a
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Maya Angelou
Author, Poet / 1928 -
Maya Angelou is a poet and prize-winning memoirist. She is the author of the critically acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
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(1928-)
Author, Poet
b
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James Baldwin
Writer / 1924 - 1987
James Baldwin was an essayist, playwright and novelist regarded as a highly insightful, iconic writer with works like The Fire Next Time and Another Country.
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(1924-1987)
Writer
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Imamu Amiri Baraka
Scholar, Critic, Academic Author, Author, Playwright, Poet / 1934 -
Imamu Amiri Baraka is an African-American poet and scholar. He has served as professor emeritus of Africana Studies at the State Unversity of New York at Stony Brook.
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(1934-)
Scholar, Critic, Academic Author, Author, Playwright, Poet
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Gwendolyn Bennett
Artist, Editor, Author, Poet / 1902 - 1981
A vital figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Gwendolyn Bennett is best known for the sensuality and visual imagery in her poems, the most famous being 'To a Dark Girl'.
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(1902-1981)
Artist, Editor, Author, Poet
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Ed Bradley
News Anchor / 1941 - 2006
Journalist Ed Bradley spent 26 years on TV as a member of the 60 Minutes team, winning 19 Emmy Awards along the way.
See full bio
(1941-2006)
News Anchor
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Gwendolyn Brooks
Poet / 1917 - 2000
Gwendolyn Brooks was a postwar poet best known as the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize, for her 1949 book Annie Allen.
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(1917-2000)
Poet
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William Wells Brown
Journalist, Author, Playwright / 1814 - 1884
William Wells Brown was a writer who was the first African-American to publish a novel.
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(1814-1884)
Journalist, Author, Playwright
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Octavia E. Butler
Author / 1947 - 2006
Author Octavia E. Butler is known for blending science fiction with African-American spiritualism. Her novels include Patternmaster, Kindred, Dawn and Parable of the Sower.
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(1947-2006)
Author
c
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Charles Chesnutt
Educator, Author / 1858 - 1932
Charles Chesnutt was a trailblazing short-story author and novelist who presented African-American life in works like The Conjure Woman and The Colonel's Dream.
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(1858-1932)
Educator, Author
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Countee Cullen
1903 - 1946
Countee Cullen was an African-American poet associated with the Harlem Renaissance movement. His best known works are Copper Sun and The Black Christ.
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(1903-1946)
d
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Rita Dove
Musician, Poet / 1952 -
African American poet Rita Dove is the youngest person and the first African American to be appointed Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress.
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(1952-)
Musician, Poet
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W.E.B. Du Bois
Educator, Civil Rights Activist, Journalist / 1868 - 1963
W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the most important African-American activists during the first half of the 20th century. He co-founded the NAACP and supported Pan-Africanism.
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(1868-1963)
Educator, Civil Rights Activist, Journalist
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Paul Laurence Dunbar
Author, Poet / 1872 - 1906
African-American author Paul Laurence Dunbar is best known for his verse and short stories, many of which are written in black dialect.
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(1872-1906)
Author, Poet
e
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Ralph Ellison
Educator, Literary Critic, Academic Author, Author / 1914 - 1994
Ralph Ellison was a 20th century African-American writer and scholar best known for his renowned, award-winning novel Invisible Man.
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(1914-1994)
Educator, Literary Critic, Academic Author, Author
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Olaudah Equiano
Activist, Journalist / 1745 - 1797
Olaudah Equiano wrote an autobiography depicting his experience in slavery. It served as one of the first testimonies in the abolition movement.
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(1745-1797)
Activist, Journalist
f
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Jessie Fauset
Editor, Journalist, Author, Poet / 1882 - 1961
Jessie Fauset was a teacher and writer who worked as editor for The Crisis magazine, and penned the novels Comedy: American Style and Plum Bun.
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(1882-1961)
Editor, Journalist, Author, Poet
g
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Ernest J. Gaines
Educator, Author / 1933 -
Novelist Ernest J. Gaines’s wrote The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, which reflects the African American experience and oral tradition of rural Louisiana.
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(1933-)
Educator, Author
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Nikki Giovanni
Civil Rights Activist, Television Personality, Poet / 1943 -
The poems of Nikki Giovanni helped to define the African American voice of the 1960s, '70s and beyond. She was also a major force in the Black Arts movement.
See full bio
(1943-)
Civil Rights Activist, Television Personality, Poet
h
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Alex Haley
Journalist, Author / 1921 - 1992
Alex Haley was an American writer whose works of historical fiction and reportage depicted the struggles of African Americans.
See full bio
(1921-1992)
Journalist, Author
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Lorraine Hansberry
Playwright / 1930 - 1965
Playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun and was the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award.
See full bio
(1930-1965)
Playwright
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Robert Hayden
Poet / 1913 - 1980
Robert Hayden was an African-American poet and professor who is best known as the author of poems, including “Those Winter Sundays” and “The Middle Passage.”
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(1913-1980)
Poet
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bell hooks
Scholar, Academic Author, Journalist / 1952 -
Bell hooks is an American scholar whose best known work focuses on perceptions of black women in the United States.
See full bio
(1952-)
Scholar, Academic Author, Journalist
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Langston Hughes
Playwright, Poet / 1902 - 1967
Langston Hughes was an American poet, novelist, and playwright whose African-American themes made him a primary contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.
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(1902-1967)
Playwright, Poet
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Zora Neale Hurston
Civil Rights Activist, Author / 1891 - 1960
Anthropologist and novelist Zora Neale Hurston was a fixture of the Harlem Renaissance before writing her masterwork, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
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(1891-1960)
Civil Rights Activist, Author
j
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James Weldon Johnson
Scholar, Civil Rights Activist, Songwriter, Diplomat, Journalist / 1871 - 1938
James Weldon Johnson was an African-American writer, politician, educator and lawyer. He was also an early civil rights activist and leader of the NAACP.
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(1871-1938)
Scholar, Civil Rights Activist, Songwriter, Diplomat, Journalist
m
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Robert C. Maynard
Educator, Journalist / 1937 - 1993
Robert C. Maynard was a journalist and publisher best known for being the first African American to own and publish a major daily newspaper (Tribune).
See full bio
(1937-1993)
Educator, Journalist
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Claude McKay
Children's Activist, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Poet / 1890 - 1948
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose Home to Harlem (1928) was the most popular novel written by an American black to that time.
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(1890-1948)
Children's Activist, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Poet
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Terry McMillan
Author / 1951 -
Best-selling African-American novelist Terry McMillan wrote Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got her Groove Back. Both became films starring Angela Bassett.
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(1951-)
Author
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Toni Morrison
Writer / 1931 -
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved.
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(1931-)
Writer
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Walter Mosley
Author / 1952 -
Walter Mosley is a writer of mystery stories noted for their realistic portrayals of segregated inner-city life.
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(1952-)
Author
t
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Wallace Henry Thurman
Literary Critic, Editor, Author, Playwright / 1902 - 1934
Wallace Henry Thurman was an African-American literary figure associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
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(1902-1934)
Literary Critic, Editor, Author, Playwright
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Jean Toomer
Author, Playwright / 1894 - 1967
Poet, novelist and short-story writer Jean Toomer was a major figure during the Harlem Renaissance. He is best known for his first book, Cane.
See full bio
(1894-1967)
Author, Playwright
w
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Alice Walker
Civil Rights Activist, Women's Rights Activist, Author / 1944 -
Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, African-American novelist and poet most famous for authoring The Color Purple.
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(1944-)
Civil Rights Activist, Women's Rights Activist, Author
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Dorothy West
Editor, Author / 1907 - 1998
Dorothy West is a writer remembered for her sharp observations of varied issues within the African American community.
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(1907-1998)
Editor, Author
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Phillis Wheatley
Poet / 1753 - 1784
In the late 18th century, slave poet Phillis Wheatley impressed everyone she met, proving to the world that the color of one's skin does not indicate one's intellect.
See full bio
(1753-1784)
Poet
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August Wilson
Playwright / 1945 - 2005
Playwright August Wilson won two Pulitzer Prizes for his plays Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990).
See full bio
(1945-2005)
Playwright
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Harriet E. Wilson
Author / 1825 - 1900
Harriet E. Wilson is best known as the first African-American female novelist.
See full bio
(1825-1900)
Author
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Richard Wright
Journalist, Author, Poet / 1908 - 1960
Pioneering African-American writer Richard Wright is best known for the classic texts Black Boy and Native Son.
See full bio
(1908-1960)
Journalist, Author, Poet
Musical Monikers
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My Ghost Story
I Survived
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I Survived
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