Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Emlen Tunnell
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Emlen Tunnell, an American gridiron football player who in 1967 became the first African American to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His career stretched from 1948 through...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Emmitt Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Emmitt Smith, an American gridiron football player, who in 2002 became the all-time leading rusher in National Football League (NFL) history. He retired after the 2004 season with 18,355...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Eric Dickerson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Eric Dickerson, an American professional gridiron football player who was one of the leading running backs in National Football League (NFL) history.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Erroll Garner
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Erroll Garner, a U.S. pianist and composer, one of the most virtuosic and popular pianists in jazz. Garner was influenced by Fats Waller and was entirely self-taught. He substituted for...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Etta Baker
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Etta Baker, an American folk musician who influenced the folk music revival of the 1950s and '60s with her mastery of East Coast Piedmont blues, a unique fingerpicking style of...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Etta James
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Etta James, a popular American rhythm-and-blues entertainer who in time became a successful ballad singer.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Eunice Walker Johnson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Eunice Walker Johnson, an American entrepreneur born April 4, 1916, Selma, Ala.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Evander Holyfield
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Evander Holyfield, an American boxer, the only professional fighter to win the heavyweight championship four separate times and thereby surpass the record of Muhammad Ali, who won it three...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Faith Ringgold
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Faith Ringgold, an American artist and author who became famous for innovative, quilted narrations that communicate her political beliefs.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Fannie Barrier Williams
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Fannie Barrier Williams, an American social reformer, lecturer, club woman, and cofounder of the National League of Colored Women.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Father Divine
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Father Divine, a prominent African-American religious leader of the 1930s. The Depression-era movement he founded, the Peace Mission, was originally dismissed as a cult, but it still...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Fats Waller
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Fats Waller, an American pianist and composer who was one of the few outstanding jazz musicians to win wide commercial fame, though this was achieved at a cost of obscuring his purely...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Fergie Jenkins
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Fergie Jenkins, a Canadian-born professional baseball player, one of the premier pitchers in the game in the late 1960s and early '70s. A hard-throwing right-hander, he won at least 20...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Flip Wilson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Flip Wilson, an American comedian whose comedy variety show, The Flip Wilson Show, was one of the first television shows hosted by an African American to be a ratings success. The show ran...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Floyd Dixon
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Floyd Dixon, an American rhythm and blues (R&B) musician who was one of the principal exponents of the up-tempo blues style known as West Coast jump blues.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Floyd Patterson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Floyd Patterson, an American professional boxer, first to hold the world heavyweight championship twice.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Frankie Manning
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Frankie Manning, an American dancer and choreographer born May 26, 1914, Jacksonville, Fla.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Frank Yerby
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Frank Yerby, an American author of popular historical fiction.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Fred Shuttlesworth
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Fred Shuttlesworth, an American minister and civil rights activist who established, with Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and who...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Fritz Pollard
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Fritz Pollard, a pioneering African-American player and coach in American collegiate and professional gridiron football. He was the first African-American selected to a backfield position...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Gail Devers
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gail Devers, an American track athlete who overcame physical adversity to win Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Gale Sayers
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gale Sayers, an American gridiron football player who in 1977 became the youngest player ever voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Though knee injuries shortened his career, Sayers...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Gary Wayne Coleman
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gary Wayne Coleman, an American actor born Feb. 8, 1968, Zion, Ill.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Gene Ammons
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gene Ammons, an American jazz tenor saxophonist, noted for his big sound and blues-inflected, "soulful" improvising.