Black History Month: 2024 African Americans & the Arts

Ma Rainey. 1886-1939

Mamie Smith. 1891-1946

Bessie Smith. 1894-1937

Marian Anderson. 1897-1993

Duke Ellington. 1899-1974

Louis Armstrong. 1901-1971

Count Basie. 1904-1984

Gladys Bentley. 1907-1960

Dean Dixon. 1915-1976

Sister Rosetta Tharpe. 1915-1973

Billie Holiday. 1915-1959

Ella Fitzgerald. 1917-1996

Dinah Washington. 1924-1963

Sam Cooke. 1931-1964

Quincy Jones. 1933

James Brown. 1933-2006

Etta James. 1938-2012

Marvin Gaye. 1939-1984

Jimi Hendrix. 1942-1970

Aretha Franklin. 1942-2018

Stevie Wonder. 1950

Michael Jackson. 1958-2009

Prince. 1958-2016

Tupac Shakur. 1971-1996

Lauryn Hill. 1975

John Legend. 1978

Beyoncé. 1981

Kendrick Lamar. 1987

Rihanna. 1988

Jackie "Moms" Mabley. 1894-1975

Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham. 1904-1981

The Nicholas Brothers. Fayard, 1914-2006; Harold, 1921-2000

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. 1878-1949

Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams. 1874-1922

Hemsley Winfield. 1907-1934

Edna Guy. 1907-1982

Lavinia Williams. 1916-1989

Pearl Primus. 1919-1994

Katherine Dunham. 1909-2006

Arthur Mitchell. 1934-2018

Alvin Ailey. 1931-1989

Lauren Anderson. 1965

Misty Copeland. 1982

Josephine Baker. 1906-1975

Maya Angelou. 1928-2014

Zora Neale Hurston. 1891-1960

Toni Morrison. 1931-2019

Countee Cullen. 1903-1946

August Wilson. 1945-2005

Nikki Giovanni. 1943

Roxane Gay. 1974

Aja Monet. 1987

Amanda Gorman. 1998

Jesmyn Ward. 1977

Nnedi Okorafor. 1974

N.K. Jemisin. 1972

Camonghne Felix. 1992

Ta-Nehisis Coates. 1975

Colson Whitehead. 1969

Phillis Wheatley. 1753-1784

James Baldwin. 1924-1987

Amiri Baraka. 1934-2014

Octavia Butler. 1947-2006

W.E.B. Du Bois. 1868-1963

Ralph Ellison. 1914-1994

Alex Haley. 1921-1992

Langston Hughes. 1901-1967

Richard Wright. 1908-1960

Virginia Hamilton. 1934-2002

bell hooks. 1952-2021

Audre Lorde. 1934-1992

Alice Walker. 1944

Walter Dean Myers. 1937-2014

Ethel Waters. 1896-1977

Hattie McDaniel. 1893-1952

Oscar Micheaux. 1884-1951

Harry Belafonte. 1927-2023

Cicely Tyson. 1924-2021

William Foster. 1884-1940

Brenda Banks. 1948-2020

Frank Braxton. 1929-1969

Charles Burnett. 1944

John Singleton. 1968-2019

Diahann Carroll. 1935-2019

Spike Lee. 1957

Whoopi Goldberg. 1955

Arsenio Hall. 1956

Floyd Norman. 1935

Ava Duvernay. 1972

Lena Waithe. 1984

Julie Dash. 1952

Ayoka Chenzira. 1953

Jamaa Fanaka. 1942-2012

Melvin Van Peebles. 1932-2021

Gail Fisher. 1935-2000

Halle Berry. 1966

Sidney Poitier. 1927-2022

Edmonia Lewis. 1844-1907

Henry Ossawa Tanner. 1859-1937

Horace Pippin. 1888-1946

Alma Thomas. 1891-1978

Augusta Savage. 1892-1962

Aaron Douglas. 1899-1979

Romare Bearden. 1911-1988

Jacob Lawrence. 1917-2000

Jerry Pinkney. 1939-2021

Ekua Holmes. 1955

Kerry James Marshall. 1955

Jean-Michel Basquiat. 1960-1988

Kara Walker. 1969

Bisa Butler. 1973

Kadir Nelson. 1974

Kehinde Wiley. 1977

Oge Mora. 

Vashti Harrison. 1988

Robert Robinson Taylor. 1868-1942



 

Moses McKissack III. 1879-1952

Julian Abele. 1881-1950

Vertner Woodson Tandy. 1885-1949

Clarence Wesley ‘Cap’ Wigington. 1883-1967

Paul Revere Williams. 1894-1980

Beverly Lorraine Greene. 1915-1957

Norma Merrick Sklarek. 1926-2012

Allison Grace Williams.

Roberta Washington.