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- Beyoncé. How we know her: Singer, actress, filmmaker, entrepreneur. Why she's praiseworthy: They don't call Beyoncé the Queen Bee for nothing. For starters, the Houstonian has made audiences say her name since the '90s.
- Issa Rae. How we know her: Writer, director, actress, producer, entrepreneur. Why she's praiseworthy: Rae personifies the multi-hyphenate title. There's seemingly nothing she can't do.
- Michelle Obama. How we know her: Former First Lady, author, philanthropist and entrepreneur. Why she's praiseworthy: Obama became the first Black First Lady when her husband Barack Obama was sworn into office in 2008.
- Sha'Carri Richardson. How we know her: Track and field athlete. Why she's praiseworthy: Richardson has given other track and field athletes a run for their money.
Feb 9, 2016 · Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) Wheatley was a former slave who was kidnapped from West Africa and brought to America. She was bought by a Boston family and became their personal servant. With the aid of the family, she learned to read and eventually became one of the first women to publish a book of poetry in 1773.
- Taryn Finley
- Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) Congress is more diverse now than it's ever been. However, when Chisholm was attempting to shatter the glass ceiling, the same couldn't be said.
- Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) Dr. King is usually credited for the March on Washington in August 1963. But it was Rustin who organized and strategized in the shadows.
- Claudette Colvin (1939- ) Before Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, there was a brave 15-year-old who chose not to sit at the back of the bus.
- Annie Lee Cooper (1910-2010) The Selma, Alabama, native played a crucial part in the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement. But it wasn't until Oprah played her in the 2014 Oscar-nominated film Selma that people really took notice of Cooper's activism.
Feb 10, 2020 · Biography.com. Bridget Mason. (August 15, 1818 – January 15, 1891) Bridget Mason (aka "Biddy") was a Black woman slave who became one of the richest women in Los Angeles. She was a real estate mogul and a midwife. She later gained her freedom thanks to the help of her white son-in-law, Charles Owens.
- Wangari Maathai
- Margaret Kenyatta
- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
- Miriam Makeba
- Michelle Obama
- Amanda Smith
- Alberta Williams King
- Sonia Sanchez
- Augusta Savage
- Mickalene Thomas
Wangarĩ Muta Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental and political activist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. As a beneficiary of the Kennedy Airlift, she studied in the United States, earning a bachelor’s degree from Mount St. Scholastica and a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She went on to become the ...
Margaret Wambui Kenyatta was a Kenyan politician. She was the daughter of the first President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, and his wife Grace Wahu. She served as the Mayor of Nairobi from 1970 to 1976 and as Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1976 to 1986. She was thereafter appointed as a Commissioner with the Electoral Commis...
Winnie Madikizela also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003. From 2009 until her death, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) politic...
Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights, activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married to former President Barack Obama. In her early legal career, she worked at the law firm Sidley Austin where she met Barack Obama. ...
Amanda Berry Smith was a Methodist preacher and former slave who funded The Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children outside Chicago. She was a leader in the Wesleyan Holiness movement, preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout Methodist camp meetings across the world. She was referred...
Alberta Christine Williams King was Martin Luther King Jr.’s mother, married to Martin Luther King Sr. She played a significant role in the affairs of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. She was shot and killed in the church by Marcus Wayne Chenault, a 23-year-old Black Hebrew Israelite six years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Sonia Sanchez is an American poet, writer, and professor. She was a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement and has written over a dozen books of poetry, as well as short stories, critical essays, plays, and children’s books. In the 1960s, Sanchez released poems in periodicals targeted towards African-American audiences and published her debut co...
Augusta Savage was an American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a teacher whose studio was essential to the careers of a generation of artists who would become nationally known. She worked for equal rights for African Americans in the arts.
Mickalene Thomas is a contemporary African-American visual artist best known as a painter of complex works using rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel. Thomas’s collage work is inspired by popular art histories and movements, including Impressionism, Cubism, Dada and the Harlem Renaissance.
Jun 19, 2020 · Dorothy Porter, a pioneer in library and information science. Phillis Wheatley, the first African American of either gender to publish a book of poetry. Elizabeth Jennings, a nineteenth-century civil rights activist refused to leave a whites-only streetcar. Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress. These are just a few of the great Black women ...
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The most influential African. Americans in 2020. The Root 100 is our annual list of the most influential African Americans, ages 25 to 45. It’s our way of honoring the innovators, the leaders, the public figures and the game changers whose work from the past year is breaking down barriers and paving the way for the next generation.
