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100 Greatest African Americans is a biographical dictionary of one hundred historically great Black Americans (in alphabetical order; that is, they are not ranked), as assessed by Temple University professor Molefi Kete Asante in 2002. A similar book was written by Columbus Salley.
- Molefi Kete Asante
- 345
- 2002
- 2002
Black history is the story of African Americans in the United States and elsewhere. Learn about Black History Month, Black leaders, the Great Migration, the civil rights movement and more.
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...
Jan 30, 2024 · By Nicquel Terry Ellis, Nicole Chavez, Chandelis Duster and Faith Karimi, CNN Published February 1, 2023Updated January 30, 2024. They stood up against racism and inequality – some risking their ...
- Claudette Colvin
- Robert Sengstacke Abbott
- Shirley Chisholm
- Johnson H. Johnson
- Dorothy Height
- Don Cornelius
- Alice Coachman
- Maria P. Williams
- Ethel Waters
- Bayard Rustin
Nine months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to move to the back of a bus to give up her seat to a white person. When the bus driver ordered her to get up, she refused to say she had paid her fare and it was her constitutional right. She was arrested. Colvin ...
Abbott laid the foundation for what would eventually birth many Black publications including Ebony, Jet,Essence, Black Enterprise, Right On!, Sheen Magazine, and more. In 1905, Abbott founded the Chicago Defender, a weekly newspaper. The paper started out with a 25-cent investment and a four-page pamphlet, increasing circulation with every edition....
Chisholm kicked the door in for African American women holding major roles in government. She first served as an educational consultant for New York City’s Bureau of Child Welfare and ran for New York State Assembly in 1964. Chisholm was elected in 1968 as the first African American Congresswoman. She served from 1969 to 1983 representing New York’...
Hailed as one of the most influential Black media publishers, Johnson got his start working for Supreme Life Insurance Company collecting weekly news clippings for his manager, which sparked his idea for his first publication, Negro Digest. In 1942, with a $500 loan and $6,000 raised through subscriptions, Johnson launched his dream project which l...
Height has been called the matriarch of the civil rights movementand often worked behind the scenes. After receiving two degrees from New York University in the 1930s, Height worked for the New York City Welfare Department and then became the assistant executive director of the Harlem Y.M.C.A. She was involved in anti-lynching protests, brought pub...
With a distinctive baritone and demanding stature, Don Cornelius helped to shift Black culture into the spotlight with the creation of the show Soul Train. The “Hippest Trip in America” was picked up for national syndication in 1971 with its first episode featuring performers Gladys Knight & The Pips, Eddie Kendricks, Bobby Hutton, and Honey Cone. ...
Alice Coachmanbecame the first African American woman from any country to win an Olympic Gold Medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She set the record for the high jump at the Olympics, leaping to 5 feet and 6 ⅛ inches. Four years later, she became the first Black female athlete to endorse an international consumer product when she signed on...
The landscape of Hollywood has the work of many Black women from Ava DuVernay, Issa Rae, and Shonda Rhimes to name a few. Maria P. Williams paved the way as the first Black woman to produce, write, and act in her own silent crime movie in 1923, The Flames of Wrath. To distribute the film, she formed the Western Film Producing Company and Booking Ex...
Ethel Waters first entered the entertainment business in the 1920s as a blues singer, before making history. Waters was the first to integrate Broadway appearing in Irving Berlin’s As Thousands Cheer and eventually became the highest-paid performer on Broadway. In addition to becoming the first African American to star in her own television variety...
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is usually credited for the iconic March on Washington in August 1963, but it was actually Rustin who organized the historical event. The march brought more than 200,000 peaceful protestors of varying races and religions together to hear King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. As a gay man who had controversial ties to c...
Feb 1, 2023 · 31 History-Making Black Americans Everyone Should Know. These pioneering figures deserve to be celebrated. By Michelle Darrisaw and Carlie Cooper Updated: Feb 1, 2023. Save Article. Getty Images. When it comes to pioneers in African American history, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Muhammad Ali are often ...
Feb 1, 2021 · Published February 1, 2021. Every Black History Month, we tend to celebrate the same cast of historic figures. They are the civil rights leaders and abolitionists whose faces we see plastered on...
