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