Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Wayman Lawrence Tisdale
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wayman Lawrence Tisdale, an American basketball player and smooth jazz musician born June 9, 1964, Tulsa, Okla.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wayne Embry
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wayne Embry, an American professional basketball player and the first African-American to serve as the general manager of a professional sports franchise.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wayne Shorter
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wayne Shorter, an African-American musician and composer, a major jazz saxophonist, among the most influential hard-bop and modal musicians and a pioneer of jazz-rock fusion music.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wendell Phillips
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wendell Phillips, an abolitionist crusader whose oratorical eloquence helped fire the antislavery cause during the period leading up to the American Civil War.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wesley Snipes
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wesley Snipes, an American actor best known for his action films, many of which featured martial arts.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Wes Montgomery
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Wes Montgomery, a black American jazz guitarist, probably the most influential postwar improviser on his instrument.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Whitney Houston
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Whitney Houston, an American singer and actress who was one of the best-selling musical performers of the 1980s and '90s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: William Lewis Taylor
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features William Lewis Taylor, an American lawyer and civil rights activist born Oct. 4, 1931, New York, N.Y.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: William Monroe Trotter
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features William Monroe Trotter, an African American journalist and vocal advocate of racial equality in the early 20th century. From the pages of his weekly newspaper, The Guardian, he criticized...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Willie Dixon
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willie Dixon, an American blues musician who, as record producer, bassist, and prolific songwriter, exerted a major influence on the post-World War II Chicago style.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Willie King
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willie King, an American musician born March 8, 1943, Prairie Point, Miss.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Willie Stargell
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willie Stargell, an American professional baseball player who led the Pittsburgh Pirates to World Series championships in 1971 and 1979.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Willis Reed
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Willis Reed, an American professional basketball player and professional and collegiate basketball coach.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Will Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Will Smith, an American actor and musician whose charisma, clean-cut good looks, and quick wit helped him transition from rap music to a successful career in acting.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Woody Strode
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Woody Strode, an American character actor who was part of director John Ford's "family" of actors, appearing in nearly a dozen of Ford's films. Strode also had a brief career as a...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Zadie Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Zadie Smith, a British author known for her treatment of race, religion, and cultural identity and for her novels' eccentric characters, savvy humor, and snappy dialogue. She became a...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Guide to Black History: Nelson Mandela
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica's Guide to Black History features Nelson Mandela, a black nationalist and first black president of South Africa (1994-99). His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African Pres. F.W. de Klerk...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Julius Rosenwald
Biographical sketch of the life of Julius Rosenwald, an American merchant and unorthodox philanthropist who opposed the idea of perpetual endowments and frequently offered large philanthropic gifts on condition that they be matched by...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Kara Walker
Biographical information on Kara walker, an American installation artist who used intricate cut-paper silhouettes, together with collage, drawing, painting, performance, film, video, shadow puppetry, light projection, and animation, to...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Laura Wheeler Waring
Short biographical sketch on Laura Wheeler Waring, an American painter and educator who often depicted African American subjects.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Leon Spinks
Biographical sketch of American boxer Leon Spinks, who won an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and was the world heavyweight champion in 1978. He and Michael Spinks became the first brothers to win gold medals in the same sport at the same...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Lucky Thompson
Biographical details on Lucky Thompson, an American jazz musician, one of the most distinctive and creative bop-era tenor saxophonists, who in later years played soprano saxophone as well.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Lucy Terry
Learn about the life of Lucy Terry, poet, storyteller, and activist of colonial and postcolonial America.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Luther Vandross
Summarizes the life and career of Luther Vandross, an American soul and pop singer, songwriter, and producer whose widespread popularity and reputation as a consummate stylist began in the early 1980s.