Redirected from List of famous African-Americans
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
 
 
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