Published in 2011 by Britannica Educational Publishing (a trademark of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.) in association with Rosen Educational Services, LLC 29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010. Copyright © 2011 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, and the Thistle logo are registered trademarks of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Rosen Educational Services materials copyright © 2011 Rosen Educational Services, LLC. All rights reserved. Distributed exclusively by Rosen Educational Services. For a listing of additional Britannica Educational Publishing titles, call toll free (800) 237-9932. First Edition Britannica Educational Publishing Michael I. Levy: Executive Editor J.E. Luebering: Senior Manager Marilyn L. Barton: Senior Coordinator, Production Control Steven Bosco: Director, Editorial Technologies Lisa S. Braucher: Senior Producer and Data Editor Yvette Charboneau: Senior Copy Editor Kathy Nakamura: Manager, Media Acquisition Jeff Wallenfeldt: Manager, Geography and History Rosen Educational Services Hope Lourie Killcoyne: Senior Editor and Project Manager Nelson Sá: Art Director Cindy Reiman: Photography Manager Matthew Cauli: Designer, Cover Design Introduction by Laura Loria Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Black American biographies : the journey of achievement / edited by Jeff Wallenfeldt. -- 1st ed. p. cm. — (African American history and culture) “In association with Britannica Educational Publishing, Rosen Education Services” Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-61530-176-8 (eBook) 1. African Americans—Biography--Dictionaries, Juvenile. I. Wallenfeldt, Jeffrey H. E185.96.B523 2011 920.0092'96073—dc22 2010010373 On the cover: U.S. abolitionist, writer, and orator Frederick Douglass is among the bright- est lights in the African American firmament, an august gathering most recently illumi- nated by the ascendancy of yet another eloquent and stirring leader, Pres. Barack Obama. Getty Images (Obama); MPI/Hulton Archive/Getty Images (Douglass) On pages 21, 72, 117, 147, 180, 213, 324: Martin Luther King, Jr. was among the hundreds of thousands who came to the nation’s capital in August of 1963 to demand equal rights for black Americans. Hulton Archive/Getty Images 27 CONTENTS Introduction 14 Chapter 1: Abolitionism and Activism 21 Abolitionists 21 Martin R. Delany 22 Frederick Douglass 23 Gabriel 25 Harriet Tubman 26 Nat Turner 28 David Walker 29 Activists 29 Ralph David Abernathy 30 44 Ella Baker 31 Julian Bond 32 Stokely Carmichael 32 Eldridge Cleaver 34 W.E.B. Du Bois 35 Medgar Evers 38 James Farmer 39 Marcus Garvey 40 Fannie Lou Hamer 41 Benjamin L. Hooks 42 Jesse Jackson 42 Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. 45 Coretta Scott King 46 Martin Luther King, Jr. 47 Malcolm X 58 James Meredith 62 Rosa Parks 62 A. Philip Randolph 63 71 Bobby Seale 64 Al Sharpton 65 Emmett Till 65 Booker T. Washington 66 Ida B. Wells-Barnett 68 Roy Wilkins 69 Whitney M. Young, Jr. 70 Talented Tenth 71 77 Chapter 2: Protect and Serve 72 Politicians 72 Marion Barry 73 Tom Bradley 73 Edward Brooke 74 Blanche K. Bruce 75 Shirley Chisholm 77 Maynard Jackson 78 David Dinkins 79 Barbara C. Jordan 79 John R. Lynch 80 Carol Moseley Braun 81 Barack Obama 82 84 Michelle Obama 88 Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback 91 Hiram R. Revels 92 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. 93 Robert Smalls 94 Carl Stokes 95 Harold Washington 95 Douglas Wilder 96 Coleman Young 97 Government Officials, Diplomats, and Soldiers 97 Crispus Attucks 98 Ralph Bunche 98 Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. 100 Patricia Roberts Harris 101 Colin Powell 103 Condoleezza Rice 103 Robert C. Weaver 106 Buffalo Soldier 107 113 Andrew Young 108 Tuskegee Airmen 108 Lawyers and Jurists 109 Marian Wright Edelman 109 Charles Hamilton Houston 111 Thurgood Marshall 111 Charlotte E. Ray 114 Clarence Thomas 115 128 Chapter 3: Exploration, Education, Experimentation, and Ecumenism 117 Explorers, Aviators, and Astronauts 117 Guion S. Bluford, Jr. 117 Bessie Coleman 120 Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable 120 Matthew Alexander Henson 121 Mae Jemison 121 Educators and Academics 123 John Hope Franklin 123 Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 124 Cornel West 126 William Julius Wilson 128 Carter G. Woodson 129 133 Science and Medicine 130 Benjamin Banneker 130 George Washington Carver 131 Joycelyn Elders 134 Mary Mahoney 136 Charles Henry Turner 136 Businesspeople 138 Kenneth Chenault 138 John H. Johnson 139 Robert L. Johnson 140 Charles Clinton Spaulding 141 Religious Leaders 141 Richard Allen 142 Father Divine 142 Wallace D. Fard 144 Louis Farrakhan 144 Chapter 4: Arts and Letters 147 148 Writers and Poets 147 Maya Angelou 148 James Baldwin 149 Octavia E. Butler 151 Charles W. Chesnutt 151 Countee Cullen 152 Paul Laurence Dunbar 153 Ralph Ellison 153 165 Ernest J. Gaines 155 Nikki Giovanni 156 Alex Haley 157 Chester Himes 157 Langston Hughes 159 Audre Lorde 160 Claude McKay 161 Toni Morrison 161 Walter Mosley 163 Alice Walker 164 Phillis Wheatley 166 Richard Wright 167 Journalists 168 Ed Bradley 168 174 Max Robinson 169 Carl Rowan 170 Bernard Shaw 170 Painters and Photographers 171 Jacob Lawrence 171 Gordon Parks 172 Horace Pippin 174 Dancers and Choreographers 175 Alvin Ailey, Jr. 176 Katherine Dunham 177 Savion Glover 178 Chapter 5: Stage and Screen 180 Actors 181 Halle Berry 181 Ossie Davis 181 Ruby Dee 183 Jamie Foxx 184 192 Morgan Freeman 185 James Earl Jones 186 Hattie McDaniel 187 Eddie Murphy 188 Sidney Poitier 189 Will Smith 191 Woody Strode 193 Denzel Washington 193 Oprah Winfrey 195 206 Directors, Producers, and Playwrights 198 Amiri Baraka 198 Charles Burnett 199 Lonne Elder III 200 Spike Lee 200 Oscar Micheaux 202 Ntozake Shange 203 Melvin Van Peebles 204 Comedians 205 Bill Cosby 205 Whoopi Goldberg 206 Dick Gregory 207 Richard Pryor 209 Chris Rock 209 231 Bert Williams 212 Chapter 6: Music 213 Jazz 214 Louis Armstrong 214 Count Basie 217 Buddy Bolden 219 Cab Calloway 219 Ornette Coleman 221 John Coltrane 222 Miles Davis 224 Duke Ellington 227 Ella Fitzgerald 231 Dizzy Gillespie 232 Lionel Hampton 234 Coleman Hawkins 236 Fletcher Henderson 237 Billie Holiday 238 233 John Lewis 240 Charles Mingus 241 Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) 241 Thelonious Monk 242 Jelly Roll Morton 242 King Oliver 243 Charlie Parker 243 Max Roach 246 Sonny Rollins 247 258 Billy Strayhorn 248 Sun Ra 248 Art Tatum 249 Sarah Vaughan 249 Fats Waller 250 Lester Young 250 Decca Records 251 Folk and Blues 252 Big Bill Broonzy 252 Willie Dixon 252 W.C. Handy 253 Alberta Hunter 254 Elmore James 255 Robert Johnson 256 277 B.B. King 257 Leadbelly 259 Ma Rainey 260 Bessie Smith 261 Muddy Waters 262 Rhythm and Blues 264 Chuck Berry 264 Ruth Brown 266 Ray Charles 267 Sam Cooke 268 Bo Diddley 269 Fats Domino 270 Jimi Hendrix 271 Howlin' Wolf 273 Etta James 274 Quincy Jones 274 Little Richard 275 Tina Turner 277 285 Jackie Wilson 278 Apollo Theater 279 Soul 280 James Brown 280 The Four Tops 282 Aretha Franklin 283 Marvin Gaye 284 298 Berry Gordy, Jr. 287 Al Green 288 Janet Jackson 290 Michael Jackson 291 Curtis Mayfield 293 Otis Redding 294 Smokey Robinson and the Miracles 296 The Supremes 297 The Temptations 299 Stevie Wonder 300 Funk 302 Parliament-Funkadelic 302 Prince 303 Sly and the Family Stone 306 310 Hip-Hop 307 Diddy 308 Jay-Z 309 Public Enemy 311 Run-D.M.C. 312 Tupac Shakur 313 Kanye West 315 Cabaret, Gospel, Opera, and Show Music 316 Nat King Cole 316 Sammy Davis, Jr. 318 Thomas Andrew Dorsey 318 Lena Horne 319 Mahalia Jackson 320 Jessye Norman 321 Leontyne Price 322 Chapter 7: Sports 324 319 Baseball 325 Hank Aaron 325 Cool Papa Bell 326 Barry Bonds 326 Lou Brock 327 Larry Doby 328 Bob Gibson 328 Josh Gibson 329 344 Rickey Henderson 329 Reggie Jackson 330 Buck Leonard 332 Willie Mays 332 Buck O'Neil 334 Satchel Paige 335 Frank Robinson 336 Jackie Robinson 337 Basketball 340 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 341 Kobe Bryant 342 Wilt Chamberlain 344 Cynthia Cooper 345 Julius Erving 345 354 Magic Johnson 346 Michael Jordan 347 Oscar Robertson 349 Bill Russell 350 Boxing 351 Muhammad Ali 351 George Foreman 356 Joe Frazier 356 Marvin Hagler 357 Jack Johnson 358 Don King 360 Sugar Ray Leonard 361 Joe Louis 362 Floyd Patterson 364 Sugar Ray Robinson 365 Mike Tyson 367 Football 369 371 Jim Brown 369 Marion Motley 370 Walter Payton 370 Jerry Rice 371 Eddie Robinson 372 O.J. Simpson 373 Track and Field 375 Bob Beamon 375 29 384 Lee Evans 377 Florence Griffith Joyner 377 Carl Lewis 378 Edwin Moses 379 Jesse Owens 379 Wilma Rudolph 380 Tennis, Golf, and Horse Racing 381 Arthur Ashe 382 Althea Gibson 382 Isaac Burns Murphy 383 Serena Williams 384 Venus Williams 386 Tiger Woods 386 Epilogue 388 30 385 Glossary 390 Bibliography 392 Index 395 35 INTrODuCTION Introduction | 15 or Americans, the pursuit of happi- Nat Turner in 1831. Turner, the seven other Fness has long been bound up with slaves who were his initial followers, and striving for excellence and achieve- those who joined them sustained their ment. But, although the Declaration of uprising for two days, killing his owners’ Independence found the fundamental family as well as 60 other white people equality of all people (or at least of men) before being stopped by the Virginia mili- to be self-evident and the right to liberty tia. After six weeks in hiding, Turner was inalienable, for African Americans the tried and hanged. His rebellion led to a pursuit of not just achievement and excel- tightening of restrictions placed on slaves lence but of liberty and equality was long in regard to education and their ability to obstructed by barriers of “race” and class hold meetings precisely because it had and by the social and economic frame- served notice that slaves were capable of work of life in the United States.