Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Leon Forrest
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Leon Forrest, an African-American author of large, inventive novels that fuse myth, history, legend, and contemporary realism.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Little Brother Montgomery
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Little Brother Montgomery, a major African-American blues artist who was also an outstanding jazz pianist and vocalist. He cowrote "The Forty-Fours," a complex composition for piano that...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Lloyd Price
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Lloyd Price, an American singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. Price made his mark in rock music history with his exuberant tenor and his flair for recasting rhythm and blues as...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Lonne Elder Iii
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Lonne Elder III, an American playwright whose critically acclaimed masterwork, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (1965, revised 1969), depicted the dreams, frustrations, and ultimate endurance of...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Lou Rawls
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Lou Rawls, an American singer whose smooth baritone adapted easily to jazz, soul, gospel, and rhythm and blues.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Ludacris
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Ludacris, an American rapper who exemplified the Dirty South school of hip-hop, an exuberant, profanity-laden musical style popularized by artists in the southern United States. Ludacris's...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Lugenia Burns Hope
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Lugenia Burns Hope, an American social reformer whose Neighborhood Union and other community service organizations improved the quality of life for blacks in Atlanta, Ga., and served as a...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Mabel Keaton Staupers
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Mabel Keaton Staupers, a Caribbean-American nurse and organization executive, most noted for her role in eliminating segregation in the Armed Forces Nurse Corps during World War II.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Margaret Bush Wilson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Margaret Bush Wilson, an American civil rights activist and attorney born Jan. 30, 1919, St. Louis, Mo.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Mariah Carey
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Mariah Carey, an American pop singer, noted for her remarkable vocal range. She was one of the most successful female performers of the 1990s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Marion Motley
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Marion Motley, an African American gridiron football player who helped desegregate professional football in the 1940s during a career that earned him induction into the Pro Football Hall...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Marsalis Family
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Marsalis family, an American family, considered the "first family of jazz," who (particularly brothers Wynton and Branford) had a major impact on jazz in the late 20th century.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Marvin Hagler
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Marvin Hagler, an American boxer, a durable middleweight champion, who was one of the greatest fighters of the 1970s and 80s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Mary Mahoney
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Mary Mahoney, an American nurse, the first African-American woman to complete the course of professional study in nursing.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Matilda Sissieretta Jones
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Matilda Sissieretta Jones, an opera singer who was considered the greatest black American in her field in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Mavis Staples
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Mavis Staples, an American gospel and soul singer who was an integral part of the Staple Singers, as well as a successful solo artist.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Max Robinson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Max Robinson, an American television journalist and the first African American man to anchor a nightly network newscast. Robinson was also the first African American to anchor a local news...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: May Miller
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features May Miller, an African-American playwright and poet associated with the Harlem Renaissance in New York City during the 1920s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Meade Lewis
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Meade Lewis, an American musician, one of the leading exponents of boogie-woogie.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Michael Spinks
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Michael Spinks, an American boxer who was both the light heavyweight (1981-85) and heavyweight (1985-88) world champion and an Olympic gold medalist (1976). He and Leon Spinks became the...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Milt Jackson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Milt Jackson, an African-American jazz musician, the first and most influential vibraphone improviser of the postwar, modern jazz era.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Mississippi John Hurt
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Mississippi John Hurt, an American country-blues singer and guitarist who first recorded in the late 1920s but whose greatest fame and influence came when he was rediscovered in the early...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Missy Elliott
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Missy Elliott, an American rapper and music producer who made a mark on the male-dominated hip-hop world with her talents for writing, rapping, singing, and music production.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Morgan Freeman
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Morgan Freeman, an American actor whose emotional depth and versatility made him one of the most-respected performers of his generation. Over a career that included numerous memorable...