1967– Film and television actor and model British-born actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje came late to screen acting and made his movie debut in Congo (1995). He has since appeared in The Mummy Returns (2001) and The Bourne Identity (2002), but he is best known as Simon Adebisi in the edgy HBO-TV prison drama Oz (1997–2000) and as "Mr. Eko" in ABC's Lost (2004–…
1901–2004 Actor Etta Moten Barnett achieved several notable firsts in her long career on the New York stage and Hollywood screen. She rose to fame in the 1930s and was one of the most admired African-American entertainment personalities of her era. Her credits include a long engagement as Bess in the landmark George Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess, but she is also thought to have been the f…
1951– Politician Boateng, Paul, photograph. Naashon Zalk/Bloomberg News/Landov. Paul Yaw Boateng twice made political history in Britain: in 1987, he became one of the first black Britons elected to the House of Commons. Fifteen years later, Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed Boateng an undersecretary at the Treasury, making him the first black ever to hold a cabinet position in Britain. H…
1965– Professional basketball player, coach By far the shortest player in the history of the National Basketball League, Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues became a fan favorite over his 16-season career from 1987 to 2001. Bogues's life and his exploits on the court were showcases for the possibilities of pure determination, for he overcame the damaging effects of poverty and sough…
Comedian 19??– All comedians want to be funny, but few can be described as truly hilarious. Bruce Bruce can claim the elusive ability to make audiences break into laughter not only during his performances, but also for hours afterwards as they recall the things he says. Bruce is irreverent and lovable at the same time, with a girth to match his huge personality and stage presence. Bruce arr…
1866–1949 Composer and singer A leading classical vocalist and composer, Henry Burleigh was influential in the process of establishing an "American School" in classical music. In particular he composed and arranged religious music in the African American tradition of spirituals and was a friend of Antonin Dvor̂ák, who consulted Burleigh about American folk and re…
1926–2005 Musician An era in American music ended when legendary blues guitarist R.L. Burnside passed away in 2005. A fixture on the Mississippi Delta blues scene for decades, Burnside and his gritty, growling musical style was a living link to the black musicians who originated the Delta blues back in the 1920s and from whom he first learned how to play. In the early 1990s Burnside gained …
196(?)– Choir director, songwriter, and music producer When secular artists achieve commercial success, it is often followed by a big spike in popularity, accompanied by instant name recognition. Though this does not typically happen to Christian singers, songwriter and choir director Kurt Carr managed to achieve global success with his breakthrough 2001 album, Awesome Wonder. The song �…
1943– President, trade unionist Frederick Chiluba was elected president of Zambia in 1991 in the country's first multiparty elections. A landlocked country in Africa, Zambia is heavily dependent on a single export commodity, copper, and as such has one of the highest levels of industrialization on the continent, and the most developed trade union movement, apart from that in South Af…
1985– Vocalist, songwriter Ciara, photograph. Noel Hines/Landov. Youthful R&B vocalist Ciara (pronounced "Sierra") became an icon on the pop music scene in the summer of 2004. Her single "Goodies" spent seven weeks at No. 1 on pop charts, and its unsyncopated but subtly layered beats pounded out of sport-utility vehicles all over North America. A striking bea…
1935–2005 Professional baseball player, businessman, lawyer, writer On March 1, 1969, Donn Clendenon retired from professional baseball. Seven months later, he was playing again and was named Most Valuable Player of the 1969 World Series as a member of the world champion New York Mets. All of this occurred due to trades, contracts and other concerns that are part of the business of baseball…
1961– Writer Eric Jerome Dickey has made a name for himself as "one of the few kings of popular African-American fiction for women," according to the New York Times. By 2006 Dickey had topped the New York Times bestseller list six times. Selling more than 500,000 books each year since 1999, Dickey has found a large reading audience with his novels that shatter stereotypes abou…
1965(?)– Women's rights activist, model Dirie, Waris, photograph. Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters/Landov. Though she was among the top models in the world for some years, model Waris Dirie has disfigured feet, covered with scars she acquired during a nine-day flight across the desert after she ran away from her nomadic family in Somalia to escape a forced marriage. Those are not, however, her …
1932– Civil rights activist, government official An important civil rights activist of the 1960s and 1970s and a campaigner for over 30 years, Hazel Nell Dukes is a leading figure in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served as the organization's national president between 1989 and 1992. Dukes built a career in various social service agencies, …
1985– 1987– Musicians Hip-hop and classical music might seem to be at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum, but not for the young New York brothers Damien and Tourie Escobar. Classically trained violinists, they use their instruments in original music that draws on hip-hop as well as reggae, jazz, and alternative rock. Under the name Nuttin' but Stringz (sometimes spelled Nu…
1977– Economist In 2003, economist Roland G. Fryer joined the faculty of Harvard University as one of the youngest professors in the school's history. Fryer's specialty is race-based economic issues, and his research projects seek to answer the question of why African-Americans are harder hit by poverty than other demographic groups in America. "I basically want to figu…
1974– Actor Gaye, Nona, photograph. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images. Nona Gaye found success on film rather than following the career path of her late father, soul singer Marvin Gaye (1939–84). Just nine years old when her father was fatally shot by her grandfather in 1984, Nona Gaye made one record in the early 1990s before vanishing into years of substance abuse. Becoming a parent …
1935–1979 Jazz guitarist Green, Grant, photograph. © Mosaic Images/Corbis. Although Grant Green recorded more than 100 albums, including 30 as the group leader, his career was overshadowed by more successful jazz guitarists, particularly Wes Montgomery and George Benson. Known for his clear, single-note, melodic style of playing with a pick, Green avoided the chords and octaves favor…
1944– Singer, songwriter Hendryx, Nona, photograph. Time Life Pictures/Getty Images. Since her teens, Nona Hendryx has written and performed pop songs that span a range of genres. She attained stardom in the 1970s as a member of the soul trio Labelle, and then went on to build a solo career that included guest performances with a variety of rock and soul bands as well as solo recordings. He…
1934–2005 Jazz singer, pianist Horn, Shirley, photograph. Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images. "Songs are lucky when Shirley Horn chooses them," wrote New York Times jazz critic John Parelis, according to the National Public Radio Web site. Horn started as a child playing the big, old piano in her grandmother's parlor and grew to become a classically trained pianist whom Mile…
1941– Singer, composer Singer/composer Ronald Isley has enjoyed a successful career in popular music for more than 50 years. As lead singer and composer for the Isley Brothers, Isley recorded a long string of hit singles including "Shout," "This Old Heart of Mine," "It's Your Thing," and "Don't Say Goodnight," and more th…
1924–2005 Musician Considered by Rolling Stone to be "the greatest sideman in rock & roll," pianist Johnnie Johnson spent most of his career in the shadow of his musical partner, Chuck Berry. Johnson played on most of Berry's hit records and co-wrote the music for several of Berry's songs, but did not begin to achieve particular recognition until he pursued a…
1970(?)– Physician The first African-American woman to be appointed to the faculty of the Department of Surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center (NYPH/Columbia), Dr. Kathie-Ann Joseph has made significant contributions to breast cancer research and treatment. Particularly interested in public health and the sociology of medicine, Dr. Joseph has studied ho…
1856–1924 Jockey Riding the colt Aristides, Oliver Lewis won the inaugural Kentucky Derby on May 17, 1875. His time of two minutes 37.75 seconds also set an American record over the mile and a half distance (the Kentucky Derby became a 1.25 mile race in 1896). Lewis was one of 13 black jockeys in the 15-strong field. Early in the race, he joined a small group behind Volcano, who led the rac…
1869–1939 Veterinarian Trinidadian-born Augustus Nathaniel Lushington became one of the first Americans of African descent to earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree when he graduated from the program in veterinary medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1897. Practicing for much of his career in segregated Lynchburg, Virginia, he experienced unjust treatment but was respected in …
1976(?)– Singer, songwriter Lyfe, photograph. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images. Toledo, Ohio-born singer and songwriter Lyfe has a sound that is all his own. The many attempts that have been made to label it show just how unusual it is: they range from folk-rap (Lyfe's own contribution) to singer-songwriter (Seattle Times) to R&B/hip-hop/folk (Billboard). Lyfe writes honest, emoti…
1923–2002 Funeral home director In 1946, William March was a young man recently returned from war, with a wife and a baby to support, when he got the idea of becoming a funeral director to serve the black community in his hometown of Baltimore. To make his idea a reality, he had to gain the support of his wife, overcome prejudice in his city, and work two full-time jobs for many years. Marc…
1974– Cartoonist McGruder, Aaron, photograph. Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images. Cartoonist and political satirist Aaron McGruder stirred the pot of race controversy in the United States with the explosive national syndication of his "The Boondocks" comic strip in 1999. At age 24, McGruder suddenly found himself on the defensive for his frankness in expressing through his strip h…
1930–1997 President Mobutu Sese Seko ruled Zaire, the former Belgian Congo that he renamed in 1971, from 1965 when he assumed power with a military coup and established the Second Republic to just months before his death in 1997. His regime was been characterized as repressive, and his critics described him in terms of his drive for power, his compulsion for personalization, and his hunger …
1968– Monarch King Mswati III is one of the last absolute monarchs in the world, and the last in Africa. He rules over Swaziland, the second smallest country on the continent with a population of just over one million. The kingdom has the world's highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS with 40 percent of the population suffering from the disease. Despite the plight of the country's…
1975– Professional rugby player, boxer Anthony Mundine is one of Australia's most celebrated—and controversial—athletes. A member of the Aboriginal, or indigenous Australian, community, Mundine began speaking out on racism during a storied career as the country's highest paid rugby player, and continued to do so after he made a major switch over to professional b…
1965(?)– Physician Dr. Nawal M. Nour established the first, and to date only, hospital center in the United States devoted to the medical needs of African women who have undergone female genital cutting (FGC), also known as female circumcision. Nour helped to develop a surgical procedure that can help alleviate some of the negative effects of FGC, such as urinary tract infections, painful m…
1945–2005 Activist, Nigerian first lady Obasanjo, Stella, photograph. Nic Bothma/EPA/Landov. Stella Obasanjo became famous not only for being the first lady of Nigeria, married to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, but also for being a political activist in her own right, supporting such causes as women's liberation, youth as leaders of tomorrow, and the rehabilitation of a war torn Nigeria. S…
1947– Executive Packer, Daniel, photograph. Oscar Sosa/Bloomberg News/Landov. From a humble beginning in segregated Alabama, Daniel Packer rose to become the first African American to manage a nuclear power plant. Packer went on to serve as CEO of Entergy New Orleans and landed on Black Enterprise's 2005 list of most powerful African-American executives. During his ascent up the corp…
1913–2005 Activist, writer According to the old saying, "some people are born to greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Greatness was certainly thrust upon Rosa Parks, but the modest former seamstress found herself equal to the challenge. Known as "the mother of the Civil Rights Movement," Parks almost single-handedly set in motion a veritable revo…
1942(?)– Archeologist, educator When many think of slavery, most think of the South. But slavery existed in the North as well. Dr. Warren Perry, an archeologist and associate professor at Central Connecticut State University, has been digging in various burial grounds throughout New York and Connecticut, uncovering information that may change people's perceptions about slavery. His p…
194?– Television journalist Sandra Pinckney's childhood years living in many countries and learning about different people and cultures left her with an open and genuine interest in other people and unfamiliar places. This interest, along with a warm and enthusiastic nature, led her into a public career in broadcast journalism. Like her childhood, her career has taken her to unique a…
1925–2005 Insurance executive, publisher A newspaper publisher and marketing executive, John L. Procope began a second career in midlife when he joined the Wall Street insurance brokerage E.G. Bowman, founded by his wife Ernesta Procope. That company, rising from storefront beginnings selling $25 insurance policies to African Americans in Brooklyn, New York, became the largest minority-owne…
1940–2005 Comedian, actor, writer In the 1970s and 1980s Richard Pryor was one of America's top comedians, an actor, writer, and stand-up artist whose irreverent albums sold in the millions. Pryor mined both personal and social tragedy for his comic material and peppered his appearances with outrageous language and adult humor. Even at the peak of his popularity, however, he suffered…
1944– Actor, director, producer Reid, Tim, photograph. WENN/Landov. Since his years in the role of disc jockey Venus Flytrap on the series WKRP in Cincinnati in the late 1970s, actor Tim Reid has been a familiar presence on prime-time and syndicated television. Reid got that part because he challenged the producers of the series to improve on their original stereotypical conception of the c…
1948– Boxer Rose, Lionel, photograph. • Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis. Lionel Rose's career embodied the stuff legends are made of. In a boxing career begun in a makeshift ring in a poverty stricken aboriginal settlement, Rose developed a crushing punch that helped him become the first Australian aborigine to win a world championship title, and the second Australian to take…
1942–2004 Blues musician An icon of the Chicago blues, Son Seals was known for his intense and innovative guitar playing and his grainy singing. Seals brought the musical traditions of Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Howlin' Wolf to a new generation of blues guitarists and fans, at a time when the music seemed to be dying out. An energetic performer, Seals took his hard elect…
1971(?)– Singer, songwriter, producer In an age when commercial success has continually trumped talent and originality, singer Siji (pronounced shee-gee) has joined a growing list of artists who are bucking the system. His breakthrough CD, God-Given (sometimes listed as God-given), combines elements of jazz, soul, and Afrobeat music to create a new sound that has mesmerized listeners global…
1920–2002 Music scholar, pianist An expert on the history of black music in America, Eileen Southern is credited with documenting and preserving musical traditions that had been all but ignored by the academic world. At a time when many people though that jazz and blues was all there was to African-American music, Southern showed that, from the early 1600s, blacks in America created a richl…
1971– Basketball player Swoopes, Sheryl, photograph. • Louis DeLuca/Sports_NS/Dallas Morning News/Corbis. Her name rhymes with "hoops." Her talent has been compared with that of Michael Jordan. Even more importantly, she has earned the ultimate endorsement contract most athletes only dream about—a line of footwear named in her honor. Sheryl Swoopes has reached th…
1949(?)– Journalist Talley, Andre Leon, photograph. Evan Agostini/Getty Images. Long known to readers of Vogue magazine's American edition, André Leon Talley is one of the fashion industry's most influential stylesetters. Famous among fashionistas for his flamboyant, often custom-made outfits that accentuate his six-feet, seveninch frame, as well as by his booming barit…
1963– Restaurant executive One of the highest-ranking African Americans in the restaurant industry, Don Thompson was named executive vice president and chief operations officer of the McDonald's USA fast-food restaurant chain early in the year 2005. That post marked a new stage of 15 years of steady advancement through the McDonald's hierarchy for Thompson, whose McDonald�…
1945– Attorney, civil rights and education activist, songwriter, playwright Faya Ora Rose Touré is a Harvard-educated Civil Rights activist and litigation attorney who has worked on some of the highest-profile civil rights cases to come before the courts. Touré—who spent most of her career as Rose Sanders until she decided to step away from her "slave name"…
1945(?)– Business executive From the start of his business career, when he helped integrate a Cleveland factory, Lloyd Trotter was a forerunner. Later, as president and CEO of GE Industrial, a branch of General Electric, he continued helping to open doors for other minorities and women. Despite his busy work schedule, Trotter also gives selflessly of his time and resources by volunteering w…
1927–2005 Activist C. DeLores Tucker never shied away from sensitive political issues. A longtime civil rights activist who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and raised funds for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Tucker spent her life guided by her deep convictions. Her strong will and organizing skills brought her to the attention of those in po…
1978– Rhythm and blues singer, actor With his natural good looks and personal presence that set him apart from the pack, Usher has risen from genuine teen idol to mature pop star. Usher has to travel with bodyguards to hold back the throngs of screaming adolescent females. "I actually have been hurt," he told Interview magazine writer Dimitri Ehrlich. "I twisted my ankl…
1936– Educator In a time when traditional roles for men and women were the norm, Argelia Velez-Rodriguez earned her doctorate from the University of Havana in Cuba, becoming the first black woman to accomplish this at the university. Velez-Rodriguez received her degree during a time of turmoil for her native Cuba following the overthrow of the dictatorship and its replacement by the Communi…
1974– Professional basketball player Wallace, Rasheed, photograph. Danny Moloshok/Reuters/Landov. There is no denying Rasheed Wallace's skill on the basketball court: the one-time fourth pick in the NBA draft is a two-time All Star, and he has averaged 15.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game during his career. Wallace began his career with the Washington Bullets and spent eight years w…
1923–2005 Minister, scholar, civil rights activist, writer An Episcopalian minister, a scholar, a poet, and the author of 18 books, Dr. Nathan Wright Jr. was a leading advocate of the black power movement. Although Wright claimed to be ideologically close to Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and even Malcolm X, he was a pac…
1924– Labor leader, civil rights pioneer, pastor The first female board member of the United Packinghouse Food and Alliance Workers Union, Addie L. Wyatt was elected vice president of Local 56 in 1953. During her 30-year career as a labor leader Wyatt fought for equality as a campaigner for women's rights in the workplace and as an active protester alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr…