This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Tina Turner, an American singer who found success in the rhythm-and-blues, soul, and rock genres in a career that spanned five decades.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Tommy Johnson, an African-American singer-guitarist, one of the most evocative and influential of blues artists.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Toni Stone, an American baseball player who, as a member of the Negro American League's Indianapolis Clowns, was the first woman to ever play professional baseball as a regular on a...

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...

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Valerie Jarrett, an American lawyer, businesswoman, and politician who was a senior adviser (2009- ) to U.S. Pres. Barack Obama.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Val McCalla, a Jamaican-born British publisher who founded The Voice, an influential British newspaper focusing on black issues and interests.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Walter Page, a black American swing-era musician, one of the first to play "walking" lines on the string bass. A pioneer of the Southwestern jazz style, he was a star of the Count Basie...

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Walter Payton, an American professional gridiron football player whose productivity and durability made him one of the game's greatest running backs. He retired in 1987 as the leading...

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Walt Frazier, an American basketball player who was one of the finest professional guards in the late 1960s and early '70s.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Warren Aloysious Kimbro, an American activist born April 29, 1934, New Haven, Conn.

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.

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.

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.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wesley Snipes, an American actor best known for his action films, many of which featured martial arts.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wes Montgomery, a black American jazz guitarist, probably the most influential postwar improviser on his instrument.

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.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features William Lewis Taylor, an American lawyer and civil rights activist born Oct. 4, 1931, New York, N.Y.

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...

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willie King, an American musician born March 8, 1943, Prairie Point, Miss.

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.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willis Reed, an American professional basketball player and professional and collegiate basketball coach.

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.

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...

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...