Music
She was known as the “Queen of Soul.”
Aretha Franklin
He was the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor
Sidney Poitier
This neo-expressionist artist became famous for his graffiti-inspired work.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
She wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Maya Angelou
This choreographer founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Alvin Ailey
This jazz trumpeter helped popularize scat singing.
Louis Armstrong
She was the first Black woman to win an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Viola Davis
This Harlem Renaissance painter created “The Migration Series.”
Jacob Lawrence
This author wrote Beloved.
Toni Morrison
She became the first Black female principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre.
Misty Copeland
This rapper released the album All Eyez on Me.
Tupac Shakur
This director created the film Do the Right Thing.
Spike Lee
This contemporary artist is known for large-scale silhouette works exploring race.
Kara Walker
This Harlem Renaissance poet wrote “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”
Langston Hughes
This anthropologist and dancer blended Caribbean dance with modern technique.
Katherine Dunham
This singer performed “Strange Fruit,” a protest song about lynching.
Billie Holiday
This groundbreaking Marvel film centered on a fictional African nation.
Black Panther
This photographer captured powerful images of the Civil Rights Movement.
This writer’s autobiography The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass exposed slavery’s brutality.
Frederick Douglass
This street dance style originated in the Bronx during the 1970s hip-hop movement.
Breakdancing
This genre originated in Black communities in the South Bronx in the 1970s.
Hip-Hop
This director became the first Black woman nominated for Best Director at the Oscars.
Ava DuVernay
This artist painted portraits of everyday Black Americans with dignity and realism.
Kehinde Wiley
She coined the term “womanist” in her writing.
Alice Walker
This dance tradition, performed during slavery, blended spirituality and resistance.
Ring Shout