Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Elvin Hayes
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Elvin Hayes, an American basketball player who was one of the most prolific scorers and rebounders in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Elvin Jones
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Elvin Jones, an American jazz drummer and bandleader who established a forceful polyrhythmic approach to the traps set, combining different metres played independently by the hands and...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Emmitt Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Emmitt Smith, an American gridiron football player, who in 2002 became the all-time leading rusher in National Football League (NFL) history. He retired after the 2004 season with 18,355...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Eric Dickerson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Eric Dickerson, an American professional gridiron football player who was one of the leading running backs in National Football League (NFL) history.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Etta Baker
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Etta Baker, an American folk musician who influenced the folk music revival of the 1950s and '60s with her mastery of East Coast Piedmont blues, a unique fingerpicking style of...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Eunice Walker Johnson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Eunice Walker Johnson, an American entrepreneur born April 4, 1916, Selma, Ala.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Fannie Barrier Williams
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Fannie Barrier Williams, an American social reformer, lecturer, club woman, and cofounder of the National League of Colored Women.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Floyd Dixon
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Floyd Dixon, an American rhythm and blues (R&B) musician who was one of the principal exponents of the up-tempo blues style known as West Coast jump blues.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Gail Devers
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gail Devers, an American track athlete who overcame physical adversity to win Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Gary Wayne Coleman
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gary Wayne Coleman, an American actor born Feb. 8, 1968, Zion, Ill.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Gene Ammons
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gene Ammons, an American jazz tenor saxophonist, noted for his big sound and blues-inflected, "soulful" improvising.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Julius Rosenwald
Biographical sketch of the life of Julius Rosenwald, an American merchant and unorthodox philanthropist who opposed the idea of perpetual endowments and frequently offered large philanthropic gifts on condition that they be matched by...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Percy Ellis Sutton
Brief account of the life of Percy Sutton, a prominent civil rights attorney who represented Malcolm X as well as some 200 people arrested in the 1960s during protests against racial segregation in the American South.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Rubye Robinson
Biographical sketch on Rubye Robinson, an American civil rights activist whose short life proved to be a powerful influence on the Civil Rights Movement.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Ru Paul
Learn about RuPaul, the American entertainer who carved out an idiosyncratic place in popular culture as perhaps the most famous drag queen in the United States in the 1990s and early 21st century.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Sonia Sanchez
Biographical details on American poet, playwright, and educator, Sonia Sanchez, who was noted for her black activism.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: William Julius Wilson
Biographical details on William Julius Wilson, an American sociologist whose views on race and urban poverty helped shape U.S. public policy and academic discourse.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Naomi Ruth Sims
Brief biographical details on American model and business executive, Naomi Ruth Sims, who was the first black supermodel to adorn the cover of Ladies' Home Journal.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Charles Clinton Spaulding
Brief account of the life of Charles Spaulding, American business leader who built the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company into the nation's largest black-owned business by the time of his death, when it was worth about $40...
Great Idea Finder
The Great Idea Finder: Elijah Mc Coy
Find out where the expression "The Real McCoy" comes from. This site provides brief biographical information about the inventor Elijah McCoy (1844-1929 CE).
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery: Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy
A brief biography of the life and musical career of Louis Armstrong from the National Portrait Gallery.
Other
Granville T. Woods
Read a brief biography of Graville T. Woods, known as "The Black Edison" because of the multitude and scope of his inventions. Perhaps his most important was a way for trains to communicate with each other.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Arts Edge: Chick Webb
With a brief biography and a couple of audio clips, this resource features the talents of drummer and big bandleader Chick Webb.