Civil Rights Activists
Authors
Athletes
Media Personalities
Musicians
100
An African American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
100
An American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees.
Maya Angelou
100
An American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. Widely considered one of the greatest NBA players in history, frequently compared to Michael Jordan in debates over the greatest basketball player of all time.
Lebron James
100
An American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. Famous for hosting a show named after themselves.
Oprah Winfrey
100
An American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child.
Beyonce
200
An American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
Rosa Parks
200
An American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry, best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
Langston Hughes
200
An American professional boxer, activist, entertainer and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated figures of the 20th century and as one of the greatest boxers of all time - was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky.
Muhammad Ali
200
An American television presenter, comedian, actor, broadcaster, author, game show host and businessman. He hosts Family Feud, Celebrity Family Feud and the Miss Universe competition. Began his career as a comedian.
Steve Harvey
200
An outspoken Grammy Award-winning rapper, record producer and fashion designer from Chicago who also ran for President.
Kanye West
300
An American politician, statesman, and civil rights activist and leader who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966.
Congressmen John Lewis
300
An American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. His essays, collected in Notes of a Native Son, explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in the Western society of the United States during the mid twentieth-century.
James Baldwin
300
An American professional tennis player and former world No. 1 in women's single tennis. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most by any player in the Open Era, and the second-most of all time behind Margaret Court.
Serena Williams
300
An American actor, director and narrator. He has appeared in a range of film genres portraying character roles and is particularly known for his distinctive deep voice. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Morgan Freeman
300
An American rapper, songwriter, record executive, businessman, and record producer. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop artists in history, and often cited as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Is featured on the song Empire State of Mind.
Jay-Z
400
An African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. He is best known for his time spent as a vocal spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
Malcolm X [Little]
400
An American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Toni Morrison
400
An American civil rights activist and football quarterback who is a free agent. He played six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League.
Colin Kaepernick
400
An American actor and playwright. After studying directing at Howard University, he became prominent in theater, winning a Drama League Directing Fellowship and an acting AUDELCO, and being nominated for a Jeff Award as a playwright for Deep Azure.
Chadwick Boseman
400
An American rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor, streamer and entrepreneur. In September 2007, his debut single "Crank That" peaked at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Soulja Boy
500
An American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, becoming famous for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings.
Frederick Douglass
500
An American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937.
Zora Neale Hurston
500
An American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. This person broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
Jackie Robinson
500
An American television journalist. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he anchored weekend news programs on local television stations in Alabama and Pennsylvania during his early days as a journalist.
Don Lemon
500
An American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, dancer, actor, and director. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. Known for "When Doves Cry"
Prince