Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Amanda Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Amanda Smith, an American evangelist and missionary who opened an orphanage for African-American girls.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Isaac Burns Murphy
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Isaac Burns Murphy, an American jockey who was the first to be elected to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York; he is one of only two African American...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: James Augustine Healy
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features James Augustine Healy, the first African American Roman Catholic bishop in the United States and an advocate for children and Native Americans.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: James Winkfield
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features James Winkfield, an American jockey, the last African-American to win the Kentucky Derby.
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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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Leon Forrest
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Leon Forrest, an African-American author of large, inventive novels that fuse myth, history, legend, and contemporary realism.
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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.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Robert C. Weaver
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Robert C. Weaver, a noted economist who was the first African-American to serve in the U.S. cabinet.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Johnny Dodds
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Johnny Dodds, an African-American musician noted as one of the most lyrically expressive of jazz clarinetists.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Johnny Griffin
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Johnny Griffin, an African American jazz tenor saxophonist noted for his fluency in the hard-bop idiom.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Little Brother Montgomery
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Little Brother Montgomery, a major African-American blues artist who was also an outstanding jazz pianist and vocalist. He cowrote "The Forty-Fours," a complex composition for piano that...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Marion Motley
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Marion Motley, an African American gridiron football player who helped desegregate professional football in the 1940s during a career that earned him induction into the Pro Football Hall...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: May Miller
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features May Miller, an African-American playwright and poet associated with the Harlem Renaissance in New York City during the 1920s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Milt Jackson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Milt Jackson, an African-American jazz musician, the first and most influential vibraphone improviser of the postwar, modern jazz era.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Myrlie Evers Williams
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Myrlie Evers-Williams, an African American activist and the wife of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, whose racially motivated murder in 1963 made him a national icon. In 1995-98...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Oscar Micheaux
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Oscar Micheaux, a prolific African American producer and director who made films independently of the Hollywood film industry from the silent era until 1948.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Samuel David Ferguson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Samuel David Ferguson, the first African American bishop of the Episcopal Church.