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Black History Biographies

Here are biographies of some of the many historical and modern people celebrated in Black History Month. Click any name for more information.

Historical Movers and Shakers

• Boston Massacre figure Crispus Attucks

• Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman

• Orator Frederick Douglass

• Freed slave Denmark Vesey

• Antislavery activist Sojourner Truth

• 'Back to Africa' leader Marcus Garvey

• Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad

• Legal figure Homer Plessy

• NAACP founder W. E. B. Du Bois

• Murdered civil rights activist Medgar Evers

• Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Civil rights leader Coretta Scott King

• Bus-riding activist Rosa Parks

• Lynching victim Emmett Till

• 'Black Power' advocate Malcolm X

• Black Panthers founder Huey Newton

• Educator Booker T. Washington

• Soul On Ice author Eldridge Cleaver

• Educator Mary McLeod Bethune

• Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall

Figures in Science and Technology

• Colonial scientist Benjamin Banneker

• Blood bank pioneer Charles Drew

• Peanut genius George Washington Carver

• Arctic explorer Matthew Henson

• Daring flier Bessie Coleman

• Astronaut Guion Bluford

• Astronaut Mae Jemison

• Computer scientist Philip Emeagwali

• Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai

• Brain surgeon Ben Carson

Political and News Figures

• U.S. President Barack Obama

• First Lady Michelle Obama

• First Daughters Malia and Sasha Obama

• Attorney General Eric Holder

• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

• General and Secretary of State Colin Powell

• Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

• Reverend Al Sharpton

• Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm

• Early Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce

• Political activist Jesse Jackson

• BET founder Robert L. Johnson

• South African President Nelson Mandela

• U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan

• Trial lawyer Johnnie Cochran

• Writer and gang member Stanley Tookie Williams

• Detroit mayor Coleman Young

• San Francisco mayor Willie Brown

• Newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr.

Writers

• Slave poet Phillis Wheatley

• Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes

• Pulitzer-winning poet Natasha Trethewey

• Expatriate author James Baldwin

• Pulitzer-nominated poet Maya Angelou

• Roots author Alex Haley

• Invisible Man author Ralph Ellison

• Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison

• Feminist writer Bell Hooks

• The Color Purple author Alice Walker

• Native Son author Richard Wright

• Science fiction writer Octavia Butler

• Poet and professor Nikki Giovanni

Entertainers

• Talk show host Oprah Winfrey

• Talk show host Tavis Smiley

• Contralto Marian Anderson

• Singer and actress Dorothy Dandridge

• Dance masters The Nicholas Brothers

• Composer W.C. Handy

• Guitarist Chuck Berry

• Rock 'n roll star Little Richard

• Jazz singer Billie Holiday

• Saxophonist Lester Young

• Actress Halle Berry

• Blues guitarist Robert Johnson

• Actor Sidney Poitier

• Comedian and actor Bill Cosby

• Producer and film composer Quincy Jones

• Paris performer Josephine Baker

• Jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton

• Pianist and composer Duke Ellington

• Trumpeter Louis Armstrong

• Big band leader Count Basie

• Bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie

• Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis

• Blues singer Big Mama Thornton

• Singer and actress Lena Horne

• Calypso singer and actor Harry Belafonte

• Rock pioneer Jimi Hendrix

• Jazz saxophonist John Coltrane

• Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson

• Bluse singer Bessie Smith

• Actor Ossie Davis

• Actress Ruby Dee

• Rap legend Tupac Shakur

• Rapper Dr. Dre

• Rapper Jay-Z

• Rapper and Oscar nominee Queen Latifah

• Singer and dancer Sammy Davis, Jr.
  
  

Athletes

• Ageless pitcher Satchel Paige

• Barrier-breaker Jackie Robinson

• Home run king Hank Aaron

• 'Say Hey Kid' Willie Mays

• Olympic sprinter Jesse Owens

• Olympic sprinter Wilma Rudolph

• Tennis player Althea Gibson

• Tennis player Arthur Ashe

• Heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali

• Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson

• NFL receiver Jerry Rice

• Tennis super-sister Venus Williams

• Tennis super-sister Serena Williams

• Basketball player Michael Jordan

• Basketball player Sheryl Swoopes

• Basketball player Julius "Dr. J" Erving

• Golfer Tiger Woods

Religious Figures

• Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie

• Preacher T.D. Jakes

• African Cardinal Francis Arinze

• First female Anglican Bishop Barbara Harris

• Nobel Prize-winner Bishop Desmond Tutu

Still haven't found who you're looking for? Search the rest of our biographies or browse the alphabetical biography index listed at the top of this page.

Have a good idea for an addition to this list? Please send it to suggestions@who2.com. Thanks!

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