Rihanna. 1988
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
Josephine Baker. 1906-1975
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
Walter Dean Myers. 1937-2014
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
Sidney Poitier. 1927-2022
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
Vashti Harrison. 1988
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.
Roberta Washington.
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.