AALBC Search
Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano 0000000110225228 Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) was a freed slave and influential abolitionist. His autobiography, published in 1789, played a crucial role in ending the African slave tr...
Harriet Jacobs
Harriet Jacobs 0000000121310444 Harriet Ann Jacobs, an escaped slave turned abolitionist speaker and reformer, authored “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” one of the first books highlighting th...
William Jelani Cobb
William Jelani Cobb 0000000034332610 William Jelani Cobb, Ph.D., is an accomplished author, educator, and journalist specializing in post-Civil War African American history and 20th-century American ...
Richard Ellmann and Robert O’Clair
Richard Ellmann and Robert O’Clair MULTIPLE Richard Ellmann, an influential literary critic and biographer, and Robert O’Clair, a scholar specializing in modern poetry, were key contributors to the s...
Mary Monroe
Mary Monroe 0000000029010860 Mary Monroe, a sharecropper's daughter and the first in her family to graduate high school, returned to the literary scene with her novel “God Don’t Like Ugly”, which sol...
Winston James
Winston James 0000000042945281 Winston James, a renowned professor at the University of California, Irvine, specializes in Caribbean and African American history. His significant works include in-dep...
August Wilson
August Wilson 0000000368634467 August Wilson (1945-2005), two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning African American playwright, is renowned for his Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of 10 plays each set in a unique ...
Elizabeth Keckley
Elizabeth Keckley 0000000057594701 Elizabeth Keckley, born a slave in 1818, bought her freedom and became a leading figure in Washington society as a dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln. L...
Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup 0000000374327420 Born free, Solomon Northup was kidnapped into slavery in 1841, enduring this for 12 years in Louisiana. Regaining his freedom in 1853, he penned the memoir “Twelve Ye...
Lucy Hurston
Lucy Hurston NONE Lucy Anne Hurston is a Sociology Professor at Manchester Community College, Connecticut, and the niece of renowned 20th century writer, Zora Neale Hurston. Lucy Anne Hurston, niece ...
Boubacar Boris Diop
Boubacar Boris Diop 0000000121417292 Boubacar Boris Diop is a renowned Senegalese novelist and screenwriter. His acclaimed work, Murambi, The Book of Bones, made it to Africa's 100 Best Books of the ...
St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton
St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton MULTIPLE John Gibbs St. Clair Drake (1911-1990) was a pioneering African-American sociologist and anthropologist, known for documenting 1960s social turmoil, esta...
Amy Jacques Garvey
Amy Jacques Garvey 0000000078290141 Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey was a Jamaican-born journalist, activist and wife of Marcus Garvey. Born on December 31, 1895, she was one of the 20th century's pionee...
W. James Popham
W. James Popham 0000000109149301 W. James Popham, Emeritus Professor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education, spent his extensive career teaching instructional methods and evaluation courses. Recogniz...
Charles S. Johnson
Charles S. Johnson 0000000108707076 Charles Spurgeon Johnson was a prominent 20th-century black sociologist, key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and a Ph.D. graduate from the University of Chicago....
George Lamming
George Lamming 0000000114972132 George William Lamming (1927-2022) was a renowned Barbadian novelist and critic, celebrated for his exploration of colonialism and identity in the 20th century Caribbe...
Akinyele Umoja, Karin L. Stanford, and Jasmin A. Young
Akinyele Umoja, Karin L. Stanford, and Jasmin A. Young MULTIPLE "Akinyele Umoja is a professor in African-American Studies at Georgia State University. Karin L. Stanford, PhD, teaches Africana studie...
Sandra L. Manigault
Sandra L. Manigault NONE Sandra L. Manigault, formerly a high school math teacher and college professor, she fell in love with books by African American women and other 20th and 21st century writers,...
Ice–T and Douglas Century
Ice–T and Douglas Century MULTIPLE Ice-T and Douglas Century are prolific figures in the entertainment industry. Ice-T, a Grammy-winning rapper and actor, is best known for his role on “Law & Order: ...
Beverly Jenkins
Beverly Jenkins 000000011691928X Beverly Jenkins, a USA TODAY bestselling author, is renowned for her African-American historical romance fiction, mainly set in the 19th century. With over thirty nov...
Jermain Wesley Loguen
Jermain Wesley Loguen 0000000032721380 Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen was an African-American abolitionist, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and author of the real-life slave narrat...
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass 0000000121171288 “Without Struggle… There Is No Progress!” —Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), born into slavery, was an influential abolit...
William Craft and Ellen Craft
William Craft and Ellen Craft MULTIPLE William and Ellen Craft, escaped slaves from Georgia, became famous fugitives in the 1840s. Disguised as a white man and his servant, they reached the North and...
Ice–T, Spike, and Douglas Century
Ice–T, Spike, and Douglas Century MULTIPLE Ice-T, Spike, and Douglas Century are renowned individuals known for their contributions in music, film, and literature respectively, each leaving a signifi...
Douglas Century
Douglas Century 0000000120268336 Douglas Century is a bestselling author and investigative journalist known for works such as Under and Alone, Hunting El Chapo, and Takedown. He was a 2003 Edgar Awar...
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. MULTIPLE Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Nobel laureate, was a key figure in the nonviolent civil rights movement and one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. A ...
William Gardner Smith
William Gardner Smith 0000000063221434 Influential writer and journalist William Gardner Smith (1927–1974) used his work to highlight racial inequality in America. His novels, such as The Stone Fac...
Edward E. Baptist
Edward E. Baptist 0000000039584833 Edward E. Baptist, born 1970, is a Professor of History at Cornell University. His expertise lies in the history of 19th-century USA, particularly the South and the...
James F. Daniels
James F. Daniels NONE James F. Daniels, author of 'Metamorphosis: From Cotton Picker to Community Leader', shares his journey from growing up as a sharecropper in the Jim Crow South to becoming a com...
Maggie Collins
Maggie Collins NONE Maggie Collins, born in Loreauville, Louisiana, is an acclaimed author and a Center for Black Literature fellow. A finalist for the William Faulkner William Wisdom writing contest...
Emily Meggett
Emily Meggett NONE Emily Meggett, 87, is a prominent figure in South Carolina's Gullah community, featured by PBS, Food Network, and NPR. Raised in a 19th-century slave cabin, now a central Smithsoni...
Joy DeGruy
Joy DeGruy 000000004270340X Dr. Joy Angela DeGruy is a renowned researcher, educator, author, and presenter focused on social justice and self-healing. Known for her work on Post Traumatic Slave Synd...
George S. Schuyler
George S. Schuyler 0000000114970428 George Samuel Schuyler was a prolific journalist and cultural critic, known for his controversial shift from liberal views to conservative ones throughout the 20th...
Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka 0000000446460520 Amiri Baraka, also known as LeRoi Jones, was a prolific 20th-century African American writer, poet, and Obie-winning playwright. Known for works such as “Blues People” a...
Joshua Clark Davis
Joshua Clark Davis NONE Joshua Clark Davis is a history professor at the University of Baltimore, specializing in 20th-century American history, capitalism, and social movements. He's also a public a...
Ned Sublette
Ned Sublette 0000000108555156 Ned Sublette, born in 1951, is a talented composer, musician, and author hailing from Texas. Known for his work in Spanish Classical Guitar, he is also a renowned musico...
The Bag Lady Experience
The Bag Lady Experience NONE "The Bag Lady Experience” is a collective of poets comprising Martha Bradley, Dawn C. Funderbirk, Cassandra R. McKibben, and Tonya D. Zeigler. Poets, Martha Bradley, Dawn...
Lawrence Deron Thomas
Lawrence Deron Thomas NONE Lawrence Deron Thomas, a Bay Area native, was inspired by his parents to pursue strength, courage, and success. After a brief stint as a rapper, he found his passion for wr...
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Valerie Smith, William L. Andrews, Frances Foster, Brent Hayes Edwards, Deborah E. McDowell, Hortense J. Spillers, Kimberly W. Benston, Farah Jasmine Griffin, and Jesse McCarthy
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Valerie Smith, William L. Andrews, Frances Foster, Brent Hayes Edwards, Deborah E. McDowell, Hortense J. Spillers, Kimberly W. Benston, Farah Jasmine Griffin, and Jesse McCarth...
Sarah E. Farro
Sarah E. Farro NONE Sarah E. Farro, a black author born in 1859, wrote 'True Love: A Story of English Domestic Life' in 1891, making her the second known African-American woman novelist of the 19th c...
Kali Nicole Gross
Kali Nicole Gross 0000000040603245 Kali Nicole Gross, a Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of History at Rutgers University, is renowned for her book, Colored Amazons, exploring crime, violence, and b...
Wayne Dawkins
Wayne Dawkins NONE Wayne Dawkins, a historian for the National Association of Black Journalists, has authored two books and 37 encyclopedia entries on journalism, sports, and culture. He also produce...
Julius Evola
Julius Evola 0000000118562907 Baron Julius Evola (1898–1974), born into an aristocratic Sicilian family, was a scholar, philosopher, writer, social thinker, a leader among 20th-century Hermeti...
Robert de la Chevotiere
Robert de la Chevotiere NONE Robert de la Chevotiere was a Barbadian poet and educator whose work reflects the rhythms and landscapes of the Caribbean. Active during the mid–20th century, de l...
Miles Davis
Miles Davis 000000012144707X Miles Davis (1926-1991) was a transformative American jazz musician and composer. Known for his work as a trumpeter and bandleader, he pioneered numerous jazz sub-genres,...
Charles W. Chesnutt
Charles W. Chesnutt 0000000120998195 1928 winner of the NAACP’s Spingarn Award for Highest achievement by a black American Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932) was a prominent African-American a...
Chris Abani
Chris Abani 0000000083877772 Chris Abani, born in Nigeria in 1966, is a renowned author and educator who faced imprisonment for his literary work. After escaping to the US, he published eight books o...
Frankie Y. Bailey
Frankie Y. Bailey 0000000081504673 Frankie Y. Bailey, an associate professor at the School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, has authored several non-fiction books and articles focusing on c...
LaShonda Katrice Barnett
LaShonda Katrice Barnett 0000000384767200 LaShonda Katrice Barnett is a renowned author and educator, known for her trilogy of plays and debut novel, “Jam on the Vine.” Twice nominated for the Pushca...
Marcus Mosiah Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey 0000000121272214 “Up! You mighty race, you can accomplish what you will.” Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a prominent publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and advocate for Bl...
James Ward
James Ward 0000000003087499 James Theodore Ward was a pivotal figure in the Black Chicago Renaissance, known as the “dean of black dramatists.” He co-founded the Negro Playwrights Company and wrote o...
Anne Spencer
Anne Spencer 0000000458445176 Anne Bannister Spencer was a lauded American poet, civil rights activist, and librarian during the Harlem Renaissance. Born in 1882, she was the first African-American w...
Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson 0000000108617396 Paul Robeson gained international attention for his work in the arts and spoke out for the equality of minorities and the rights of workers throughout the world. Paul Le...
George E. Johnson with Hillary Beard
George E. Johnson with Hillary Beard MULTIPLE George Ellis Johnson Sr. (born June 12, 1927) is the founder of the Johnson Products Company, the maker of Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen, the first Black-o...
George E. Johnson
George E. Johnson NONE George Ellis Johnson Sr. (born June 12, 1927) is the founder of the Johnson Products Company, the maker of Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen, the first Black-owned company to trade o...
Barbara D. Savage
Barbara D. Savage 0000000108618153 Barbara Dianne Savage (born 1953) is an acclaimed author, historian, and the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of Africana Stud...
R. Marie Griffith and Barbara D. Savage
R. Marie Griffith and Barbara D. Savage MULTIPLE R. Marie Griffith R. Marie Griffith is the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, w...
Richard Wright
Richard Wright 0000000079803105 Richard Nathaniel Wright (1908-1960), born in poverty and racial discrimination in Mississippi, was a prolific writer aiming to unite Black and White worlds. Known ini...
John Ridley
John Ridley 0000000114963631 John Ridley is an award-winning American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. Best known for “12 Years a Slave” and the series “American Crime,” his latest work is ...
Aesop
Aesop 0000000120317310 Aesop (c. 620-560 B.C.), the legendary creator of Aesop's Fables, was a presumed black slave from Ancient Greece. His fables popularized everyday phrases such as “don't count y...
Hannah Crafts
Hannah Crafts 0000000057115061 Hannah Bond, known as Hannah Crafts, was an African-American writer and ex-slave who escaped to the North and wrote The Bondwoman’s Narrative. Settling in New Jersey, B...
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells 0000000083935290 Ida B. Wells, born a slave in 1862, was an influential African-American journalist, editor, suffragist, and early Civil Rights leader. Notable for her documentation of l...
Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-Reed 0000000035723517 Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of law and history, authored “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy.” She delves into the complex and intim...
Frances Foster
Frances Foster 0000000078407303 Frances Foster has edited and authored many works, including Witnessing Slavery: The Development of the Antebellum Slave Narrative and the Norton Critical Edition of ...
Thomas Norman DeWolf
Thomas Norman DeWolf 0000000074225246 Author of 'Inheriting the Trade', explores his family's past as the largest slave-trading dynasty in U.S. history. Featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary 'Tr...
Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany
Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany MULTIPLE Sarah Delany, the last of the Delany sisters, passed away at 109. Born to a former slave, she was the first colored woman to teach home economics in w...
Elizabeth Dowling Taylor
Elizabeth Dowling Taylor 0000000120815969 Elizabeth Dowling Taylor is a PhD holder from UC Berkeley with a 22-year career in museum education and historical research. She directed interpretation at M...
Betty DeRamus
Betty DeRamus NONE Betty DeRamus is an award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist known for her nonfiction books on slavery and post-slavery era. Her works, “Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories f...
Manu Herbstein
Manu Herbstein 0000000052849963 Manu Herbstein, born in 1936, is a South African and Ghanaian author and engineer who worked globally before settling in Ghana in 1970. His debut novel, “Ama, a Story ...
George Moses Horton
George Moses Horton 000000006316904X George Moses Horton (1798–1884) was the first African American poet to be published in the Southern US, while still enslaved. His notable works include “The Hop...
Olympia Scott
Olympia Scott NONE Olympia Scott, a Brooklyn native and English major at Medgar Evers College, is a creative writer and intern at AALBC. She contributes useful content and aims to help other writers ...
Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o 0000000065421480 Lupita Nyong'o, born March 1, 1983, is a Kenyan-Mexican actress. Raised in Kenya and educated in the U.S., she began her career in Hollywood, made her acting debut in ...
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn 0000000123214931 Howard Zinn, a renowned historian, playwright, and social activist, was a professor at Boston University. Known for his political activism and award-winning nonfiction wo...
Francesca Momplaisir
Francesca Momplaisir NONE Haitian-born Francesca Momplaisir is a multilingual literature scholar and writer. Educated at Columbia University, the University of Oxford, and New York University, she sp...
Margaret Garner
Margaret Garner NONE Margaret Garner, a fugitive slave from Kentucky, killed one of her children rather than permit her to be returned to slavery. She drowned in a shipwreck as she was being ...
Vincent Brown
Vincent Brown 0000000114674784 Vincent Brown is the Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He is the author of Tacky...
John Steptoe
John Steptoe 0000000083178664 John Lewis Steptoe (1950-1989) was a renowned children's book author and illustrator from Brooklyn, NY. Known for his rich illustrations depicting the African American e...
Monique Couvson
Monique Couvson NONE Monique Couvson, Ed.D. is a scholar and author with over 20 years of experience in education, civil rights, and social justice. She's known for her work on improving conditions f...
Hisani P. Dubose
Hisani P. Dubose NONE “The Best Black Director of 2005” —Kam Williams Hisani DuBose is a Seton Hall University graduate, former dancer and singer turned screenwriter. She's directed ...
Goldie Taylor
Goldie Taylor 0000000051784985 Goldie Taylor is an accomplished journalist and editor at the Daily Beast, known for her work on news networks, talk shows, and publications like Salon and Ebony. She w...
James Smethurst
James Smethurst NONE James E. Smethurst, a Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is an expert in African American literature and culture. An accomplished auth...
J. California Cooper
J. California Cooper 000000011687953X J. California Cooper was a renowned author and playwright, named Black Playwright of the Year in 1978. Encouraged by Alice Walker, she transitioned to fiction, w...
James Earl Hardy
James Earl Hardy 0000000042416478 James Earl Hardy is the author of the bestselling B-Boy Blues series, including B-Boy Blues, which has been praised as the first gay hip hop love story and is celeb...
Brenda Marie Osbey
Brenda Marie Osbey 000000002513556X Brenda Marie Osbey, born in 1957, is a distinguished poet from New Orleans who served as Louisiana's Poet Laureate from 2005-2007. She specializes in Afro-Francoph...
Kwando M. Kinshasa
Kwando M. Kinshasa NONE Kwando Mbiassi Kinshasa, PhD is a distinguished historian and Professor Emeritus of African American Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His scholarly career is ...
Valerie J. Lewis Coleman
Valerie J. Lewis Coleman NONE Valerie J. Lewis Coleman, with 20+ years of experience in family and relationships, helps families overcome challenges. She also guides aspiring authors in self-publishi...
Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa 000000011440862X Yusef Komunyakaa the first African American male to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry Yusef Komunyakaa, born on April 29, 1947, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet recog...
Toni Harris
Toni Harris NONE Toni Harris, known as the Turnaround Queen®, is a renowned business coach and speaker with over 25 years of experience. She's a top-rated Constant Contact Solution Provider and auth...
Gary A. Johnson
Gary A. Johnson NONE Gary A. Johnson, founder of a management training and consulting company, is renowned for running popular web platforms like Black Men In America.com. With significant experience...
Deborah Fletcher Mello
Deborah Fletcher Mello 0000000036839925 Deborah Fletcher Mello is a multi-faceted author and Renaissance woman with diverse career experience. Her debut novel earned her a Best New Author nomination,...
Dorothea Grimes-Frederick
Dorothea Grimes-Frederick NONE Dorothea Grimes-Frederick is a distinguished engineer, educator, and speaker with considerable experience in Fortune 500 companies. The first African-American woman to ...
Julia A. Boyd
Julia A. Boyd NONE Julia A. Boyd is a psychotherapist with over 20 years of experience, known for her empowering sister circles. She's the author of notable books on Black women's self-esteem and dep...
Albert E. White
Albert E. White NONE Albert E. White is a business and finance expert with 30 years of experience. Known for advising top CEOs and identifying market trends, he's held senior positions in energy and ...
Lindiwe Stovall Lester
Lindiwe Stovall Lester NONE Lindiwe Stovall-Lester views writing and publishing as a labor of legacy—an opportunity to share knowledge that may benefit others, inspire change, and even alter the cou...
Bobby Price
Bobby Price NONE Dr. Bobby Price, a certified plant-based nutritionist and exercise physiologist, focuses on holistic healing through diet, herbal medicine, and lifestyle changes. He has extensive cl...
Rudolph Fisher
Rudolph Fisher 0000000081030148 Rudolph Fisher was a multifaceted talent associated with the Harlem Renaissance, known for his work as a physician, radiologist, novelist, and orator. Notably, he effe...
Chancellor Williams
Chancellor Williams NONE Dr. Chancellor James Williams (1898-1992) was a pivotal scholar in the study of Nile Valley Civilization. Born to former slaves, he became an acclaimed author, university pro...
John Hope Franklin
John Hope Franklin 0000000114547638 John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was an educator and historian. Franklin lived through America’s most defining twentieth-century transf...
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar 0000000121024640 To possess the distinct writing voices of standard English of the classical poet and the evocative dialect of the turn-of-the-century black community in Am...
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. MULTIPLE Dr. Henry “Skip” Louis Gates Jr., a distinguished Harvard professor, is widely recognized for his contribution to African and African American research. As editor in c...