List of African-Americans: Definition and Links by Encyclopedian.com

This is a list of famous African-Americans.

Please add more notable people here.

Ralph Abernathy, (1936-1996), civil rights leader
Mumia Abu Jamal, (1954-), prisoner and activist
Muhammad Ali, boxer, war protester, civil rights protester, and poet
Richard Allen, (1760-1831), ex-slave, religious leader, A.M.E. Church founder
Marian Anderson, (1897-1993), famous opera and concert singer
Louis Armstrong, (1901-1971), jazz musician
Emmett L. Ashford[?], first African-American umpire in organized baseball
Crispus Attucks, (1723-1770), killed in Boston Massacre
Josephine Baker, singer, entertainer
Benjamin Banneker, (1731-1806), 18th century astronomer
Count Basie, (1904-1984), pianist, band leader
Sidney Bechet, (1897-1959), jazz musician
Eubie Blake, (1883-1983), composer and musician
Arthur M. Brazier, Minister,community activist, and civil rights leader
Shelton Brooks, (1886-1975), songwriter and entertainer
Ron Brown[?], served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.
Ralph Bunche[?], diplomat
William Harvey Carney, (1842-1908), American Civil War hero
George Washington Carver, (1860-1943), plant scientist
Ray Charles, (born 1930), pop musician
Charles Chesnutt, (1858-1932), author
Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998), Black Panther leader & activist
John Coltrane, (1926-1967), jazz musician
Angela Davis, (born 1944), author and activist
Benjamin O. Davis Sr.[?], general
Benjamin O. Davis Jr., (1912-2002), military airman
Miles Davis, (1926-1991), jazz musician
Bob Douglas[?], first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Frederick Douglass, (1818-1895), orator and abolitionist, ex-slave
Charles R. Drew, (1904-1950), physician, pioneer of blood transfusion techniques
W. E. B. DuBois, (1868-1963), writer, activist
Paul Laurence Dunbar, (1872-1906), poet
Oscar Dunn[?], first African American lieutenant governor of a US state (Lousiana)
Duke Ellington, (1899-1974), jazz composer and musician
Ralph Ellison, (1914-1994), writer
Medgar Evers, (1925-1963), civil rights activist
Jessie Fauset[?], novelist
Ella Fitzgerald, (1918-1996), singer
Marcus Garvey, (1887-1940), political leader and nationalist
Willy T. Ribbs[?], the first African-American driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 (May 19, 1991).
W.C. Handy, (1873-1958), blues composer
Frances E. W. Harper[?], poet, novelist, lecturer and activist in turn of the century temperance and racial uplift movements.
Fletcher Henderson, band leader, orchestrator, pianist
Jimi Hendrix, (1942-1970), rock and roll musician
George Herriman, (1880-1944), cartoonist
Billie Holiday, (1915-1959), singer
Langston Hughes, (1902-1967), poet
Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist and political leader
Tony Jackson, (1876-1921), pianist & composer
Mae Carol Jemison, first African-American woman in space
James Weldon Johnson, (1871-1938), author, poet, folklorist, and civil rights leader
Barbara Jordan[?], first African-American woman elected to Texas Senate
Hubert Julian, (born 1900), aviator
B.B. King, (born 1925), blues musician
Martin Luther King Jr., (1929-1968), leader
Nella Larsen, (1891-1964), novelist
Oliver Law, (1899-1937), officer in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, first African American to command white soldiers
Thurgood Marshall, (1908-1993), first non-white U.S. Supreme Court associate justice
Oscar Micheaux, (1884-1951), author and pioneer filmmaker
Toni Morrison, author, Nobel laureate
Huey P. Newton, (1942-1989), founder of the Black Panther Party
Willie O'Ree[?], the first African American NHL player
Jesse Owens, (1913-1980), track and field athlete
Charlie Parker, (1920-1955), jazz musician
Rosa Parks, started the Birmingham bus boycott[?]
P. B. S. Pinchback, (1837-1921), first serving African American governor of a US state (Lousiana)
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, (1745-1813), first resident of Chicago
Colin Powell, (born 1937), U.S. Secretary of State
Percival Prattisbecame, the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House and Senate press gallery.
Hiram Rhoades Revels[?], a Republican from Mississippi, the first African American ever to sit in the United States Congress
Norbert Rilleaux, (1806-1894), inventor
Bayard Rustin, (1912-1987), civil rights activist
Bobby Seale, Co founder of the Black Panther Party
Assata Shakur, (born 1947), exile and political activist
Bessie Smith, (1894-1937), blues singer
Peter Spencer, (1782-1843), ex-slave, religious leader, A.U.M.P. Church founder
Clarence Thomas, (born 1948), U.S. Supreme Court associate justice
Nat Turner, rebellious slave
Sojourner Truth, (1797?-1883), ex-slave, abolitionist
Harriet Tubman, (1820-1913), ex-slave, writer, abolitionist
C. J. Walker[?], she was the first African-American millionaire
Fats Waller, (1904-1943), composer, singer, jazz musician
Booker T. Washington, (1856-1915), educator
Ethel Waters, (1896-1977), vocalist
Phillis Wheatley, (1753-1784), poet
Douglas Wilder, (born 1931), first elected African American governor of a US state (Virginia)
Clarence Williams, (1893-1965), composer, publisher, jazz musician
Malcolm X, (1925-1965), (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, born Malcolm Little), leader
Andrew Young, (1932-), politician

See also: list of people, list of people by nationality, list of Americans