Encyclopedia Britannica
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: Martin Puryear
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Martin Puryear, an American sculptor whose streamlined and evocative sculptures made from materials such as wood and wire are associated with Postminimalism.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Marvin Gaye
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Marvin Gaye, an American soul singer-songwriter-producer who, to a large extent, ushered in the era of artist-controlled popular music of the 1970s. Gaye's father was a storefront...
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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: Matthew Alexander Henson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Matthew Alexander Henson, an American black explorer who accompanied Robert E. Peary on most of his expeditions, including that to the North Pole in 1909.
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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: Maynard Jackson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Maynard Jackson, an American lawyer and politician, who was the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, serving three terms (1974-82 and 1990-94).
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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 Hinton
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Milt Hinton, an African American jazz musician, a highly versatile bassist who came of age in the swing era and became one of the favorite bassists of post-World War II jazz.
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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...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Moses Malone
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Moses Malone, an American professional basketball player, who was the dominating center and premier offensive rebounder in the National Basketball Association (NBA) during the 1980s. He...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Myrlie Evers Williams
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Myrlie Evers-Williams, an African American activist and the wife of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, whose racially motivated murder in 1963 made him a national icon. In 1995-98...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Nikki Giovanni
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Nikki Giovanni, an African-American poet whose writings ranged from calls for violent revolution to poems for children and intimate personal statements.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Nipsey Russell
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Nipsey Russell, an American actor and comedian known for the clever impromptu verses that he created for his television appearances.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Odetta
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Odetta, an American folk singer who was noted especially for her versions of spirituals and who became for many the voice of the civil rights movement of the early 1960s.