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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wayne Shorter
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wayne Shorter, an African-American musician and composer, a major jazz saxophonist, among the most influential hard-bop and modal musicians and a pioneer of jazz-rock fusion music.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wendell Phillips
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wendell Phillips, an abolitionist crusader whose oratorical eloquence helped fire the antislavery cause during the period leading up to the American Civil War.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wesley Snipes
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wesley Snipes, an American actor best known for his action films, many of which featured martial arts.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wes Montgomery
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wes Montgomery, a black American jazz guitarist, probably the most influential postwar improviser on his instrument.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Whitney Houston
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Whitney Houston, an American singer and actress who was one of the best-selling musical performers of the 1980s and '90s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: William Lewis Taylor
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features William Lewis Taylor, an American lawyer and civil rights activist born Oct. 4, 1931, New York, N.Y.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: William Monroe Trotter
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features William Monroe Trotter, an African American journalist and vocal advocate of racial equality in the early 20th century. From the pages of his weekly newspaper, The Guardian, he criticized...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Willie Dixon
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willie Dixon, an American blues musician who, as record producer, bassist, and prolific songwriter, exerted a major influence on the post-World War II Chicago style.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Willie King
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willie King, an American musician born March 8, 1943, Prairie Point, Miss.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Willie Stargell
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willie Stargell, an American professional baseball player who led the Pittsburgh Pirates to World Series championships in 1971 and 1979.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Willis Reed
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willis Reed, an American professional basketball player and professional and collegiate basketball coach.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Will Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Will Smith, an American actor and musician whose charisma, clean-cut good looks, and quick wit helped him transition from rap music to a successful career in acting.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Woody Strode
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Woody Strode, an American character actor who was part of director John Ford's "family" of actors, appearing in nearly a dozen of Ford's films. Strode also had a brief career as a...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Zadie Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Zadie Smith, a British author known for her treatment of race, religion, and cultural identity and for her novels' eccentric characters, savvy humor, and snappy dialogue. She became a...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Guide to Black History: Nelson Mandela
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica's Guide to Black History features Nelson Mandela, a black nationalist and first black president of South Africa (1994-99). His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African Pres. F.W. de Klerk...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Guide to Black History: Barack Obama
Biography of President Barack Obama, the first African American to hold that office.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Guide to Black History: Amiri Baraka
Biographical sketch of American writer Amiri Baraka.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Guide to Black History: Duke Ellington
Biography of Duke Ellington, one of the originators of big band jazz, and a noted composer.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Guide to Black History: Fannie Lou Hamer
Brief biographical sketch of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Hiram R. Revels
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Hiram R. Revels, an American clergyman, and educator who became the first black citizen to be elected to the U.S. Senate (1870-71), during Reconstruction.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Guide to Shakespeare:couplet
This is a small section of a much larger article on Shakespeare and the Globe Theater that discusses the use of couplets in poetry. Some different types of couplets are discussed (formal or closed, run-on or enjambment, alexandrine,...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: 300 Women Who Changed History: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Biographical sketch of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935 CE), who was an early feminist writer who advocated economic independence for women in 1898. Site briefly discusses her ideas and suggests other sources.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Bert Williams
Brief biography of Bert Williams, black comic actor of early 1900s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Coleman Young
Biographical sketch of Coleman Young, first African American mayor of Detroit.