List of Famous African-Americans
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Willard H Bennett - inventor of radio frequency mass spectrometer.
Nathaniel Alexander - patented for folding chair.
Virgie Ammons - inventor of a device that dampens the fireplaces.
Benjamin Banneker - inventor of striking clock.
Andrew Beard - inventor of plow and rotary engine.
Sarah Boone - improvement to the ironing board.
Charles Brooks - inventor of the improvement in street sweeper
truck.
Phil Brooks - patented his invention of disposable syringe.
Joseph Dickinson - invented many improvements to several
musical instruments.
Thomas Elkins - invented improvements in a refrigerator that was
meant for chilling human corpses.
Augustus Jackson - invented several ice cream recipes and an
improved method for manufacturing ice creams.
Joseph Lee - invented improvements for dough-kneading machine.
Lyda Newman - invented improvements for hair brush, which is
easy to clean and maintain.
Ralph Abernathy - civil rights leader.
Ella Baker - civil rights activist.
Julian Bond - U.S. civil rights leader.
Daisy Bates - civil rights leader.
Stokely Carmichael - strong civil rights leader.
Shirley Chisholm - U.S. Congresswoman.
Kenneth B. Clark - civil rights leader.
Eldridge Cleaver - American social activist.
Angela Davis - political activist and an author.
Medgar Evers - civil rights leader.
James Farmer - civil rights leader.
Rosa Parks - American civil rights activist.
Martin Luther King, Jr. - American clergyman and civil rights
leader.
Nina Simone - civil rights activist.
Mary Church Terrell - civil rights activist.
Whitney M. Young, Jr. - social reformer.
Benjamin Hooks - American black leader.
Jesse Jackson - political leader, clergyman, and civil-rights activist.
Coretta Scott King - American civil rights leader.
Huey Newton - black activist.
Thurgood Marshall - lawyer and Associate Justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court.
Louis Armstrong - composer of jazz music, who is known as the
father of jazz.
Chuck Berry - guitarist, vocalist, blues, rock and roll.
James Brown - vocalist, keyboardist, soul, R&B, funk, pop and
other genres of music.
Ray Charles - The Genius of gospel, singer, songwriter and a
legendary pianist.
Nat King Cole - pianist, vocalist, jazz and a pop artist.
John Coltrone - Jazz saxophonist.
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Edmund Dede - violin player and a renowned orchestra conductor.
Duke Ellington - composer, bandleader and jazz pianist.
Dizzy Gillespie - one of the founders jazz and inventor of bebop.
Scott Joplin - the King of Ragtime invented the rags in piano.
B.B. King - the undisputed King of Blues.
Florence Beatrice Price - first African-American woman whose work
was recognized.
Fats Waller - jazz organist, pianist, singer, composer, conductor
and a band leader.
Aaliyah - singer and an actress.
Jimi Hendrix - rock and roll musician.
Bobby McFerrin - jazz musician, vocalist, sacred, classical, multitalented composer-vocalist-conductor.
Famous Black Women in History
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Josephine Baker (1906-1975) - A civil rights activist and World War
II heroine.
Ida B. Wells Barnett (1862-1931) - Educator, anti-lynching
campaigner and founder of NAACP
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) - educator, founder of
Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Florida; became the
Presidential adviser and recipient of Spingarn Medal.
Mary Elizabeth Bowser (1839 - date of death unknown) - A freed
slave who became the Union spy during Civil War in Confederate
White House
Eliza Bryant (1827-1907) - She founded the Cleveland Home for
Aged Colored People.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893) - A pioneer journalist and
lecturer
Bessie Coleman (1893-1926) - The first black woman to earn a
pilot's license
Mary Fields (1832?-1914) - A stagecoach driver and entrepreneur
Zelma Watson George (1903-1994) - She was an Opera singer,
speaker, educator and delegate to the UN
Charlotte Forten Grimke (1837-1890) - She was a writer,
abolitionist and educator
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) - She was a civil rights worker and
founder of MS Freedom Democratic Party.
Jane Edna Hunter (1882-1971) - She was a social worker, attorney
and founded the Phyllis Wheatley Association of Cleveland.
Zora Neale Hurston (1903-1960) - She was one of the writer from
the Harlem Group
Mahalia Jackson (1912-1972) - She was the first Black woman who
earned national acclaim for gospel music
Rebecca Jackson ( 1795-1871) - She was an eldress of the Shaker
sect
Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) - She escaped as a slave and became
an author and abolitionist
Sissieretta Jones (1869-1933) - She was an international singer
and a prima donna of thelate 19th century
http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory?browseId=252286
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Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) - An excellent orator and
Congresswoman
Biddy Mason (1818-1891) - First black woman to own land in
California
Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) - She was the first African-American
woman to win 3 gold medals in track and field in a single Olympic
Games (she ran with a sprained ankle to win the gold!)
Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) - First Black nurse during the Civil
War
Susan McKinney Steward (1848-1918) - First African-American
woman doctor in New York State
Madame C.J. Walker (1867-1919) - She was an entrepreneur, who
became a millionaire and was a well-known philanthropist