Prominent People from Georgia
This person was the first African American to play in the Major League Baseball League, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was born in Cairo, Georgia.
Jackie Robinson
This person is known for his breakout performance on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He is also known for slapping a comedian at the 94th Academy Awards.
Will Smith
This person was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a leader of the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1968. He was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington.
Martin Luther King Jr.
This person served as the first African American president and was the 44th president to the United States. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
Barack Obama
This person was known as the "King of Pop." He is regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. He won 13 Grammys and sold 1 billion records world-wide. He is most known for his best-selling album in history, Thriller (1982).
Michael Jackson
This person was one of the first African American millionaires. He owned three large barber shops. He spent much of his life in Atlanta but was born in Social Circle, Georgia.
Alonzo Herndon
A 2025 horror film set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta. It was nominated for 16 awards at the 98th Academy Awards, the most out of any film in history.
Sinners (2025)
This person was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. He was one of the founders of the NAACP. He was a leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of black civil rights activists seeking equal rights.
W E B Du Bois
This person was the first African American Supreme Court Justice. He served from 1967 to 1991. He was a civil rights lawyer prior to being a justice and was instrumental in the 1954 decision in Brown v Board of Education.
Thurgood Marshall
This person was known for being one of the most influential figures in jazz. He was the first black man in the US to host a radio show. He was a jazz ambassador during the Cold War.
Louis Armstrong
This person was a singer, composer, and pianist. He is known for his famous cover of "Georgia on My Mind." He was born in Albany, Georgia.
Ray Charles
This person was the first African American to win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, for the movie Get Out (2017). Critics have named his movies Us, Nope, and Get Out among the best films of the 21st century.
Jordan Peele
This person was an early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the NAACP. She dedicated her career to combating prejudice and violence and advocated for African Americans, especially women.
Ida B Wells
This person was the first African American mayor of Atlanta. He served for 3 terms, making him the second longest serving mayor. After his death, they renamed the International Airport in Atlanta in his honor.
Maynard Jackson
This person was a poet, novelist, and social activist. He is an early innovator of jazz poetry and he is known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
Langston Hughes
This person is a novelist, poet, and social activist. She is known for her novel The Color Purple. She was born in Eatonton, Georgia.
Allice Walker
This person was the first African American to win an Oscar. She won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939).
Hattie McDaniel
This person was the first woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly. She advocated for issues involving housing, healthcare, schools, and voter registration in black communities.
Grace Towns Hamilton
This person was the first African American Nobel laureate. He received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in mediating the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Ralph Bunche
This person is an American ballet dancer. She was the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater.
Misty Copeland
This person was the first African American to graduate with a degree from the University of Georgia. Their education college is named after her. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
Mary Frances Early
This person was the first major African American filmmaker. He produced over 40 films and is known for The Homesteader (1919) and Within Our Gates (1920).
Oscar Micheaux
This person was arrested at 15 in March of 1955, for refusing to give her seat to a white woman on a crowded bus. This event occurred nine months before the more widely known Rosa Parks arrest.
Claudette Colvin
This person was the first African American woman to be elected to the United States Congress. She represented New York's 12th congressional district. She served for seven terms, from 1969 to 1983.
Shirley Chisholm
This person is an American portrait painter. In 2017, he was commissioned to paint former US President Barack Obama's portrait for the Natrual Portrait Gallery for the Smithsonian Institution.
Kehinde Wiley