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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: Nas
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Nas, an American rapper and songwriter who became a dominant voice in 1990s East Coast hip-hop. Nas built a reputation as an expressive chronicler of inner-city street life.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Nat Turner
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Nat Turner, a black American slave who led the only effective, sustained slave rebellion (August 1831) in U.S. history. Spreading terror throughout the white South, his action set off a...
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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.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Oscar Micheaux
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Oscar Micheaux, a prolific African American producer and director who made films independently of the Hollywood film industry from the silent era until 1948.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Oscar Peterson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Oscar Peterson, a Canadian jazz pianist best known for his dazzling solo technique.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Oscar Robertson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Oscar Robertson, an American basketball player who starred in both the collegiate and professional ranks and was considered one of the top players in the history of the game. As a player...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Paule Marshall
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Paule Marshall, a novelist whose works emphasize the need for black Americans to reclaim their African heritage.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Paul Winfield
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Paul Winfield, an American film and television actor perhaps best known for his role in the film Sounder (1972).
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Pearl Primus
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Pearl Primus, an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and teacher whose performance work drew on the African American experience and on her research in Africa and the Caribbean.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Percy Ellis Sutton
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Percy Ellis Sutton, an American attorney, politician, and businessman born Nov. 24, 1920, San Antonio, Texas. This site, rich in detail and breadth of coverage, includes a wealth of...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Philly Joe Jones
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Philly Joe Jones, a black American jazz musician, one of the major percussionists of the bop era, and among the most recorded as well.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Phylicia Rashad
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Phylicia Rashad, an American actress who first gained fame for her work on the television series The Cosby Show (1984-92) and later became the first black woman to win (2004) a Tony Award...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, a freeborn black who was a Union officer in the American Civil War and a leader in Louisiana politics during Reconstruction (1865-77).
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Professor Longhair
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Professor Longhair, an American singer and pianist who helped shape the sound of New Orleans rhythm and blues from the mid-1940s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Prudence Crandall
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Prudence Crandall, an American schoolteacher whose attempt to educate African American girls aroused controversy in the 1830s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Rafer Johnson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Rafer Johnson, an American athlete, who won a gold medal in the decathlon at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Ralph Metcalfe
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Ralph Metcalfe, an American sprinter and member of the American 4 x 100-meter relay team that won a gold medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. At his peak, in 1934-35, he was called...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Randy Moss
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Randy Moss, an American professional gridiron football player who is considered one of the greatest wide receivers in National Football League (NFL) history.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Randy Weston
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Randy Weston, an American jazz pianist and composer noted for his use of African rhythms.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Ray Dandridge
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Ray Dandridge, an American professional baseball player who spent most of his career between 1933 and 1955 playing in the Negro leagues and on teams outside the United States.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Raymond Victor Haysbert
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Raymond Victor Haysbert, an American businessman born Jan. 19, 1920, Cincinnati, Ohio .