
| Fields, Julia | b. 1938, Alabama, United States
Julia Fields is a poet, fiction writer, and academic. She wrote her first poem The Horizon aged sixteen and has since produced several volumes of poetry, including East of Moonlight, A Summoning, A Shining, and Slow Coins. She is a lecturer and poet-in-residence at East Carolina University. |
| Figgs, Carrie Law Morgan | b. February 3, 1878, Place unknown
d. May 14, 1968, Place unknown Carrie Law Morgan Figgs was a poet and playwright. Her collected poems include Poetic Pearls and Nuggets of Gold, which address Jim Crow laws, African American culture, and racial injustice. Her plays drew on biblical stories and offered moral guidance. |
| Forbes, Calvin | b. 1945, Newark, New Jersey
Calvin Forbes is a poet who lectures on writing, literature, and jazz history at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute. His first poetry volume Blue Monday describes his travels in Hawaii. From the Book of Shine, a second book, was inspired by the African American folkloric trickster-hero Shine. |
| Franklin, John Hope | b. January 2, 1915, Rentiesville, Oklahoma, United States
d. March 25, 2009, Durham, North Carolina, United States John Hope Franklin was historian who wrote From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. He was president of the American Historical Association, chair of Chicago University’s history department, and legal aide in the Brown v. Board of Education case against public school segregation. |
| Frazier, E. Franklin | b. September 24, 1894, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
d. May 17, 1962, Washington D.C., Washington, United States E. Franklin Frazier was a sociologist who wrote The Negro Family in the United States and Black Bourgeoisie. He was professor emeritus of sociology at Howard University and president of the American Sociological Association and the Washington D.C. Sociological Society. |
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| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Gay, Ross | b. August 1, 1974, Youngstown, Ohio, United States
Ross Gay is a poet and professor. He is the author of the poetry volumes Against Which, Bringing the Shovel Down, Be Holding, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. He is a professor of English at Indiana University and founding editor of online sports magazine Some Call it Ballin’. |
| Gholson, Edward | b. June 30, 1889, Virginia, United States
d. August 30, 1969, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States Edward Gholson was a minister and poet. He was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Ocean City and founder of the First Institutional Baptist and Holy Trinity Baptist Churches, both in Winston-Salem. He published a number of poetry books as well as a collection of sermons, Musings of a Minister. |
| Gilbert, Christopher | b. August 1, 1949, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
d. July 5, 2007 Providence, Rhode Island, United States Christopher Gilbert was a poet and psychotherapist. He was the author of the poetry collections Across the Mutual Landscape and Turning into Dwelling. He was a poet-in-residence at the Robert Frost Place, Franconia and his poetry appeared in African American Literary Review and Callaloo. |
| Gilbert, Mercedes | b. July 26, 1894, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
d. March 1, 1952, Queens, New York, United States Mercedes Gilbert was an actor, poet, novelist, and songwriter. She starred in film, TV, and theater and wrote various blues songs, including I’ve Got the World in a Jug. She also wrote an unpublished book of poems titled Looking Back and three plays, of which only Environment survives. |
| Gill, Tiffany M. | b. April 21, 1974, Brooklyn, New York, United States
Tiffany M. Gill is historian and scholar. She is associate professor of history at Rutgers University, author of Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women's Activism in the Beauty Industry, and co-editor of To Turn the Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism. |
| Giovanni, Nikki | b. June 7, 1943, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Nikki Giovanni is a poet and scholar. Her collected poems include Black Feeling Black Talk, Bicycles: Love Poems, and Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid. She is distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, where she was previously a professor of Black studies and English. |
| Giscombe, C. S. | b. 1950, Dayton, Ohio, United States
C.S. Giscombe is a poet and scholar. His poetry collections include Into and Out of Dislocation, Ohio Railroads, and Prairie Style. He is an English professor at California University and former editor of Epoch magazine, a Cornell University creative writing publication. |
| Golightly, Cornelius | b. May 23, 1917, Waterford, Mississippi, United States
d. March 20, 1976, Detroit, Michigan, United States Cornelius Golightly was a philosopher, academic, and civil rights activist, who fought to introduce busing to desegregate education. He was president of the Detroit board of education and professor of philosophy and associate dean at Wayne State University. |
| Gordon Lane, Pinkie | b. January 13, 1923, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
d. December 3, 2008, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States Pinkie Gordon Lane was a poet and educator. She was poet laureate of Louisiana. Her collected works of poetry include Wind Thoughts, I Never Scream, and Girl at the Window. She was professor and chair of the English department and coordinator of the Black Poetry Festival at Southern University. |
| Gorman, Amanda | b. March 7, 1998, Los Angeles, California, United States
Amanda Gorman is a poet. She is the national youth poet laureate and author of the poetry collections The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough and Call Us What We Carry. She recited her poem The Hill We Climb at President Biden’s inauguration, urging America to “rebuild, reconcile, and recover.” |
| Gray, Fred | b. December 14, 1930, Montgomery, Alabama, United States
Fred Gray is a lawyer who defended Rosa Parks against charges of disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. He has provided legal support to Martin Luther King’s Montgomery Improvement Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. |
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| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Haley, Alex | b. August 11, 1921, Ithaca, New York, United States
d. February 10, 1992, Seattle, Washington, United States Alex Haley was a writer and the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a family history going back seven generations, from the enslavement of his African ancestors to his own life story. He was author of the posthumously published novel Queen and co-author of Malcolm X’s autobiography. |
| Hamer, Fannie Lou | b. October 6, 1917, Ruleville, Mississippi, United States
d. March 14, 1977, Mound Bayou, Mississippi, United States Fannie Lou Hamer was a civil rights activist, who co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic party, which worked to desegregate the Democratic party. She was co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus and founder of the Freedom Farm Cooperative, a black-owned agricultural collective. |
| Hamer, Forrest | b. August 31, 1956, Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States
Forrest Hamer is a poet and clinical psychologist. He is the author of Rift, Middle Ear, and Call and Response, and he lectures on literature at UC Berkeley. He says, poetry is a chance “to engage people literally in a back and forth between speaker and audience, between preacher and congregation”. |
| Hamilton, Charles V. | b. October 19, 1929, Muskogee, Oklahoma, United States
Charles V. Hamilton is a civil rights scholar and activist. He is professor emeritus of political science and government at Columbia University and co-author of Black Power: Politics of Liberation. He was an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Tuskegee Civic Association. |
| Hampton, Fred | b. August 30, 1948, Chicago, Illinois, United States
d. December 4, 1969, Chicago, Illinois, United States Fred Hampton was a civil rights activist and deputy chairman of the Illinois Black Panthers. Under his direction, the party launched a free medical clinic and children’s breakfast program and also formed a “Rainbow Coalition” with the Puerto Rican Young Lords and Appalachian Young Patriots. |
| Hansberry, Willam Leo | b. February 25, 1894, Gloster, Mississippi, United States
d. November 3, 1965, Chicago, Illinois, United States William Leo Hansberry was a historian and anthropologist who developed the study of early African and Ethiopian civilizations. He was associate professor at Howard University. His research was posthumously printed in Pillars in Ethiopian History and Africa and Africans as Seen by Classical Writers. |
| Harding, Rachel Elizabeth | b. December 1962, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Rachel Elizabeth Harding is a historian, poet, and essayist. She is associate professor of Indigenous spiritual traditions at the University of Colorado Denver, and author of A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness and Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism and Mothering. |
| Harding, Rosemarie Freeney | b. July 24, 1930, Chicago, Illinois, United States
d. March 3, 2004, Denver, Colorado, United States Rosemarie Freeney Harding was a civil rights activist. She was co-founder of Mennonite House, a center for radical interracial activism and also co-founder of the Veterans of Hope Project, which provides a space to share the wisdom of elder activists. |
| Harris, Abram Lincoln | b. January 17, 1899 Richmond, Virginia, United States
d. November, 1963, Chicago, Ilinois, United States Abram Lincoln Harris was a political economist. He was a research assistant for National Urban League and associate professor of economics at Howard University. He was author of The Black Worker: A Study of the Negro in the American Labor Movement and The Negro as Capitalist. |
| Harris, Janette Hoston | b. September 7, 1939, Monroe, Louisiana, United States
d. November 2, 2018, Washington D.C., Washington, United States Janette Hoston Harris was historian and civil rights activist, who fought against university segregation. She was a research associate for the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, a history lecturer at Federal City College, and city historian for Washington D.C.. |
| Harris, Leonard | b. April 12, 1948, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Leonard Harris is a philosopher, serving as the director for the Philosophy and Literature Ph.D program at Prude University, Indiana. He previously served as the director of African Studies at Prude University in Indiana. In 2019, Harris co-founded Philosophy Born of Struggle, an academic publication, conference and community. |
| Harrod, Charles L. | b. March 23, 1863, Moscow, Ohio, United States
d. January 23, 1931, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States Charles L. Harrod was a dentist in Columbus, Ohio, and served as the Grand Dragon of the Ohio branch of the Ku Klux Klan. The Ohio Klan in the 1920s numbered around 200,000 and was focused on "The influx of Negroes and East Europeans immigrants into Ohio." |
| Hayden, Carla | b. August 10, 1952, Tallahasse, Florida, United States
Carla Hayden is an American Librarian and the 14th Librarian of Congress in the United States. Nominated by President Barak Obama, she is the first woman and first African American Woman to hold the post. |
| Height, Dorothy | b. March 24, 1912, Richmond, Virginia, United States
d. April 20, 2010, Washington DC, United States Dorothy Irene Height was a civil rights and woman’s rights activist as well as a social worker. During the struggle for equal rights for African Americans, Height view the problems of equality for women and equality for African Americans as a whole, merging issues that had been historically separate. She was the president of the National Council for Negro Women for 40 years. |
| Hemphill, Essex | b. April 16, 1957, Chicago, Illinois, United States
d. November 4, 1995, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Essex Hemphill was a poet and activist. His writing as well as his activism focused on race, identity, sexuality, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic encountered during the 1980s. Openly addressing tabooed topics pertinent to the African-American gay community helped creating discourses and his work received national recognition. |
| Hernton, Calvin C. | b. 1932 Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States
d. October 1, 2001 Oberlin, Ohio, United States Calvin C. Hernton was a poet novelist and essayist. After moving to New York, he co-founded the magazine Umbra. In the 1970s he was a writer-in-residence at Oberlin College in Ohio, where became a professor of African-American studies until he retired in the late 1990s. |
| Higgins, Ora | b. September 24, 1910, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
d. July 25, 2012 Arizona, United States Ora Higgins was a business administrator and poet. While she was the first African American woman who engineered major industrial integration programs, she was also known for her poetry. |
| Hill, Walter Jr. | b. May 22, 1949 St. Louis, Missouri, United States
d. July 29, 2008, Washington D.C., United States Walter Hill Jr. was historian and activist. Throughput his career he worked with the Smithsonian, the National Archives and later in his career taught at Howard University. He was an advocate of diversity in archives and specialized in African American history. |
| Hodge, Ruth E. | b. April 27, 1937, Virginia, United States
Ruth E Hodge is a historian and activist. A focus of her research and writing lay in the importance of African-Americans role in American History and their part in building America. |
| Holley, Jim Jr. | b. December 5, 1943, Philadelphia, Pennslyvania, United States
Dr Jim Holley Jr. was a pastor activist and religious leader in Detroit, Michigan’s Little Rock Church. After experiencing rampant racism, he got involved in the Civil Rights Movement. After earning several advanced degrees, the civil rights foundation he gleaned from his participation in the movement in the 60s allowed him to advocate for justice and equality for disenfranchised groups from his pulpit, through economic development projects, and through community activism |
| Holley, Melvin J. | b. January 27, 1933, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Melvin J. Holley was a historian and military technician. He was involved with building the Lansing Area African American Genealogy Society. |
| hooks, bell | b. September 25, 1952, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, United States
bell hooks is a theorist, activist, teacher, and author. Born Gloria Jean Watkins, hooks is a foundational thinker on feminist theory. Her books include Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism, which explored sexism that Black female slaves endured and its impact on contemporary Black womanhood. |
| Horton, James Oliver | b. March 28, 1943 Newark, New Jersey, Unied States
d. February 20, 2017 Washington, D.C., United States James Oliver Horton was a professor, speaker and historian who taught at George Washington University. As an academic, he specialized in African American history. He served as historical expert for Hillary Clinton when she was First Lady, and the director of the African American communities project at the National Museum of American History. |
| Hunt, Erica | b. March 12, 1955, Manhattan, New York, United States
Erica Hunt is a poet and essayist currently teaching at Wesleyan University. Her work is considered central to the avant garde black aesthetic developing after the Civil Rights Movement and Black Arts Movement. Through the 1990s and 2000s, Hunt worked with several non-profits that encourage black philanthropy for black communities and causes. |
| Hurston, Zora Neale | b. January 7, 1891, Alabama, United States
d. January 28, 1960, Florida, United States Zora Neale Hurston was an American author, anthropologist and Filmmaker. While her first publications were poetry, she later wrote successful novels portraying the racial struggles in the early-1900s American South. |
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| Name | Details |
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| Jackson, Angela | July 25, 1951, Greenville, Mississippi, United States
Angela Jackson is a poet, playwright and novelist, awarded the Illinois Poet Laureate in 2020. Jackson joined the Organization for Black American Culture (OBAC) during her time at Northwestern University. At OBAC, she was able to mentor young black writers, Haki R. Madhubuti among them. She is the author of many volumes of poetry and has amassed many awards and recognition for her work. |
| Jackson, Joseph H. | b. September 11, 1900, Rudyard, Mississippi, United States
d. August 18, 1990, Chicago, Illinois, United States Joseph H. Jackson was a pastor and a strong supporter of civil rights. He believed the way to advance civil rights was through legislation, as opposed to direct action and civil disobedience. He led Olivet Baptist Church, one of Chicago's oldest Black churches, from 1941 until his death in 1990. |
| Jackson, Luther Porter | b. July 11, 1892, Lexington, Kentucky, United States
d. April 12, 1950, Petersburg, Virginia, United States Luther Porter Jackson was a historian and civil rights activist. He wrote extensively on the Black experience in America, with his primary academic focus on free Blacks in antebellum Virginia, including Free Negro Labor and Property Holding in Virginia and Negro Officeholders in Virginia, 1865-1895. |
| Jackson, Major | b. September 9, 1968, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Major Jackson is a poet. His poetry collections include The Absurd Man, Roll Deep, and Holding Company. He works as a Professor of English and as the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University and is the poetry editor for The Harvard Review. |
| Jackson, Phillip | b. September 22, 1950, Chicago, Illinois, United States
d. November 4, 2018, Chicago, Illinois, United States Phillip Jackson was a nonprofit CEO and advocate for improving educational opportunities for African American children and closing academic achievement gaps and served as chief of education for Chicago. He founded the Black Star Project to help students achieve their educational potential. |
| Jess, Tyehimba | b. December 19, 1965, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Tyehimba Jess is a poet and a Professor of English at College of Staten Island. His poetry bridges slam and academic poetry. His collections include leadbelly and Olio, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and his work has been featured in a number of anthologies. |
| Joans, Ted | b. July 4, 1928, Cairo, Illinois, United States
d. April 25, 2003, Vancouver, Canada Ted Joans was a poet who wrote more than thirty books of poetry, prose, and collage including Beat Poems and Funky Jazz Poems. In addition to writing poetry, he was a visual artist and musician, often incorporating jazz music and African American Surrealism into his poetry. |
| Johnson, Charles S. | b. July 24, 1893, Bristol, Virginia, United States
d. October 27, 1956, Louisville, Kentucky, United States Charles S. Johnson was a sociologist and teacher. His research informed The Negro in Chicago, a study of urban riots and their community implications. Johnson was director of research for the National Urban League, where he founded and edited Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life. |
| Johnson, Georgia Douglas | b. September 10, 1880, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
d. May 15, 1966, Washington, D.C., United States Georgia Douglas Johnson was a poet, playwright, and syndicated columnist. She released four poetry collections, including The Heart of a Woman and Share My World. Her home became known as the S Street Salon, an important meeting place for writers of the Harlem Renaissance in Washington, D.C. |
| Johnson, Hazel M. | b January 25, 1935, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
d. January 12, 2011, Chicago, Illinois, United States Hazel M. Johnson was an environmental activist. Known as the mother of the environmental justice movement, she fought against environmental racism in her community and founded the People for Community Recovery. She advocated for environmental justice on a global scale. |
| Johnson, Mordecai Wyatt | b. January 12, 1890, Paris, Tennessee, United States
d. September 10, 1976, Washington D.C., United States Mordecai Wyatt Johnson was an educator and administrator. He was the first African American to serve as president of Morehouse College. During his tenure, he developed Howard's law school, which went on to train many of the lawyers engaged in the civil rights movement. |
| Johnston Jr., Erle | b. October 10, 1917, Garyville, Louisiana, United States
d. September 26, 1995, Jackson, Mississippi, United States Erle Johnston Jr. was an editor and public relations director. As the editor of the Scott County Times and the public relations director for the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, he opposed plans to encourage Black Mississippians to move north and west through sponsored busing programs. |
| Jones, Edward Smyth | b. March 1881, Natchez, Mississippi, United States
d. September 1968, Chicago, Illinois, United States Edward Smyth Jones was a poet. He first migrated to the North in 1910 to attend Harvard, which he was unable to do, working instead as a janitor at the school, and eventually moved to Chicago Little is known about his life, but he published a number of poems, including "Harvard Square." |
| Jones, Gayl | b. November 23, 1949, Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Gayl Jones is a novelist and poet. Although most famous for her novels, including Corregidora, Jones published three collections of poetry in the 1980s. |
| Jones, Parneshia | b. July 31, 1980, Evanston, Illinois, United States
Parneshia Jones is a poet, publisher, and editor. Her 2015 book, Vessel, received the Midwest Book Award. She currently serves as the director of Northwestern University Press. |
| Jones, William R. | b. July 17, 1933, Louisville, Kentucky, United States
d. July 13, 2012, Tallahassee, Florida, United States William R. Jones was a philosopher, Unitarian Universalist minister, and educator. He analyzed methods of oppression and explored religious humanism and liberation theology, proffering secular humanism and humanocentric theism as a legitimate African American spiritual alternative. |
| Jordan, Vernon | b. August 15, 1935, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
d. March 1, 2021, Washington, D.C., United States Vernon Jordan was an activist and lawyer. He began his career at the legal firm that successfully sued to desegregate the University of Georgia. He worked for the NAACP and the United Negro College Fund, was president of the National Urban League, and served as an advisor to President Bill Clinton. |
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| Karenga, Maulana | b. July 14, 1941, Parsonsburg, Maryland, United States
Maulana Karenga is a philosopher, activist, and scholar. Karenga created the living philosophy Kawaida, a dynamic exchange of the best of African practice and thought. He invented Kwanzaa, a pan-African holiday honoring Black culture and history. |
| Kaufman, Bob | b. April 18, 1925, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
d. January 12, 1986, San Francisco, California, United States Bob Kaufman was a Beat poet. His relationship with poetry began with the inspiration he got from jazz and oral tradition, leaving much of his poetry off the page; his wife's transcriptions enabled his work to survive beyond the moment of performance. He co-founded the literary journal Beatitude. |
| Kelsey, George D. | b. July 24, 1910, Columbus, Georgia, United States
d. April 3, 1996, Madison, New Jersey, United States George D. Kelsey was a theologian, educator, and activist. A proponent of the social gospel and civil rights, he taught religion and philosophy at Morehouse, where he taught Martin Luther King Jr. as an undergraduate. His friendship and support of King continued throughout his life. |
| Kennedy, Florynce | b. February 11, 1916, Kansas City, Missouri, United States
d. December 21, 2000, New York, New York, United States Florynce Kennedy was a civil rights advocate, lawyer, and feminist. She grounded her activism in the intersectionality of race and gender; the cases she took as a lawyer were often related to such causes. She created The Media Workshop to combat discrimination in the media. |
| Kennedy, Randall | b. September 10, 1954, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Randall Kennedy is a scholar and lawyer. A current Harvard Law Professor, Kennedy has dedicated much of his academic career to writing about the Black condition, ranging from race and politics, interracial marriages and adoption, and discrimination. |
| Killens, John Oliver | b. January 14, 1916 Macon, Georgia, United States
d. October 27, 1987 Brooklyn, New York, United States John Oliver Killens was was an editor, essayist, activist, critic and novelist. His novels captured the segregated, racist worlds of the Southern U.S. and the military during World War II. He co-founded the Harlem Writers Guild, which remains the oldest organization of African-American writers. |
| King Jr., Martin Luther | b. January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
d. March 29, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee, United States Martin Luther King, Jr. was an activist, minister, and writer. King was a crucial leader and spokesman in the civil rights movement, utilizing non-violent marching tactics. King was known for his powerful orations and prose, including the "I Have a Dream" speech and "Letter from Birmingham Jail." |
| Kirkland, Frank | b. early 1950s, Brooklyn, New York, United States
Frank Kirkland is a philosopher and scholar. He does work in Kant, 19th and 20th Century European Philosophy, and Africana Philosophy. His work has focused on Kant and Hegelian and Husserlian idealisms, as well as on the modernism of the African-diasporic intellectual traditions |
| Knight, Etheridge | b. April 19, 1931, Corinth, Mississippi, United States
d. March 10, 1991, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States Etheridge Knight was a poet. He began writing poetry after being imprisoned on robbery charges, publishing a collection titled Poems from Prison a year before his release. He taught at a number of colleges, was active in the Black Arts Movement, and led Free People’s Poetry Workshops. |
| Komunyakaa, Yusef | b. April 29, 1947, Bogalusa, Louisiana, United States
Yusef Komunkyakaa is a poet, writer, and playwright. He has published over seven poetry collections and is renowned for his effective use of colloquial language. He has held many university posts and currently teaches at New York University. |
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| Labode, Modupe | b. June 11, 1965, Lawrence, Kansas, United States
Modupe Labode is a historian and curator. She is currently a curator at the Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, where she focuses on African American Social Justice History within the divisions of Political and Military History and Cultural and Community Life. |
| Ladner, Joyce | b. October 12, 1943, Battles, Mississippi, United States
Joyce Ladner is an activist, author, civil servant, and sociologist. As a civil rights activist, she participated in sit-ins and was involved with SNCC. Her later career was wide-ranging, from civil service positions to educational leadership, always focusing on race, poverty, and children. |
| Layton, William | b. July 17, 1915, Hanover, Virginia, United States
d. September 12, 2007, Washington, D.C., United States William Layton was a historian, essayist, and civil servant. He became the first African American staff officer for the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve. Layton was renowned for his vast collection of documents pertaining to the Civil War and the abolitionist movement. |
| Lester, Julius | b. January 27, 1939, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
d. January 18, 2018, Palmer, Massachusetts, United States Julius Lester was a writer, academic, activist, radio host, and political commentator. In both his fiction and nonfiction books, he depicted Black American history, past and present. He published books for both adult and children, including Look Out, Whitey! and the Newbury Honor Book To Be a Slave. |
| Levitt, William | b. February 11, 1907, Brooklyn, New York, United States
d. January 28, 1994, Manhasset, New York, United States William Levitt was a real estate developer. As the founder and president of real estate company Levitt & Sons, Levitt oversaw all aspects of the company except for the designs of the homes they built. Levitt refused to sell homes to Black families in Levitt & Sons Mid-Atlantic developments. |
| Lewis, David Levering | b. May 25, 1936, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
David Levering Lewis is a historian and author. He won a Pulitzer prize for both volumes of his biography of W. E. B. DuBois. He has taught at multiple universities and is currently a professor at NYU. |
| Lewis, Samella | b. February 27, 1924, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Samella Lewis is an artist, curator, and art historian. She founded the Museum of African American Art and the scholarly periodical International Review of African-American Art, published the textbook Art: African American, and coedited a two-volume guide to contemporary African American artists. |
| Livingston, Fairolyn | b. June 8, 1946, Winter Park, Florida, United States
Fairolyn Livingston is a historian. Born and raised in Hannibal Square, a primarily Black neighborhood of Winter Park, she now serves as the historian of Hannibal Square Heritage Center. She is a founding member of the Heritage Collection Team, which produced a documentary on Hannibal Square. |
| Locke, John Galen | b. September 6, 1871, Essex County, New York, United States
d. April 1, 1935, Denver, Colorado, United States John Galen Locke was a physician and the Grand Dragon of Colorado's Ku Klux Klan. Locke spent the early 1920s asserting Klan political control over Denver and Colorado politics, eventually controlling most of the state and city politicians. |
| Lomax, Louis | b. August 16, 1922, Valdosta, Georgia, United States
d. July 30, 1970, Santa Rosa, New Mexico, United States Louis Lomax was a historian, journalist, and the first African American newsman to appear on TV. While he worked for multiple newspapers and networks, he wrote books on African and African American life, including When the Word is Given on Malcolm X, The Negro Revolt, and The Reluctant African. |
| Lott, Tommy L. | b. December 17, 1946, Shreveport, Louisiana, United States
Tommy L. Lott is a philosopher and scholar who specializes in socio-political thought, Africana studies, and race. He has published numerous books on race and philosophy, including A Companion to African-American Philosophy and The Idea of Race, and currently teaches at San Jose State University. |
| Love, Rose Leary | b. December 30, 1898, Mecklenburg, North Carolina, United States
d. June 2, 1969, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States Rose Leary Love was a poet, writer, and teacher. Her children's book Nebraska and His Granny features Southern African American folklore. Her memoir Plum Thickets & Field Daisies explores her life in the now demolished Brooklyn neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina. |
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| Mackey, Nathaniel | b. October 25, 1947, Miami, Florida, United States
Nathaniel Mackey is a poet and writer. He has published multiple collections of poetry, including Splay Anthem, and continues to work on book-length installments of an ongoing prose collection. He is currently a professor of creative writing at Duke University |
| Madgett, Naomi Long | b. July 5, 1923, Norfolk, Virginia, United States
d. November 5, 2020, West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Naomi Long Madgett was a poet and a publisher and editor of poetry. She founded and ran Lotus Press, which she ran for years out of her basement. She was poet laureate of Detroit and taught both high school and college English. |
| Madhubuti, Haki R. | b. February 23, 1942, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
Haki R. Madhubuti is a poet and writer. His works deal with issues of racism, violence, stigmatization, and the oppression of black people in America. He founded the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing. |
| Mahoney, Walter J. | b. March 10, 1908, Buffalo, New York, United States
d. March 1, 1982, Buffalo, New York, United States Walter J. Mahoney was a politician and lawyer. While serving as Senate Majority Leader in New York, he advocated for the passage of a bill that would have required at least one year of residence for anyone to receive benefits in the state. |
| Major, Clarence | b. December 31, 1936, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Clarence Major is a poet and writer. He has published eleven novels, sixteen collections of poetry, two volumes of short stories, and ten works of nonfiction, along with many contributions to periodicals. He taught at numerous universities across the United States and the globe before he retired. |
| Marable, Manning | b. May 13, 1950, Dayton, Ohio, United States
d. April 1, 2011, New York, New York, United States Manning Marable was a historian and a professor. He published multiple books about race in America, including a posthumously released acclaimed biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Known for his transformationist political philosophy, he advocated for a reimagining of racial identities. |
| Marshall, Thurgood | b. July 2, 1908, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
d. January 24, 1993, Betheseda, Maryland, United States Thurgood Marshall was an activist, lawyer, and judge. While working for the NAACP, he was the chief attorney for the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education, challenging the premise of segregation. He was also the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court. |
| Mays, Benjamin | b. August 1, 1894, Ninety Six, South Carolina, United States
d. March 28, 1984, Atlanta,Georgia, United States Benjamin Mays was a minister, educator, and administrator. He served as the president and preacher at Morehouse College, where he met and developed a close friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. He served as a spiritual advisor for King throughout his life. |
| McClellan, George Marion | b. September 29, 1860, Belfast, Tennessee, United States
d. May 17, 1934, Los Angeles, California, United States George Marion McClellan was a poet, minister, and educator. He published two volumes of poetry, Poems, later known as Song of a Southerner, and The Path of Dreams. His work was featured in an exhibit at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. |
| McClendon III, John H. | b. September 14, 1949, East Lansing, Michigan, United States
John H. McClendon III is a philosopher and professor. His areas of specialty include African American philosophy and philosophers and Marxism. His published books include Beyond the White Shadow: Philosophy, Sports, and the African-American Experience, co-authored with Dr. Stephen C. Ferguson II. |
| McDade, Jesse N. | b. November 7, 1936, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
d. July 27, 2009, Baltimore, Maryland, United States Jesse N. McDade was a philosopher, activist, and radio host. He taught philosophy at many universities throughout the country, including twenty-five years at Morgan State University. He hosted a regular radio show and worked in prison education with the Lorton Prison Graduate Program. |
| McElroy, Colleen J. | b. October 30, 1935, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Colleen J. McElroy is a poet, writer, and educator. She became the first African American female full professor at University of Washington. Along with chapbooks, short fiction, and nonfiction, she has published a number of full volumes of poetry, including Queen of the Ebony Isles. |
| McElroy, Guy | b. 1946, Fairmont, West Virginia, United States
d. May 31, 1990, Washington, D.C., United States Guy McElroy was an art historian and curator. His exhibition Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940 received acclaim for its exploration of Black identity. He served as curator and assistant director for the Bethune Museum-Archive then as adjunct curator at the Corcoran Gallery. |
| McGary Jr., Howard | b. July 22, 1947, Texarkana, Texas, United States
Howard McGary Jr. is a philosopher. His work explores race and racism, virtue, and justice, among other topics. He is the founder and former director of the Rutgers Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy, and his books include The Post-Racial Ideal and Race and Social Justice. |
| McKay, Claude | b. September 15, 1889, Sunnyvale, Jamaica
d. May 22, 1948, Chicago, Illinois, United States Claude McKay was a poet, novelist, and essayist. Active in the Harlem Renaissance, he published several poetry collections and novels exploring the search for Black cultural identity. His novel Home to Harlem is regarded as the first commercially successful novel by a Black author. |
| McKinney, Richard I. | b. August 20, 1906, Live Oak, Florida, United States
d. October 28, 2005, Baltimore, Maryland, United States Richard I. McKinney was a philosopher and an administrator of higher education. He founded the philosophy department at Morgan State University and went on to serve as president of Storer College. His written work includes a biography of Howard University president Mordecai Wyatt Johnson. |
| McKissick, Floyd Bixler | b. March 9, 1922, Asheville, North Carolina, United States
d. April 28, 1991, Soul City, North Carolina, United States Floyd McKissick was a lawyer and activist. He served as the director of the Congress of Racial Equality, helping radicalize it during his tenure. He later founded Soul City in North Carolina, an experimental town that placed an emphasis on supporting Black people, especially the poor and unemployed. |
| McLaughlin, Wayman Bernard | b. March 22, 1927, Danville, Virginia, United States
d. November 27, 2003, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States Wayman Bernard McLaughlin was a philosopher and educator. While at Boston University, he co-organized the Dialectical Society, which explored philosophical and theological ideas through the lens of Blackness, with Martin Luther King Jr. He also taught philosophy at various universities. |
| McLeod, Thomas G. | b. December 17, 1868, Lynchburg, South Carolina, United States
d. December 11, 1932, Lynchburg, South Carolina, United States Thomas G. McLeod was a politician. As governor of South Carolina, he invoked state laws that required licenses for labor agents advertising better opportunities in the North for Black South Carolinians. He was accused of not pursuing the prosecution of lynching suspects in Aiken, South Carolina. |
| McWhorter, John H. | b. October 6, 1965, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
John H. McWhorter is a linguist and professor. His publications include Losing the Race: Self Sabotage in Black America and Words on the Move: Why English Won't - and Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally). He is an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. |
| Means, St. Elmo | b. September 16, 1877, Newberry, South Carolina, United States
d. May 17, 1947, Eloise, Michigan, United States St. Elmo Means was a poet. In 1920, he published a book of poems entitled Rev. St. Elmo Means' Poems, Essays, Musings and Quotations. |
| Meyer, Agnes Ernst | b. January 1, 1887, New York, New York, United States
d. September 1, 1970, Mount Kisco, New York, United States Agnes Ernst Meyer was an activist and journalist. An advocate for integration and opposed to racial discrimination in employment, she maintained that conditions in the South needed to be improved to minimize the desire of African Americans to move North. |
| Mollman, Fred | b. circa 1870, Illinois, United States
d. Date and year unknown, Place unknown Fred Mollman was a politician. While serving as the Mayor of East St. Louis, Mollman sided with White rioters who attacked Black residents and burned their homes and businesses after African American workers were brought in to break a strike at the Aluminum Ore Company. |
| Moon, F. D. | b. May 4, 1896, Fallis, Oklahoma, United States
d. December 16, 1975, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States F. D. Moon was an educator, a school principal, and the first African American president of the Oklahoma City Board of Education. He founded the Douglass Literary Society for students to promote the study of American history and also served on the board of the Journal of Negro History. |
| Moore, Cecil B. | b. April 2, 1915, Dryfolk Hollow, West Virgina, United States
d. February 13, 1979, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Cecil B. Moore was a veteran, attorney, and activist. Moore led and organized the picket that led to the desegregation of Girard College. He served as the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP and questioned the nonviolent approach of other prominent civil rights leaders at the time. |
| Morley, Clarence | b. February 9, 1869, Dyersville, Iowa, United States
d. November 15, 1948, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States Clarence J. Morley was a judge, politician, and stock broker. While Governor of Colorado, he headed a Ku Klux Klan state administration in Colorado. After leaving office, he moved to Indianapolis and established a stock brokerage; he later was convicted of mail fraud and spent five years in jail. |
| Morris, Aldon | b. June 15, 1949, Tutwiler, Mississippi, United States
Aldon Morris is a sociologist. He works on social movements, race, activism in the civil right, and W. E. B. Du Bois. His publications include Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing For Change and The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology. |
| Morris, Effie Lee | b. April 20, 1921, Richmond, Virginia, United States
d. November 9, 2009, San Francisco, California, United States Effie Lee Morris was a librarian. She focused on promoting reading for children as encouraging local libraries to participate in Black history week, a precursor to Black history month. She was the first woman and African American to be president of the Public Library Association. |
| Morrison II, Roy D. | b. 1926, Marshall, Texas, United States
d. October, 22, 1995, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States Roy D. Morrison II was a philosopher. He was a professor at Wesley Theological Seminary, focusing primarily on the philosophy of religion. His published works include numerous articles as well as the book Science, Theology, and the Transcendental Horizon: Einstein, Kant, and Tillich. |
| Morrison, Toni | b. February 18, 1931, Lorain, Ohio, United States
d. August 5, 2019, New York, New York, United States Toni Morrison is a novelist, poet, playwright, educator, and editor. She taught at Howard University and held an editorial position at Random House. Most famous for her novels, including Sula and The Bluest Eye, Morrison published one volume of poetry, Five Poems. |
| Morrow, Diane Batts | b. April 13, 1947, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Diane Batts Morrow is a historian and scholar. She holds the title Associate Professor Emerita from the Department of History at the University of Georgia. Her publications include Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1862-1860. |
| Moses, Robert | b. December 18, 1888, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
d. July 29, 1981 West Islip, New York, United States Robert Moses was a public official. While serving as New York City's Park Commissioner, he spearheaded the Urban Redevelopment Companies Act, which made it legal for real estate companies to exclude Black people from modern housing developments. |
| Mosley, Albert G. | b. October 28, 1941, Dyersburg, Tennessee, United States
Albert G. Mosley is a philosopher. His published works include African Philosophy: Selected Readings, which he edited, and Affirmative Action: Social Justice or Unfair Preference?, which he co-wrote with Nicholas Capaldi. Mosley holds the title Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Smith College. |
| Muhammad, Elijah | b. October 7, 1897, Sandersville, Georgia, United States
d. February 25, 1975, Chicago, Illinois, United States Elijah Muhammad was the leader of the Black religious separatist group Nation of Islam. Born Elijah Robert Poole, Muhammad mentored and taught Malcom X and Muhammad Ali. He preached Black nationalism, personal pride, and economic self-reliance. |
| Murray, Daniel A. P. | b. March 3, 1852, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
d. December 31, 1925, Washington, D.C., United States Daniel A. P. Murray was a historian, librarian, and activist. As assistant librarian of the Library of Congress, he researched works by Black authors for a Paris exposition, which led to the foundation of the “Colored Author Collection.” He also testified before Congress against segregation laws. |
| Murray, Pauli | b. November 20, 1910, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
d. July 1, 1985, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States Pauli Murray was a lawyer, activist, poet, and an Episcopal priest. Her legal savvy, particularly her book States’ Laws on Race and Color, became a vital tool during the Civil Rights Movement. She published one volume of poetry entitled Dark Testament and Other Poems. |
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| Nabrit, Jr., James M. | b. September 7, 1900, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
d. December 27, 1997, Washington, D.C., United States James M. Nabrit was a lawyer and educator. He worked on a number of civil rights cases and started the first civil rights law course in a U.S. law school at Howard University. He served as the dean of the Howard University School of Law and was later appointed president of the university. |
| Nash, Diane | b. May 15, 1938, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Diane Nash is a civil rights activist. Nash is a proponent of nonviolent protests and was one of the most successful organizers of protest events, including sit-ins and Freedom Rides, in the civil rights movement. She co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. |
| Neal, Larry | b. September 5, 1937 Atlanta, Georgia, United States
d. January 6, 1981, Hamilton, New York, United States Larry Neal was a poet, activist, and educator. He was an arts director and also involved in Black theater. He was involved in the Black Arts movement and was the educational director of the Black Panther Party. He published his poetry in a number of magazines and also in independent volumes. |
| Newton, Huey P. | b. February 17, 1942, Monroe, Louisiana, United States
d. August 22, 1989, Oakland, California, United States Huey P. Newton was a revolutionary known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with Bobby Seale. Newton and Seale sought to improve the lives of African American residents of Oakland through such measures as observation of police interactions and free breakfast for children. |
| Norton, Eleanor Holmes | b. June 13, 1937, Washington, D.C, United States
Eleanor Holmes Norton is an activist, lawyer, and congresswoman. An organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement, she is currently a congressperson representing Washington, D.C. and fighting for its statehood. |
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| Olander, Victor A. | b. 1873, Chicago, Illinois, United States
d. 1949, Place unknown Victor A. Olander was a politician. As Secretary of the Illinois Federation of Labor, he was concerned about the influx of southern Blacks into Chicago. He noted they were being brought in for lower wages and with insufficient housing, resulting in the exploitation of both Black and White laborers. |
| Omar, Abdul Aziz | b. May 4, 1923, Omaha, Nebraska, United States
d. February 6, 1994, Detroit, Michigan, United States Abdul Aziz Omar was a minister and public speaker. He organized Nation of Islam temples throughout Michigan and was the minister of Muhammad's No. 1 Temple in Detroit. He engaged in speaking engagements about his brother, Malcolm X, as well as about the value of education for young Black people. |
| Outlaw Jr., Lucius T. | b. December 28, 1944, Starkville, Mississippi, United States
Lucius T. Outlaw is a philosopher specializing in African American philosophy, African philosophy, continental philosophy, and socio-political philosophy. He authored On Race and Philosophy and has contributed to a number of philosophical texts. He is currently a professor at Vanderbilt University. |
| Owen, Chandler | b. April 5, 1889, Warrenton, North Carolina, United States
d. November 2, 1967, Chicago, Illinois, United States Chandler Owen was a writer and editor. He co-founded the journal The Messenger, which featured prominent literary and political African American writers and edited the Chicago Bee. Owen went on to start a public relations firm, where he wrote speeches for prominent political candidates. |
| Oyewole, Abiodun | b. February 25, 1948, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Abiodun Oyewole is a poet and teacher. His works from 1969 to 2013 have been published in the collection Branches of the Tree of Life: The Collected Poems of Abiodun Oyewole. He is one of the founding members of The Last Poets, which began at a memorial for Malcolm X. |
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| Patton, Gwendolyn | b. October 14, 1943, Inkster, Michigan, United States
d. May 11, 2017, Montgomery, Alabama, United States Gwendolyn Patton was an activist and archivist. Serving as the Special Collections on Montgomery Pioneer Voting Rights Activists archivist at Trenholm State Technical College, Patton worked to preserve papers and records of the civil rights and voting rights movements, of which she was also part. |
| Payne, Les | b. July 12, 1941, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States
d. March 19, 2018, New York, New York, United States Les Payne was a journalist and historian. Payne specialized in exposing racial injustices through investigative journalism. After his retirement from journalism, he began to write histories, with the Pulitzer-winning biography of Malcolm X he co-wrote with his daughter being released posthumously. |
| Payne, Tamara | b. circa 1967, Place unknown
Tamara Payne is a historian and author. She assisted her father, Les Payne, with research for The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. After her father's death, Payne completed the project, which went on to win a Pulitzer Prize. |
| Peters, Margaret | b. March 12, 1936, Dayton, Ohio, United States
Margaret Peters is an educator and historian with a focus on Dayton area African American history. She was appointed the Black History Resource Teacher for Dayton Public Schools. Her publications include the Ebony Book of Black Achievement and Dayton’s African American Heritage. |
| Phillips, Carl | b. July 23, 1959, Everett, Washington, United States
Carl Phillips is a poet, essayist, and professor. To date, Phillips has authored fourteen books of poetry, including Pale Colors in a Tall Field; his work is influenced by his experience as a biracial and homosexual man. He is currently a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. |
| Phillips, Vel | b. February 18, 1923, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
d. April 17, 2018, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States Vel Phillips was an attorney, judge, civil servant, and activist. She proposed a fair housing law that would make it illegal to refuse to rent to black people. She became a leader in the Milwaukee civil rights movement and served as the secretary of state of Wisconsin. |
| Phipps Clark, Mamie | b. October 18, 1917, Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States
d. August 11, 1983, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, United States Mamie Phipps Clark was a psychologist whose research on racial consciousness, internalized racism, and identify in Black children was used in the case against segregated schools in Brown v. Board of Education. She and her husband started the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem. |
| Pinkett, H. T. | b. April 7, 1914, Salisbury, Maryland, United States
d. March 31, 2001, Washington, D.C., United States H. T. Pinkett was an archivist and historian. He was the first African American archivist to work at the National Archives and Records Administration. His specialized in agricultural history and published Gifford Pinchot: Public and Private Forester, a biography of the noted conservationist. |
| Plumpp, Sterling D. | b. January 30, 1940, Clinton, Mississippi, United States
Sterling D. Plumpp is a poet and professor. His first book of poetry, Portable Soul, was published in 1969, and he went on to release more volumes of poetry while serving as a professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago. |
| Porter, Dorothy B. | b. May 25, 1905, Warrenton, Virginia, United States
d. December 17, 1995, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States Dorothy B. Porter was a librarian and archivist. Porter published extensive bibliographies on African American history. In her capacity as a librarian at Howard College, she helped cultivate and steward the world-class archive of Black life and history known as the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. |
| Porter, James A. | b. December 22, 1905, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
d. February 28, 1970, Washington, D.C., United States James A. Porter was an art historian, educator, and artist. Credited with establishing the field of African American art history, he pioneered the field with the publication of his monograph Modern Negro Art. |
| Posey, Edwin | b. July 6, 1893, South Carolina, United States
d. May 1963, Place unknown Edwin Posey was a poet and a bricklayer. He published The Voice of the Negro in South Carolina: Poems in 1917. |
| Prettyman, Alfred | b. February 15, 1935, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Alfred Prettyman is a philosopher and activist. He contributed to the fight for civil rights through philosophical publishings. Pettyman co-founded and currently hosts meetings for the Society of Africana Philosophy and is a member of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. |
| Price, Clement A. | b. October 13, 1945, Washington, D.C., United States
d. November 5, 2014, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States Clement A. Price was a historian, seen as the foremost authority on the Black history of New Jersey. He was the founder and director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience, which utilizes a community-oriented model for public arts and humanities. |
| Purnell, Louis | b. April 5, 1920, Snow Hill, Maryland, United States
d. August 10, 2001, Washington, D.C., United States Louis Purnell was a pilot, historian, and curator. Working in paleo-biology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Purnell conducted paleontological and oceanographic research. A former Tuskegee Airman, he later served as a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. |
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| Name | Details |
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| Raboteau, Albert J. | b. September 4, 1943, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, United States
d. September 18, 2021, Princeton, New Jersey, United States Albert J. Raboteau was a history professor specializing in American and African American religious history. His publications include Slave Religion: The ‘Invisible Institution’ in the Antebellum South. He was Professor Emeritus and the Henry W. Putnam Professor of Religion at Princeton University. |
| Randall, Dudley | b. January 14, 1914, Washington, D.C., United States
d. August 5, 2020, Southfield, Michigan, United States Dudley Randall was poet, publisher, and librarian. He founded Broadside Press, which focused on publishing the work of Black poets. He worked at the University of Detroit as a reference librarian and ultimately became Detroit’s first poet laureate. |
| Randolph, A. Philip | b. April 15, 1889, Crescent City, Florida, United States
d. May 16, 1979, New York, New York, United States A. Philip Randolph was a unionist and activist. Randolph advocated for the integration of the armed forces and spearheaded and chaired the March on Washington. A major force in the labor movement, he was vice president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. |
| Ransby, Barbara | b. May 12, 1957, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Barbara Ransby is a writer and historian. She serves as the John D. MacArthur Chair, and Distinguished Professor, in the Departments of Black Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also directs the campus-wide Social Justice Initiative. |
| Reagon, Bernice Johnson | b. October 4, 1942, Albany, Georgia, United States
Bernice Johnson Reagon is a historian, musician, curator, and professor. While a curator at the National Museum of American History, she established the Smithsonian’s Program in Black American Culture and released albums exploring the history of African American music. |
| Reddick, Lawrence Dunbar | b. March 3, 1910, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
d. August 2, 1995, New Orleans, Lousiana, United States Lawrence Dunbar Reddick was a curator, teacher, and activist. He directed a program with the Works Progress Administration to collect former slave narratives. He was a curator of the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature in Harlem and subsequently took on academic posts at various universities. |
| Redmond, Eugene B. | b. December 1, 1937, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Eugene B. Redmond is a poet and playwright. He has written several plays and collections of poetry as well as publishing Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry, A Critical History. He was the founding editor of Drumvoices Revue and was named as the Poet Laureate of East St. Louis. |
| Reed, Ishmael | b. February 22, 1938, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States
Ishmael Reed is a poet, writer, and playwright. His collected works of poetry include Why the Black Holes Sings the Blues: Poems 2001-2020 and Catechism of d Neoamerican HooDoo Church. Additional works include Mumbo Jumbo, The Free-Lance Pallbearers, The Plays, and The Complete Muhammed Ali. |
| Reid, Ira De Augustine | b. July 2, 1901, Clifton Forge, Virgina, United States
d. August 15, 1968, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States Ira De Augustine Reid was a sociologist, professor, and author. Working on Black immigrants and labor, he published numerous works, including The Negro Immigrant, His Background, Characteristics and Social Adjustment 1899-1937. He taught extensively, eventually obtaining tenure at Haverford College. |
| Rivers, Conrad Kent | b. October 15, 1933, Place unknown
d. March 24, 1968, Chicago, Illinois, United States Conrad Kent Rivers was a poet and teacher. During his senior year of undergrad, he published his first volume of poetry, Perchance to Dream, Othello. He later taught high school in Illinois and Indiana while writing poems and published another three volumes of poetry, the last posthumously. |
| Robb, Walter C. | b. 1886, Minnesota, United States
d. 1972, Afton, Minnesota, United States Walter C. Robb was a secretary for a casualty insurance company and a member of the Minnesota Ku Klux Klan Chapter in the 13th Ward of Minneapolis. He led a protest against the influx of African Americans to the city in the 1930s. |
| Robinson, Cedric J. | b. November 5, 1940, Oakland, California, United States
d. June 5, 2016, Place unknown Cedric J. Robinson was a political scientist and professor. A pioneer in the study of Black Radical Tradition, he wrote several books including Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition and Forgeries of Memory and Meaning and co-hosted the program Third World News Review. |
| Roxborough, Mildred Bond | b. June 30, 1926, Brownsville, Tennessee, United States
Mildred Bond Roxborough is an activist known for her leadership within the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Serving in myriad positions at the NAACP, she ultimately became director of operations, director of programs, and finally director of development. |
| Rush, Bobby L. | b. November 23, 1946, Albany, Georgia, United States
Bobby L. Rush is an activist, pastor, and politician. During the civil rights movement, Rush formed the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. He has served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993, representing Illinois's first congressional district. |
| Rushin, Kate | b. 1951, Place unknown
Kate Rushin is a poet and educator who draws from her experience as a Black, lesbian woman. Her poem "The Bridge Poem," which opened feminist anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, has become iconic. Her poetry collections include The Black Back-Ups. |
| Rushing, Fannie | b. February 3, 1943, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Fannie Rushing is an activist, historian, and assistant professor. She specializes in the history and culture of African people in Latin America and the Caribbean. She was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s and works to preserve that history. |
| Russell, Camisha | b. November 17, 1978, Everett, Washington, United States
Camisha Russell is a philosopher and educator. She specializes in medical ethics, African American philosophy, and feminist theory. She holds the titles Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Oregon. |
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| Name | Details |
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| Sanchez, Sonia | b. September 9, 1934, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Sonia Sanchez is a poet and activist. She participated in the civil rights movement through the Congress of Racial Equality, though she later shifted to a separatist viewpoint. She has published numerous books of poetry, including Shake Loose My Skin and A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women. |
| Savage, W. Sherman | b. March 7, 1890, Wattsville, Virginia, United States
d. May 23, 1981, Los Angeles, California, United States W. Sherman Savage was a historian, author, and educator. He was one of the first African Americans to receive a PhD in history from a predominantly White institution. His publications include Blacks in the West and The Controversy over the Distribution of Abolition Literature, 1830-1860. |
| Sawyer, Charles A. | b. May 8, 1898, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States |
| Schieffelin, William Jay | b. April 14, 1866, New York, New York, United States
d. April 29, 1955, New York, New York, United States Dr. William Jay Schieffelin was a chemist, businessman, and activist. The chairman of the Citizens Union of New York and an advocate for Black welfare, he worried that the Great Migration would economically harm the South and result in Black citizens contending with economic issues in the North. |
| Scott, Jacqueline | b. March 3, 1967, Lake Forest, Illinois, United States
Jacqueline Scott is a philosopher and educator. She is currently editing a volume on Nietzsche and African American thought. Her published works include "Racial Nihilism as Racial Courage" and "Toward a Place I Where I Can Bring All of Me: Identity Formation and Philosophy.” |
| Sechrest, Love L. | b. October 14, 1962, Place unknown
Love L. Sechrest is a theologian and educator. She works on race, gender, and the New Testament, and her books include Can "White'' People Be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission. She is the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty at Columbia Theological Seminary. |
| Shange, Ntozake | b. October 18, 1948, Trenton, New Jersey, United States
d. October 27, 2018, Bowie, Maryland, United States Ntozake Shange was a playwright and poet. Her work, such as the much lauded play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, addresses race and gender. Her poetry collections include Nappy Edges, A Daughter's Geography, and Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems. |
| Shepherd, Reginald | b. April 10, 1963, New York, New York, United States
d. September 10, 2008, Pensacola, Florida, United States Reginald Shepherd was a poet, writer, and editor. In addition to editing two poetry anthologies, he published several volumes of poetry, including Some Are Drowning, Otherhood, and Fata Morgana and the essay collection Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry. |
| Shuttlesworth, Fred | b. March 18, 1922, Mount Meigs, Alabama, United States
d. October 5, 2011, Birmingham, Alabama, United States Fred Shuttlesworth was a civil rights activist and pastor. He formed the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Shuttlesworth co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr. and Bayard Rustin. |
| Smallwood, Stephanie | b. June 29, 1965, Columbus, Ohio, United States
Stephanie Smallwood is a historian and educator. Her publications include Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora and "The 'Culture' Concept and the African Diaspora: Outline of a Troubled Genealogy." She is an associate professor at the University of Washington. |
| Smith, Mitzi J. | b. 1958, Columbus, Ohio, United States
Mitzi J. Smith is a minister and professor. She was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in the New Testament from Harvard. She is a professor at Ashland Theological Seminary in Detroit; her scholarship focuses on unprivileging white, colonial, and male voices in interpreting the Bible. |
| Smith, Patricia | b. June 25, 1955, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Patricia Smith is a poet, writer, and professor. Smith has published eight books of poetry, including Incendiary Art, Shoulda Been Jimi Savanah, and Blood Dazzler. Smith is a distinguished professor of English for the City University of New York and a lecturer in creative writing at Princeton. |
| Smitherman, Geneva | b. December 10, 1940, Brownsville, Tennessee, United States
Geneva Smitherman is a linguist, education advocate, and scholar. Her scholarship focuses on the language usage of minority groups, particularly African American Vernacular English. Utilizing her research, she advocates for African American children and equitable treatment in schools. |
| Snowden III, Frank M. | b. June 22, 1946, Washington, D.C., United States
Frank M. Snowden III is a historian. Currently the Andrew Downey Orrick Professor Emeritus of History & History of Medicine at Yale, Snowden's works on Italian history regarding medicine and disease. His books include Naples in the Times of Cholera and The Conquest of Malaria: Italy, 1900-1962. |
| Snowden Jr., Frank M. | b. July 17, 1911, York County, Virginia, United States
d. February 18, 2007, Washington, D.C., United States Frank M. Snowden Jr. was a classicist. He joined the faculty at Howard, working on Africans and their encounters with Greeks and Romans in antiquity and ultimately became Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. He was also the cultural attaché at the American Embassy in Rome in the early 1950s. |
| Spellman, A. B. | b. August 12, 1935 Nixonton, North Carolina, United States
A. B. Spellman is a poet, music critic, and arts administrator. Originally a jazz music critic, Spellman later joined the National Endowment for the Arts team, where he worked until his retirement. Spelman has published two volumes of poetry: The Beautiful Days and Things I Must Have Known. |
| Spillers, Hortense J. | b. April 24, 1942, Memphis, Tenneesee, United States
Hortense J. Spillers is a scholar and literary critic. Her best known essay “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book" employs feminist theory, African American studies, and semiotics to reject the trope of the absent Black father and create a theory of Black female gender construction. |
| Spriggs, William | b. 1955, Washington, D.C., United States
William Spriggs is an economist and professor. His work spans academia, focusing on wages, labor, and race, and government policy. He served under both the Clinton and Obama administrations and is chief economist of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. |
| Stamps, Marion Nzinga | b. May 28, 1945, Jackson, Mississippi, United States
d. August 28, 1996, Chicago, Illinois, United States Marion Nzinga Stamps was an activist who fought for equal rights of public housing and improved living conditions for the Cabrini-Green housing development in Chicago. She continued her work on a national stage, helping lead a nationwide rent strike against the Housing and Urban Development. |
| Steele, Claude | b. January 1, 1946, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Claude Steele is a social psychologist and professor. He is known for his work on stereotype threat, a situation in which people are or feel at risk of confirming stereotypes about their social group. Steele is known for his application of stereotype threat to minority student academic performance. |
| Steele, Shelby | b. January 1, 1946, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Shelby Steele is a political commentator and essayist. He specializes in race relations, multiculturalism, and affirmative action. He published The Content of Our Character, a book of essays on race, and is the Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. |
| Stevenson, Bryan | b. November 14, 1959, Milton, Delaware, United States
Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer, activist, and professor. He founded the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization providing defense lawyers to those sentenced with the death penalty in Alabama. Under his leadership, the EJI established the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. |
| Stewart, Imagene | b. September 23, 1942 Dublin, Georgia, United States
d. May 30, 2012 Washington, D.C., United States Bishop Imagene Stewart was a pastor and activist. Her experience with homelessness led her to establish a homeless shelter in DC. She served as National Chaplain for the American Legion Auxiliary and as the director of the United States Department of Veteran Affairs. |
| Strange, Sharan | b. 1959, Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States
Sharan Strange is a poet, professor, and activist. In addition to her much anthologized work, she has published the poetry volume Ash. A founding member of Dark Room Collective and former contributing editor of Callaloo, she currently teaches creative writing at Spelman College. |
| Stuckey, Elma | b. March 15, 1907, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
d. September 25, 1988, Washington, D.C., United States Elma Stuckey was a poet. A writer all her life, she published her first collection The Big Gate at age 69 and would go on to publish one more collection in 1987, The Collected Poems of Elma Stuckey. Her work highlighted Black lives in the South. |
| Stuckey, Sterling | b. March 2, 1932, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
d. August 5, 2018, Riverside, California, United States Sterling Stuckey was a historian, professor, and author. His work addressed African American culture and history, particularly slaves' relationship to their cultural heritages from the African continent. His publications include Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory & the Foundations of Black America. |
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| Taylor, Gardner C. | b. June 18, 1918, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
d. April 5, 2015, Durham, North Carolina, United States Rev. Gardner C. Taylor was an activist and pastor. Active in the civil rights movement and a leader of the desegregation-focused Progressive National Baptist Convention, he would go on to helm the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn and work to desegregate New York City schools. |
| Tenerowicz, Rudolph G. | b. June 14, 1890, Budapest, Hungary
d. August 31, 1963, Hamtramck, Michigan, United States Rudolph Tenerowicz was a politician. While in congress, he, along with the aid of local group the Seven Mile Fenelon Improvement Association, led a movement against the federal government's Sojourner Truth Housing Project, which was aimed at alleviating the housing crisis for African Americans. |
| Terry, Esther M. A. | b. 1939, Wise, North Carolina, United States
Esther M. A. Terry is an activist, educator, and administrator. She helped plan the Greensboro Woolworth's sit-in. She chaired the Afro-American Studies department at the University of Massachusetts and has served in many administrative roles, including as provost, at Bennett College. |
| Thompson, Charles Henry | b. July 19, 1895, Jackson, Mississippi, United States
d. January 16, 1980, Hyattsville, Maryland, United States Charles Henry Thompson was a psychologist, educator, and activist. Thompson utilized his research on race and education to refute the idea of "separate but equal" and racial inferiority, advocating for the desegregation of schools and for equitable access to education. |
| Thorpe, Earlie Endris | b. November 9, 1924 Durham, North Carolina, United States
d. January 30, 1989, Durham, North Carolina, United States Earlie Endris Thorpe was a historian and a professor. He published a number of books on African American history and the history of the American South, including Black Historians: A Critique, The Mind of the Negro: An Intellectual History of Afro-Americans, and The Old South: A Psychohistory. |
| Thurman, Howard | b. November 18, 1899, Daytona Beach, Florida, United States
d. April 10, 1981, San Francisco, California, Unites States Howard Thurman was an activist, theologian, pastor, and author. Thurman's work on radical nonviolence, including the book Jesus and the Disinherited, informed the work of many civil rights activists. He co-founded the interracial and interdenominational Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. |
| Thurman, Sue Bailey | b. August 26, 1903, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States
d. December 25, 1996, San Francisco, California, United States Sue Bailey Thurman was an author and social historian. She founded the Aframerican Women's Journal and the Museum of African American History in Boston. She documented the lives of African Americans in Pioneers of Negro Origin in California and The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro. |
| Tillman, Ben | b. August 11, 1847, Trenton, South Carolina, United States
d. July 3, 1918, Washington, D.C., United States Ben Tillman was a farmer and politician. He served as the Governor of South Carolina and later as a US senator until his death. He advocated for policies that would control the movement and freedoms of African Americans, including South Carolina's Jim Crow laws. |
| Tolbert, Emory | b. December 26, 1946, Sanford, Florida, United States
Emory Tolbert is a historian and professor at Howard focusing on African American history and the African diaspora. His publications include The UNIA and Black Los Angeles: Ideology and Community in the American Garvey Movement and 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa. |
| Tolson, Melvin B. | b. February 6, 1898, Moberly, Missouri, United States
d. August 29, 1966, Dallas, Texas, United States Melvin B. Tolson was a playwright, poet, and politician. He wrote a number of plays and volumes of poetry including Harlem Gallery: Book One, Libretto for the Republic of Liberia, and Rendezvous with America. He was appointed Poet Laureate of Liberia and also served as mayor of Langston, Oklahoma. |
| Touré, Askia | b. October 13, 1938, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Askia Touré is a poet and editor and was an active force in the Black Arts Movement. He worked for many magazines associated with the civil rights movement, including being editor-in-chief of the Journal of Black Poetry. His first volume of poetry, Songhai, was published in 1972. |
| Trotter Jr., Joe William | b. June 18, 1945, Vallscreek, West Virginia, United States
Joe William Trotter Jr. is a historian and scholar. His work focuses on African-American history and labor and includes the monograph Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America. He serves as the Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice at Carnegie Mellon University. |
| Troupe, Quincy | b. July 22, 1939, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Quincy Troupe is a poet, writer, and editor. His volumes of poetry include Seduction: New Poems, Ghost Voices: A Poem in Prayer, and Errançities. He has also compiled anthologies, written nonfiction, and helmed several periodicals, such as Confrontation: A Journal of Third World Literature. |
| Turner, Glennette Tilley | b. November 23, 1933, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Glennette Tilley Turner is a historian, author, and educator. Her adult and children's books, such as Take a Walk in Their Shoes, feature African American history in the Midwest and the Underground Railroad. She advises the National Park Service on the Underground Railroad Experience Trail. |
| Turner, Lorenzo Dow | b. August 21, 1890, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, United States
d. Februrary 10, 1971, Chicago, Illinois, United States Lorenzo Dow Turner was a linguist and professor. Throughout his career, he did research on the Gullah language of South Carolina and Georgia, ultimately relating Gullah to Niger-Congo languages. He taught at Howard, Fisk, and Roosevelt. |
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| Valien, Preston | b. February 19th, 1914, Beaumont, Texas, United States
d. July 16, 1995, Washington, D.C., United States Preston Valien was a sociologist and professor. His research focused on the African American experience, including desegregation, housing, migration, and employment. He and his wife Bonita Valien collaborated to study the desegregation of schools and the civil rights movement. |
| Vivian, C. T. | b. July 30, 1924, Boonville, Missouri, United States
d. July 17, 2020, Atlanta, Georgia, United States C. T. Vivian was an activist, author, minister, and theologian. An advocate for racial equality through non-violent protests, Vivian co-founded the Nashville Christian Southern Leadership Conference and worked with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to organize sit-ins and freedom rides. |
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| Name | Details |
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| Walker, Alice | b. February 9, 1944, Eatonton, Georgia, United States
Alice Walker is a poet, novelist, and writer. She has authored seven volumes of poetry, including Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems, Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful, and A Poem Traveled Down my Arm: Poems and Drawings, as well as over sixty novels and short stories. |
| Walker, Margaret | b. July 7, 1915, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
d. November 30, 1998, Chicago, Illinois, United States Margaret Walker was a poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher. Her publications include poetry volumes For My People and Prophets for a New Day and historical novel Jubilee, set during and after the Civil War, which received acclaim for presenting Black history from a Black perspective. |
| Waller Smith, Effie | b. January 6, 1879, Wisconsin, United States
d. January 2, 1960, Neenah, Wisconsin, United States Effie Waller Smith was a poet. She published three volumes of poetry, Songs of the Month, Rhymes From the Cumberland, and Rosemary and Pansies. Smith became one of the first female African American poets to be published in a national literary magazine. |
| Weatherly, Tom | b. November 3, 1942, Scottsboro, Alabama, United States
d. July 15, 2014, Huntsville, Alabama, United States Tom Weatherly was a poet. Known for his sparse poetry that celebrated African American life, his publications include Short History of the Saxophone and Thumbprint. He co-edited the anthology of African-American writings entitled Natural Process. |
| Weaver, Fawn | b. 1976, Place unknown
Fawn Weaver is an entrepreneur, historian, and author. She helped prove that the first master distiller for Jack Daniels was Nearest Green, an emancipated slave. She founded the Nearest Green Foundation, which includes a museum, and is CEO of Grant Sidney Inc. and Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. |
| Wesley, Charles H. | b. December 2, 1891, Louisville, Kentucky, United States
d. August 16, 1987, Washington D.C., United States Charles H. Wesley was a historian, minister, educator, and author. He published numerous books on African American history, including The Quest for Equality: From Civil War to Civil Rights and the ten volume set the International Library of Negro Life and History. |
| West, Cornel | b. June 2, 1953, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Cornel West is a philosopher, activist, and public intellectual. Beyond his many media appearances, he has published numerous texts, including Race Matters, Democracy Matters, and Black Prophetic Fire, which examines nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their legacies. |
| Wiggins, Bernice Love | b. March 4, 1897, Austin, Texas, United States
d. January 27, 1936, Los Angeles, California, United States Bernice Love Wiggins was a poet and teacher. Known for work exploring concerns of the Black community as well as race, women's rights, she published poems in a number of magazines and newspapers. She self-published the anthology Tuneful Tales while living in El Paso, Texas in 1925. |
| Wilderson III, Frank B. | b. April 11, 1956, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Frank B. Wilderson III is a writer, poet, and scholar. Wilderson co-founded the Afro-pessimism discipline. His books include memoir Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid Afropessimism, critical theory text Red, White & Black, and Afropessimism, which interweaves narrative and critical theory. |
| Wilkins, Roger | b. January 29, 1932, Kansas City, Missouri, United States
d. March 26, 2017, Maryland, United States Roger Wilkins was a historian, civil rights activist, and journalist. A leader of the NAACP and Assistant Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson, Wilkins was renowned for his commentary on public policy and social justice. His published books include A Man's Life and Jefferson’s Pillow. |
| Williams, Chancellor | b. December 22, 1893, Bennettsville, South Carolina, United States
d. December 7, 1992, Washington, D.C., United States Chancellor Williams was a historian and sociologist. Focusing on pre-European African history, he was a proponent of the idea that Ancient Egypt was essentially a Black civilization. His best known work is The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race From 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. |
| Williams, Lacey Kirk | b. July 11, 1871, Eufaula, Alabama, United States
d. October 29, 1940, near Flint, Michigan, United States Rev. Lacey Kirk Williams was a pastor known for his shepherding of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago, which grew to be one of the largest African American churches in Chicago. He served as President of the National Baptist Convention and Vice President of the World Baptist Alliance. |
| Willie, Charles V. | b. October 8, 1927, Dallas, Texas, United States
Charles V. Willie is a sociologist and professor. His work focuses on race relations, community development, and the desegregation of schools. During the civil rights movement, he was consulted regarding various desegregation cases, and he is now a professor emeritus at Harvard. |
| Wilmore Jr., Gayraud S. | b. December 20, 1921, Philadelphia, Pennslyvania, United States
d. April 18, 2020, Place unknown Rev. Gayraud S. Wilmore Jr. was a pastor, scholar, and activist who trained ministers to support civil rights efforts through the United Presbyterian Church’s Commission on Religion and Race. His publications include Black Religion and Black Radicalism and Dissent and Empowerment. |
| Wilson, Amos N. | b. February 23, 1941, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States
d. January 14, 1995, Brooklyn, New York, United States Amos N. Wilson was a psychologist, theorist, and professor whose research focused on power, racism, and contending with White domination and imperialism. His publications include The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child and Blueprint for Black Power. |
| Wilson, August | b. April 27, 1945, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
d. October 2, 2005, Seattle, Washington, United States August Wilson was a playwright and poet. Wilson's work chronicled Black life, with his most notable work being "The Pittsburgh Cycle," also known as the "American Century Cycle." Set throughout the 20th Century, the ten-play cycle includes Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, and The Piano Lesson. |
| Wilson, William Julius | b. December 20, 1935, Derry, Pennsylvania, United States
William Julius Wilson is a sociologist and professor who works on race relations and urban poverty. His publications include Power, Racism, and Privilege: Race Relations in Theoretical and Sociohistorical Perspectives and The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. |
| Woolfolk, George Ruble | b. February 22, 1915, Louisville, Kentucky, United States
d. June 12, 1996 Prairie View, Texas, United States George Ruble Woolfolk was a historian and professor. He spent his career at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. Known for his research on Southern history and African American studies, he published several books, including The Free Negro in Texas, 1800-1860: A Study in Cultural Compromise. |
| Wright, Bobby E. | b. March 1, 1934, Anniston, Alabama, United States
d. April 6, 1982, Chicago, Illinois, United States Bobby E. Wright was a psychologist, scholar, and activist. Wright focused on the idea of psychological race warfare, including his theory which postulates that African Americans who commit suicide are victims of White supremacy. He is described as belonging to the radical school of Black psychology. |
| Wright, Jeremiah A. | b. September 22, 1941, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright is a theologian, scholar, and pastor. Rev. Wright led the congregation of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for thirty-six years. He authored and co-authored several works which draw on Black liberation theology, including Africans Who Shaped Our Faith. |
| Wright, Louis T. | b. July 23, 1891, LaGrange, Georgia, United States
b. October 8, 1952, New York, New York, United States Dr. Louis T. Wright was a physician, surgeon, and activist. He was appointed the first African American physician on the staff at Harlem Hospital and eventually became Director of Surgery. Dr. Wright advocated for integrated medical care, championing civil rights within the medical field. |
| Wright, Richard | b. September 4, 1908, Roxie, Mississippi, United States
d. November 28, 1960, Paris, France Richard Wright was a novelist, poet, and essayist. His work frequently dealt with racial themes, focusing on African Americans in the 19th to mid 20th Centuries. Notable works include novels Native Son, Uncle Tom's Children, and Black Boy and the poetry collection Haiku: This Other World. |
| Wyatt, Addie | b. March 8, 1924, Brookhaven, Mississippi, United States
d. March 28, 2012, Chicago, Illinois, United States Rev. Addie Wyatt was an activist and minister. She was active in the civil rights movement and fought for voting rights, better education and healthcare, open housing, and equal pay for working women. She and her husband, both ordained ministers, founded the Vernon Park Church of God in Chicago. |
X
| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| X, Malcolm | b. May 19, 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, United States
d. February 21, 1965, New York, New York, United States Malcolm X was a writer, speaker, and activist. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam for much of his life, he was an advocate for Black empowerment and civil rights. He disagreed with the philosophy of nonviolence, and his assassination and subsequent biography galvanized many, especially Black youth. |
Y
| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Yeldell, Florida | b. January 2, 1915, Georgetown, South Carolina, United States
d. May 25, 2006, Pawleys Island, South Carolina, United States Florida Yeldell was a historian and educator. She taught history and Western civilization at several universities, including Prairie View A&M University. When she retired, she returned to her hometown and educated others on the local African American history of Georgetown County, North Carolina. |
| Young, Al | b. 1939, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, United States
d. April 17, 2021, California, United States Al Young was a poet, writer, and musician. Known for poetry recitations and writings which drew from his great affection for jazz music, Young published a number of collections, including Something About the Blues and The Sound of Dreams Remembered. He served as California's poet laureate. |
| Young Jr., Whitney M. | b. July 31, 1921, Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, United States
d. March 11, 1971, Lagos, Nigeria Whitney M. Young Jr. was an activist, social worker, and statesman. Young was a key organizer of the March on Washington and an advisor to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Young spearheaded a program to provide federal aid to cities and is credited with coauthoring Johnson's War on Poverty. |