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Encyclopedia Britannica: Louis Jordan
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Louis Jordan, an American saxophonist-singer prominent in the 1940s and '50s who was a seminal figure in the development of both rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The bouncing, rhythmic...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Mary Mahoney
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Mary Mahoney, an American nurse, the first African-American woman to complete the course of professional study in nursing.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Maynard Jackson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Maynard Jackson, an American lawyer and politician, who was the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, serving three terms (1974-82 and 1990-94).
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Morgan Freeman
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Morgan Freeman, an American actor whose emotional depth and versatility made him one of the most-respected performers of his generation. Over a career that included numerous memorable...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Pearl Primus
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Pearl Primus, an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and teacher whose performance work drew on the African American experience and on her research in Africa and the Caribbean.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Percy Ellis Sutton
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Percy Ellis Sutton, an American attorney, politician, and businessman born Nov. 24, 1920, San Antonio, Texas. This site, rich in detail and breadth of coverage, includes a wealth of...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Prudence Crandall
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Prudence Crandall, an American schoolteacher whose attempt to educate African American girls aroused controversy in the 1830s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Solomon Burke
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Solomon Burke, an American singer whose success in the early 1960s in merging the gospel style of the African American church with rhythm and blues helped to usher in the soul music era.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Tiger Woods
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Tiger Woods, an American golfer who enjoyed one of the greatest amateur careers in the history of the game and became a dominant player on the professional circuit in the late 1990s. In...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Tom Bradley
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Tom Bradley, an American politician, the first African American mayor of a predominantly white city, who served an unprecedented five terms as mayor of Los Angeles (1973-93).
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Ursula Burns
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Ursula Burns, an American chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the international document-management and business-services company Xerox Corporation, who was the first African...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wayne Embry
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wayne Embry, an American professional basketball player and the first African-American to serve as the general manager of a professional sports franchise.
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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: Laura Wheeler Waring
Short biographical sketch on Laura Wheeler Waring, an American painter and educator who often depicted African American subjects.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Mary Eliza Church Terrell
Learn about Mary Church Terrell, American social activist who was cofounder and first president of the National Association of Colored Women. She was an early civil rights advocate, an educator, an author, and a lecturer on woman...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Melvin Van Peebles
Learn about the life and career of Melvin Van Peeples, the American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and starred in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), a groundbreaking film that spearheaded the rush of African American action films...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Robert Smalls
Brief biographical details on Robert Smalls, an African-American slave who became a naval hero for the Union in the American Civil War and went on to serve as a congressman from South Carolina during Reconstruction.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Walter White
Learn about the life of Walter White, foremost spokesman for African Americans for almost a quarter of a century and executive secretary (1931-55) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
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Encyclopedia Britannica: August Wilson
Read about the life of African-American playwright, August Wilson, author of a cycle of plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, about black American life. He won Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1986) and The Piano Lesson...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Cornel West
Read about the life of Cornel West, American philosopher, scholar of African American studies, and political activist.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Shirley Horn
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Shirley Horn, an American jazz artist whose ballads, sung in a breathy contralto to her own piano accompaniment, earned her both critical acclaim and popular renown. This site, rich in...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Bob Kaufman
This entry features Bob Kaufman, an innovative African-American poet who became an important figure of the Beat movement.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: w.c. Handy
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features W.C. Handy, an African American composer who changed the course of popular music by integrating the blues idiom into then-fashionable ragtime music. Among his best-known works is the...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Haki R. Madhubuti
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Haki R. Madhubuti, an African American author, publisher, and teacher.