Artists
Activists
Athletes
Poets + Authors
Musical Artists
100
Jean Michel Basquiat
100
Known for his "I have a dream" speech, he was one of the most prominent leaders of the Civil Rights movement:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
100
He was drafted to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003 and has won 4 championships (with the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, and LA Lakers) and 4 MVP awards since.
LeBron James
100
This is one of poet Maya Angelou's most famous poems. Below is an excerpt from the poem:
"Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high"
"Still I Rise"
100
"My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana
You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bama
I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros
I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils
Earned all this money but they never take the country out me
I got a hot sauce in my bag, swag"
Beyoncé
200
Kehinde Wiley, a New York City-based artist painted a 2018 portrait of this U.S. President
Barack Obama
200
Known for his "By Any Means Necessary" quote, this prominent Black freedom leader rejected the practice of nonviolence as he felt that using violence in self-defense was reasonable.
Malcolm X
200
She won her fist tennis Grand Slam at age 17. Since then, she has won 23 more Grand Slams.
Serena Williams
200
He is best known his young adult literature. His works include "Monster", "Bad Boy", "Slam", and "Hoops!"
Walter Dean Myers
200
"Christian Dior, Dior, I'm up in all the stores
When it rains, it pours, she like the way I rrr"
Pop Smoke
300
This form of street art is one of four elements of hip hop. The other elements are MCing, breakdancing, and DJing.
Graffiti
300
Known for saying, "No", when told to move to the back of the bus, this activist played a pivotal role both in the Civil Rights Movement and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks
300
Famous for his number "42" from his time with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he is known for desegregating the sport of baseball.
Jackie Robinson
300
Ta-Nehisi Coates, a current Black author and journalist most famous for his New York Times Bestseller Between the World and Me as well as his contributions to this Wakandan Marvel Comic
Black Panther
300
"I fly with the stars, in the skies
I am no longer trying to survive
I believe that life is a prize
But to live, doesn't mean you're alive
Don't worry 'bout me, and who I fire
I get what I desire, it's my empire
And yes, I call the shots, I am the umpire
I sprinkle holy water, upon a vampire"
Nicki Minaj
400
This 1940 piece, The migrants arrived in great numbers, by Jacob Lawrence depicts this 1910-1940s movement where many Black southerners relocated to northern and midwestern cities. What is that movement called?
The great migration
400
Patrice Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Temeti created this political and social movement that highlights racism and discrimination in response to the police killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Pamela Turner, Rekia Boyd, and many more.
Black Lives Matter
400
Known for her 7 Olympic medals, she has had 4 gymnastics moves named after her.
Simone Biles
400
Octavia Butler has published a large number of influential novels including Kindred and Parable of the Sower. These novels are explore imagined future scientific or technologically advanced worlds. What genre is this?
Science Fiction
400
"Get me out
Into the nighttime
Four walls won't hold me tonight
If this town
Is just an apple
Then let me take a bite
If they say
Why (why?), why (why?)
Tell 'em that it's human nature
Why (why?), why (why?)
Does he do me that way?"
Michael Jackson
500
Nina Chanel Abney, a New York-based artist created this album cover for which rap artist's 2021 album, Expensive Pain?
Meek Mill
500
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded this Black power political organization in Oakland, CA. Some main principles of their mission was Black nationalism, socialism, armed self-defense, and protecting Black neighborhoods from police brutality.
The Black Panther Party
500
Hailing from Jamaica, this track and field king has twice broken the 200m sprint world record-- once in 2008 and again in 2009.
Usain Bolt
500
He was a prominent figure during the Harlem Renaissance. One of his best known poems ponders the question: "What happens to a dream deferred?"
Langston Hughes
500
"Isn't she lovely
Isn't she wonderful
Isn't she precious
Less than one minute old
I never thought through love we'd be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn't she lovely, made from love"
Stevie Wonder