Lists of African Americans

See also: List of monuments to African Americans

This is a list of African Americans, also known as Black Americans (for the outdated and unscientific racial term) or Afro-Americans. African Americans are an ethnic group consisting of citizens of the United States mainly descended from various West African and Central African peoples with possible minor additional ancestry from Europe or indigenous Americans and other regions of Africa. As an ethnic group, African Americans are largely the modern-day descendants of West Africans and Central Africans brought to the US from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade who developed a new and distinct cultural identity during their time in the Americas.

To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article and references showing the person is African-American.

Activists

See also: List of civil rights leaders

• List of African-American abolitionists
• List of African American activists
• List of African-American pioneers in desegregation of higher education
• List of African American suffragists

Artists

• List of African-American architects
• List of African-American visual artists

Businesspeople and entrepreneurs

• Alton Abraham, former social entrepreneur and business manager for Sun Ra
• Wally Amos, founder of the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie brand
• Donna Auguste, former founder of Freshwater Software
• Leonard C. Bailey, business owner and inventor
• LaVar Ball, owner of the Big Baller Brand sports apparel
• Tyra Banks, television personality, former model
• Christiana Carteaux Bannister, entrepreneur, hairdresser
• ASAP Bari, co-founder of ASAP Mob and VLONE Clothing
• Andre Barnett, founder of the Information Technology Company WiseDome INC
• Beyoncé, co-founder of Tidal
• Sarah Bickford, former owner of Virginia City Water Company
• Dave Bing, owner of Bing Steel
• Chris Brown, founder of the record label CBE
• Madeline Bunch, founder of the Bunch Products Company, manufacturing Old South Brand beef and pork sausages
• Herman Cain, business executive
• Kenton Clarke, CEO, Computer Consulting Associates International Inc.
• Griffin Sisters, vaudeville performers and entrepreneurs
• Demmette Guidry, music industry executive
• Kerry S. Harris, entrepreneur
• Robert L. Johnson, co-founder of BET and RLJ Companies
• Lisa S. Jones, founder and CEO of EyeMail Inc.
• Theodore W. Jones, Canadian-born American businessman, and politician
• Josephine Leary, real estate entrepreneur from North Carolina
• Walter P. Lomax Jr., founder of Lomax Health Systems
• Mary Ellen Pleasant, real estate magnate
• Skippy Smith, founder of Pacific Parachute Company in San Diego, California, the first national Black–owned and managed defense production plant
• Henry A. Tandy, founder, Tandy&Burns stone masonry and construction firm
• Vertner Woodson Tandy, first African American architect State of New York and founder of Kappa Phi Alpha fraternity
• Madam C. J. Walker, businessperson, hair care entrepreneur, philanthropist, and activist
• Gertrude Pocte Geddes Willis, owner of the Gertrude Geddes Willis Life Insurance Company and Gertrude Geddes Willis Funeral Home

Chefs

• Nyesha Arrington
• Mashama Bailey
• Edna Lewis
• Hercules Posey
• Ashleigh Shanti
• B. Smith
• Michael W. Twitty

Cinematographers

• Charles Burnett
• Ernest Dickerson
• James E. Hinton
• Arthur Jafa
• Kira Kelly
• Jessie Maple
• Janks Morton
• Malik Hassan Sayeed
• Bradford Young

Entertainers

• List of African-American actors
• List of African-American ballerinas
• List of African-American singers
• List of African-American women in classical music

Fashion

Beauty queens and fashion models

• Kimberly Clarice Aiken, Miss America 1994
• J. Alexander, fashion model
• Karen Alexander, fashion model
• K. D. Aubert, fashion model
• Tyra Banks, fashion model
• Deshauna Barber, Miss USA 2016
• Dorothea Church, fashion model
• Pat Cleveland, model
• Lynnette Cole, Miss USA 2000
• Yaya DaCosta, fashion model
• Bruce Darnell, male model
• Jordan Emanuel, Miss Black America New York 2018
• Jaimee Foxworth, actress, model and singer
• Tomiko Fraser, fashion model
• Kaliegh Garris, model
• Lakita Garth, Miss Black California 1995
• Carole Gist, Miss USA 1990
• Quiana Grant, model
• Ethel Ernestine Harper, African American educator and performer
• Tanisha Harper, model
• Shauntay Hinton, Miss USA 2002
• Chanel Iman (African-American father), fashion model
• Beverly Johnson, model
• Jari Jones, model and trans activist
• Toccara Jones, model
• Cheslie Kryst, Miss USA 2019
• Donyale Luna, model and actress
• Eva Marcille, fashion model
• Kara McCullough, Miss USA 2017
• Demetria McKinney, actress and model
• Nana Meriwether (African-American father), Miss USA 2012
• Kenya Moore, Miss USA 1993
• Tracey Norman, first African-American trans model.
• Fionnghuala O'Reilly, Irish American model
• Sofia Richie (African-American father), fashion model
• Jasmine Sanders, model
• Neferteri Shepherd, model
• Kimora Lee Simmons (half Japanese Korean, half African American)
• Naomi Sims, model and businesswoman
• Chelsi Smith (African-American father), Miss USA 1995 and Miss Universe 1995
• Darine Stern, first African-American to be on the cover of Playboy magazine
• Renee Tenison, first African-American Playboy Playmate of the year
• Eugena Washington, model
• Veronica Webb, model

Fashion designers

• Virgil Abloh
• Stephen Burrows
• Karl Davis
• Elizabeth Keckley
• Mychael Knight
• Pepper LaBeija
• Ann Lowe
• Tracy Reese
• Kimora Lee Simmons
• Willi Smith

Government and politics

• African-American officeholders in the United States, 1789–1866
• African Americans in the United States Congress
• List of African-American leftists
• List of African-American officeholders during Reconstruction
• List of African-American speakers of U.S. state legislatures
• List of African-American United States Cabinet members
• List of African-American United States presidential and vice presidential candidates
• List of African-American United States representatives
• List of African-American United States senators
• List of first African-American mayors

President

• Barack Obama (Kenyan-American father), 44th president of the United States, 2009–2017

Vice president

• Kamala Harris (Jamaican-American father), 49th vice president of the United States, 2021–2025

First Ladies of the United States

• Michelle Obama (2009–2017), first African American First Lady and the 44th First Lady

Governors

• Archie Alexander, former governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands
• Wes Moore, serving as the 63rd governor of Maryland since 2023, first African American to serve as governor of Maryland
• David Paterson (African-American mother), 55th governor of New York
• Deval Patrick, served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts 2007–2015, so far the only African American to serve as governor of Massachusetts
• P.B.S. Pinchback, served as the 24th governor of Louisiana 1872–1873; first African American to become governor of a U.S. state
• Douglas Wilder, served as the 66th governor of Virginia, first elected African-American governor, first African American to serve as governor of U.S. state since Reconstruction

Other political fields

• Stephen Bates, first African American sheriff in the state of Vermont
• Perry B. Jackson, first African American elected judge in the state of Ohio
• Valerie Jarrett, former senior advisor to former president Barack Obama, and co-chair of the Obama-Biden Transition project
• Kimberly A. McClain, assistant secretary for the Department of Housing of Urban Development
• Mazi Melesa Pilip, Ethiopian-born American politician

Journalism and media

• List of African American journalists

Legal system

• List of African-American federal judges
• List of African-American jurists

Military and law enforcement

See also: List of African-American Medal of Honor recipients

• Carmen Best
• Charity Adams Earley
• Eugene Goodman
• Henry Johnson
• Colin Powell
• Bass Reeves
• Georgia Ann Robinson
• Cathay Williams

Ministers and other religious leaders

Richard Allen

• Ralph Abernathy
• Richard Allen
• Thea Bowman
• Calvin O. Butts III
• Kirbyjon Caldwell
• Delman Coates
• Alexander Crummell
• Henriette DeLille
• Louis Farrakhan
• Henry Highland Garnet
• Julia Greeley
• Wilton Gregory
• Benjamin Hooks
• Jesse Jackson
• T. D. Jakes
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Mother Mary Lange
• Fred Luter Jr.
• Vashti Murphy McKenzie
• Warith Deen Mohammed
• Elijah Muhammad
• Al Sharpton
• Augustus Tolton
• Pierre and Juliette Toussaint
• Raphael G. Warnock
• Malcolm X

Science and mathematics

• List of African-American astronauts
• List of African-American inventors and scientists
• List of African-American mathematicians
• List of African-American women in medicine
• List of African American women in STEM fields

Sports

• List of African American sportspeople

Writers

• List of African-American nonfiction writers
• List of African American poets
• List of African-American writers

Publishers

• W. Paul Coates, founder of Black Classic Press
• Jayne Cortez, founder of Bola Press
• Charles F. Harris, founder of Amistad Press
• John H. Johnson
• Naomi Long Madgett, poet and founder of Lotus Press
• Haki Madhubuti, co-founder of Third World Press
• Dudley Randall, founder of Broadside Press
• Ishmael Reed
• Glenn Thompson, co-founder of Writers and Readers Cooperative

Other notables

• List of African-American Jews
• List of LGBT African Americans
• List of unarmed African Americans killed by law enforcement officers in the United States
• List of winners of the William E. Harmon foundation award for distinguished achievement among Negroes

See also

• Lists of black people
• African diaspora in the Americas
• Black Canadians
  • List of Black Canadians

Books

• 100 Greatest African Americans
• The Afro-American Press and Its Editors
• Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
• Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising
• Music and Some Highly Musical People
• Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities

External links

• President Obama's speech to the NAACP on July 16, 2009 - full video by MSNBC
• Famous African Americans