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This is a list of African Americans, also known as Black Americans (for the outdated and unscientific racial term) or Afro-Americans. African Americans are an ethnic group consisting of citizens of the United States mainly descended from various West African and Central African peoples with possible minor additional ancestry from Europe or ...
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
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a pivotal leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He continues to be celebrated for his profound influence in advocating for nonviolent resistance and racial equality.
- Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) An abolitionist and political activist, Harriet Tubman is best known for helping enslaved people escape through the Underground Railroad.
- Barack Obama (b. 1961) ADVERTISEMENT. Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, made history as the first Black American to hold the office.
- Maya Angelou (1928-2014) Maya Angelou was an influential poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist, celebrated for her series of seven autobiographies.
- Overview
- Names and labels
- The early history of Blacks in the Americas
African Americans, one of the largest of the many ethnic groups in the United States. African Americans are mainly of African ancestry, but many have non-Black ancestors as well.
African Americans are largely the descendants of enslaved people who were brought from their African homelands by force to work in the New World. Their rights were severely limited, and they were long denied a rightful share in the economic, social, and political progress of the United States. Nevertheless, African Americans have made basic and lasting contributions to American history and culture.
As Americans of African descent reached each new plateau in their struggle for equality, they reevaluated their identity. The slaveholder labels of black and negro (Spanish for “black”) were offensive, so they chose the euphemism coloured when they were freed. Capitalized, Negro became acceptable during the migration to the North for factory jobs. Afro-American was adopted by civil rights activists to underline pride in their ancestral homeland, but Black—the symbol of power and revolution—proved more popular. All these terms are still reflected in the names of dozens of organizations. To reestablish “cultural integrity” in the late 1980s, Jesse Jackson proposed African American, which—unlike some “baseless” colour label—proclaims kinship with a historical land base. In the 21st century the terms Black and African American both were widely used.
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Africans assisted the Spanish and the Portuguese during their early exploration of the Americas. In the 16th century some Black explorers settled in the Mississippi valley and in the areas that became South Carolina and New Mexico. The most celebrated Black explorer of the Americas was Estéban, who traveled through the Southwest in the 1530s.
The uninterrupted history of Blacks in the United States began in 1619, when 20 Africans were landed in the English colony of Virginia. These individuals were not enslaved people but indentured servants—persons bound to an employer for a limited number of years—as were many of the settlers of European descent (whites). By the 1660s large numbers of Africans were being brought to the English colonies. In 1790 Blacks numbered almost 760,000 and made up nearly one-fifth of the population of the United States.
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Attempts to hold Black servants beyond the normal term of indenture culminated in the legal establishment of Black chattel slavery in Virginia in 1661 and in all the English colonies by 1750. Black people were easily distinguished by their skin colour (the result of evolutionary pressures favouring the presence in the skin of a dark pigment called melanin in populations in equatorial climates) from the rest of the populace, making them highly visible targets for enslavement. Moreover, the development of the belief that they were an “inferior” race with a “heathen” culture made it easier for whites to rationalize Black slavery. Enslaved Blacks were put to work clearing and cultivating the farmlands of the New World.
Of an estimated 10 million Africans brought to the Americas by the trade of enslaved peoples, about 430,000 came to the territory of what is now the United States. The overwhelming majority were taken from the area of western Africa stretching from present-day Senegal to Angola, where political and social organization as well as art, music, and dance were highly advanced. On or near the African coast had emerged the major kingdoms of Oyo, Ashanti, Benin, Dahomey, and the Congo. In the Sudanese interior had arisen the empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai; the Hausa states; and the states of Kanem-Bornu. Such African cities as Djenné and Timbuktu, both now in Mali, were at one time major commercial and educational centres.
- Hollis Lynch
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...
Oct 27, 2009 · Black History Month honors the contributions of African Americans to U.S. history. Learn about famous firsts in African American history and other little-known facts.
Feb 1, 2024 · Kris Connor/Getty Images. 30 Black Americans To Celebrate During Black History Month and Beyond. Incredible, influential pioneers in African American history. Shameika Rhymes. Feb 1, 2024.
