Encyclopedia Britannica
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: 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: 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 Lipscomb
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gene Lipscomb, an American gridiron football player and larger-than-life "character" whose exploits helped make professional football the most popular sport in the United States during the...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: George Washington Williams
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features George Washington Williams, an American historian, clergyman, politician, lawyer, lecturer, and soldier who was the first person to write an objective and scientifically researched history...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Gordon Parks
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gordon Parks, an American author, photographer, and film director, who documented African American life.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Gregory Hines
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Gregory Hines, an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer who was a major figure in the revitalization of tap dancing in the late 20th century.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Hank Jones
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Hank Jones, an American jazz musician born July/Aug. 31, 1918, Vicksburg, Miss. .
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Hattie Mc Daniel
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Hattie McDaniel, an American actress and singer who became the first African-American to be honored with an Academy Award.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Henry Dumas
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Henry Dumas, an African-American author of poetry and fiction who wrote about the clash between black and white cultures.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Herbie Nichols
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Herbie Nichols, an African-American jazz pianist and composer whose advanced bop-era concepts of rhythm, harmony, and form predicted aspects of free jazz.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Hinton Rowan Helper
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Hinton Rowan Helper, the only prominent American Southern author to attack slavery before the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-65). His thesis widely influenced Northern opinion...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Horace Silver
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Horace Silver, an American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader, exemplary performer of what came to be called the hard bop style of the 1950s and '60s. The style was an extension of...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Howard Zinn
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Howard Zinn, an American historian and social activist born Aug. 24, 1922, Brooklyn, N.Y. .
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Isaac Burns Murphy
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Isaac Burns Murphy, an American jockey who was the first to be elected to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York; he is one of only two African American...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Isiah Thomas
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Isiah Thomas, an American basketball player, considered one of the best point guards in the history of the game. He led the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA) to...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Jackie Joyner Kersee
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Jackie Joyner-Kersee, an American athlete, considered by many to be the greatest female athlete ever, who became the first participant to score more than 7,000 points in the heptathlon.