List of Famous Black Americans in History – Famous African Americans

Black Americans refer to those African American citizens of the United States who are descendants of Africans who were held as captives in America from 1619 to 1865. The Black American history is celebrated and highlighted annually in the United States during February and it’s known as the Black History Month. The second week of the month was marked as the “Negro History Week” especially because during that period of the year falls the birthday of the two most celebrated personalities of America who fought for and influenced the lives and social condition of the African Americans. They were former president Abraham Lincoln and former slave Frederick Douglass.

• Benjamin Banneker: One of America’s greatest intellectual, a mathematician and a scientist. He was also an essayist, inventor and an astronomer. He published a treatise on bees, did a mathematical study on the seventeen-year locust and was a pamphleteer for the anti-slavery movement.
• Mary McLeod Bethune: One of the greatest women achievers of the Black American society, she was known to single-handedly build Bethune-Cookman College in 1923. It was a school for the Blacks who worked in the railroad labor camps in Florida. In 1935, President Roosevelt appointed her as the national director of the National Youth Administration’s of Negro Affairs.
• Dr. George Washington Carver: Born of slave parents, Dr. Carver was an agricultural scientist who single-handedly revolutionized southern agriculture. He has worked on the peanut so extensively that he has discovered a series of products to be obtained from peanut like meal, instant and dry coffee, bleach, tar remover, wood filler, metal polish, paper, ink, shaving cream, rubbing oil, linoleum, synthetic rubber and plastics.
• Paul Laurence Dunbar: A famous poet and author who was renowned amongst both the Blacks and the Whites. He was appreciated for the brilliance and value of his poetic excellence.
• Frederick Douglass: He was a famous activist and journalist. He constantly fought against his slave condition and he escaped from the captivity of the Whites. He wrote an autobiography that was titled The Narrative of the Life and Times of Fredrick Douglass fully aware of the chances of getting caught as runaway slave.
• W.E.B. DuBois: He has a list of titles associated to his name. He was an educator, author, historian, sociologist, philosopher, poet, leader and radical. He insisted on the training in liberal arts and in humanities of the African Americans. He was the first Black to receive a doctoral degree from Harvard University.
• Marian Anderson: An African American Opera singer who was well known for her extraordinary contralto voice.
• Maya Angelou: She was a renowned poet, author, historian, singer and civil rights activist and a Grammy and Horatio Alger Award winner.
• Jesse Owens: He was a track and field athlete who won four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics. Influenced by principles and practices of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. he took the role of Defense.
• BB King: He is a guitarist who is also called the undisputed King of the Blues.
• Martin Luther King Jr.: The famous civil rights activist, who was the leading cause behind the segregation laws in the 1960’s.
• President Barack Obama: He is the first African American President of the United States. He is one of the most powerful people of recent times.
• Michael Joseph Jackson: Referred to as the King of Pop, Michael Jackson is one of the most successful and most influential entertainers of all time.