Black People who changed the world
Full List
‘Lucy’ (c. 3.2 MYA)
Discovered in 1974, the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton of an adult female hominid in Ethiopia, christened ‘Lucy’, remains the earliest example of a member of the humans genus to be found, and is the cornerstone of modern palaeoanthropology. Several similar discoveries, including a 2.3 million-year-old jawbone in the Hadar region of Egypt offer empirical proof that the human species evolved in East Africa.
Imhotep (fl. 2668–2648 B.C.E.)
Born into a commoner family, Imhotep’s intelligence was tangible from an early age, and he quickly acceded to the position of chief architect to the Third Dynasty Pharoah Djoser (r. 2688-2668 B.C.E.), the first recorded architect we know by name. Imhotep later became famous as a priest and doctor, again the first named medical practitioner in at least Egypt, known for his skill as a pharmacist and treater of conditions including appendicitis, gout and arthritis. Imhotep’s most important legacy, however, is that he is the first individual we know of to become deified (glorified as a God) after death- the first recorded human root of religion. During the Late Period of Egypt he became the God of Medicine (bronze Imhotep statues similar to the one pictured became a compulsory possession of all practicing doctors), and records of his worship extend in Greece and the Middle East until the 7 th century A.C.E.
Maatkare Hatshepsut (early 15 th century–1458 B.C.E.)
The first of only a handful of women to become Pharoah across Egypt’s three millennia of royal lineage, Hatshepsut ruled both with her half-brother (and husband) Tuthmosis II and, for the final sixteen years of her life, as sole regent. She was the first Pharoah to open trade routes with East Africa (in particular the early kingdom of Punt), and restored many of Egypt’s early architectural heritage, including the great mortuary at Deir al-Bahri. Her distinctive style of leadership- as her sole regency progressed, she increasingly began to dress as a man, wearing a fake beard presumably to remove protests from the religious community that women were disallowed from becoming Pharoah- confused many Late Egyptian historians, which, combined with a long-running feud with her successor and nephew Tuthmosis III, caused many records of her to be defaced, even destroyed in an attempt to remove her from Egyptian linear history.
Mansa Musa (late 13 th century–1332)
The third ruler of the Mandé Empire in West Africa, Musa extended his kingdom from its origin point in modern-day Mali as far as Morocco, Gambia and Nigeria; he presided over 8 million people, double the population of 14 th-century Europe. He was the first African ruler to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, and the first to found a university (in Timbuktu). Most notably, his economic policies turned Mali into the world’s chief exporter of gold, causing it to dominate the global economy for over three generations and permanently alter global trade.
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368)
Born in Tangier, Morocco, Battuta was an extensive traveller. His journals, written in a variety of locations in the world- spanning from the Mandé empire in present-day Mali and Guinea to Yuan dynasty China- greatly expanded geographical knowledge of the world, and his records of the cultures he encountered, particularly in the Sahara, mark him as one of the most major ethnographers in modern history.
Philippa of Hainault (1313–1350)
Although daughter of William of Hainault, a lord in modern-day Belgium, court sources from the late 1320s state clearly that Philippa had at least partial West African heritage. Betrothed to Prince Edward of England in 1327, Philippa became the first Black queen in British history at the age of 17. Philippa played a far more active role in government than any queen before her: she accompanied her husband on campaigns abroad, and several times ruled in her husband’s absence, the first woman in Medieval British history to become unopposed regent. She founded Queen’s College, Oxford, and enriched Britain’s artistic and philosophical life by inviting many scholars from Hainault to study in semipermanent residence in Britain.
Queen Nzingha (1582–1663)
Angolan woman who became ruler after the death of her brother in 1624. She gave many positions of leadership in her government to other women. When she led her troops in battle she dressed as a man. She maintained a powerful resistance against a Portuguese conquest of her country, it being only after her death that the Portuguese slave trade expanded.
Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780)
Born on a slave ship, and brought at the age of 2 to Britain as a domestic slave, Sancho covertly taught himself to read and write at an early age. Running away from his owner, Sancho found work as a butler to the progressive Duke and Duchess of Montagu who financed his further academic study: while working for them, he wrote poetry, two stage plays and a Theory of Music, albeit none of them published. He was also active as a composer, in total writing three collections of music for violin, flute, mandolin and harpsichord, all of which were published anonymously. Leaving service in 1773, he bought and ran a successful grocery shop until his death. In 1782, his Letters became the first piece of literature by a Black person to be published, receiving over 1,200 subscribers, aimed in his words to prove that 'an untutored African may possess [intellectual] abilities equal to a European' .
Toussaint L'Ouverture (c.1743–1803)
Was the son of an enslaved African chief in St Dominique (the island comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic). He led a rebellion against slavery, defeating armies from France and Britain to allow in 1804 the establishment of Haiti, the first free Black Republic in the world! He said, "In overthrowing me, you have cut down in St. Dominique only the trunk of the tree of liberty. It will spring up again by the roots for they are numerous and deep."
Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797)
Born in Benin, Equiano was kidnapped and sold into slavery at age 11. Being sold to several successive masters, Equiano experienced horrific abuse as a slave, but at the age of 21 bought his freedom with the little money he had been able to save; one year later he became the first Black member of the London Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. In 1789 he published his account of his life as a slave, The Life Of Olaudah Equiano the African, which became an international bestseller and the most important book of the abolitionist movement, and became de facto spokesperson for the Black British community. He died on an expedition to resettle freed slaves in Sierra Leone.
Mary Seacole (1805–1881)
Born in Jamaica, Mary Seacole trained as a nurse and sailed to England to offer her services in the Crimean War. Her offer was turned down (presumably) due to racism; she therefore financed her own travel to the Crimea, setting up an independent medicinal store and clinic that utilised her extensive knowledge of both Western and traditional Jamaican medicine. Many soldiers chose to visit Seacole even though army authorities and hospitals chose not to cooperate with her- Florence Nightingale met her several times but repeatedly declined her offer to join her staff- and her success rates were notably higher than Nightingale’s hospital at Scutari. Despite her reputation, and huge support from The Times newspaper upon her return to the UK, Seacole’s pioneering work as a woman entering medicine has only recently been acknowledged.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
Born in Northumberland to part-Creole Jamaican parents, writer and translator Barrett Browning ranks as one of Britain’s foremost Romantic poets. Her first collection, An Essay on Mind and Other Poems was published in 1826, and in 1833 she also became famous as one of Britain’s few women translators of classical languages with her transcription from Greek of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound. Estranged from her plantation-owner father due to her opposition of slavery, Barrett married the great poet Robert Browning in 1846, their marriage resulting in some of the greatest poetic works of Victorian times, including Barrett Browning’s zenith point, Sonnets from the Portuguese, a set of poems to her husband published in 1850. Barrett Browning’s later work criticised the Austrian oppression of 19 th century Italy, child labour and slavery. She was perhaps the first Black fiction writer in British history.
Harriet Tubman (1820–1913)
Harriet was born a slave in Maryland, USA. As a slave, she was physically and mentally abused, eventually escaping to work as a nurse, spy and rescue worker during the Civil War. In this period, she set up ‘ The Underground Railway', a covert network of 'stations' (safe-houses) and 'conductors' (volunteers, many were white Quaker Christians) to help Southern slaves escape to freedom in the Northern abolitionist states, and also a Black Spy network reporting on the movements of the Southern Confederate Army.
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940)
A key figure in highlighting and fighting in anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles. He lived mainly in Kingston, Jamaica, New York and spent time in London where he studied and worked for the first Black newspaper in Britain. He encouraged ordinary people to organise for their own liberation, emphasising unity and giving practical help.
Lord Leary Constantine (1902–971)
Born in Trinidad in 1902, Constantine’s prowess as a cricketer soon became noticeable, causing him to immigrate to Britain in 1923, and enjoyed a distinguished decade-long career. While working as a solicitor’s assistant in 1942, Constantine was asked by the Ministry Of Labour to become a temporary civil servant responsible for the growing number of West Indian migrant workers employed in Merseyside factories. Given four days’ leave in 1943 to captain the West Indies cricket team, Constantine and his family were barred by the Imperial Hotel in London from staying due to colour, despite prior booking: Constantine took them to court, and became the first person ever to successfully challenge colour discrimination by a service industry. Constantine was made an MBE in 1945, knighted in 1962, and elected a life peer- Britain’s first Black peer- in 1969.
James Langston Hughes (1902–67)
Renowned Harlem poet, playwright and gay icon, Hughes was only the second Black American to make a living as a writer. His poetic work incorporated elements of the Afro-American spirituals and blues music that were a key memory of his early childhood. Sometimes travelling and resident in Mexico City, Paris, several African port cities and Russia, Hughes was also- during an era in which the USA tried to secede itself from global politics- one of only a handful of active writers bringing literary ideas from non-American cultures to an American audience. In 1991, his remains were created and interred by Maya Angelou beneath the Schomburg Research centre for Black Culture in Harlem, in gratitude for his pioneering work in Black literature.
Jesse Owens (1913–1980)
Owens broke four world records for running and long jump when he was 22 years old. His four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games (held in Nazi Germany and intended to glorify Aryan physiology) helped dispel white supremacism across the world- Adolf Hitler refused to shake hands with him. After retiring from athletics, he devoted himself to community work, especially with young people.
Aime Cesaire (born 1913)
Became Mayor of Fort de France in Martinique, the Caribbean country where he was born. He is also famous as a poet. Part of his long poem, Return to My Native Land, says that, 'No race has all the beauty, intelligence and strength/ there is room for all the meeting-places of victory/ we know now/ that the sun moves round our earth lighting the piece of land that we alone have chosen'.
Rosa Parks (born 1913)
Rosa Parks was, until 1955, an ordinary woman living and working in Montgomery, Alabama, at that time one of the most extensively discriminatory areas in the USA. Her refusal to give up her seat on a bus so a white man could sit down- as was the law at the time- led to her arrest, which catalysed a bus boycott by Black people across the USA that lasted over a year (381 days) until the law was repealed. Thereafter, Parks became an important figure in the Civil Rights movement, and is credited as being one of the foremost influences on the work of Martin Luther King.
Claudia Jones (1915–60)
Born in Trinidad, Jones immigrated with her family to New York at the age of 8. From 1933 onwards, she began to play a role of increasing importance in the American Communist Party, becoming in 1948 the editor for Negro Affairs for the party’s paper the Daily Worker, a role in which Jones also garnered interest as one of the first prominent Black feminists in the Western world. Deported by McCarthy in 1955, Jones spent the remainder of her life in Britain, where in 19595 she founded the West Indian Gazette, the UK’s first Black community newspaper, and more indelibly in 1959 the Notting Hill Carnival, the largest annual festival celebrating the Black immigrant community in the world.
Nelson Mandela (born 1918)
From the Tembu ruling family in Transkei, South Africa, Mandela was expelled from college for organizing Black students against apartheid, but nonetheless went on to study law. He founded the Youth League section of the African National Congress Party (ANC), adopting militant strategies of strikes, boycotts and civil disobedience, causing at various times for him to be exiled, forced into hiding and imprisoned. He used his time in court to make political speeches, saying, "I was made, by law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for". In 1964, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, yet his influence continued to grow. In 1990, aged 71 he was released and became the first democratically elected South African President in 1994. His recent retirement from political life marks the end of an era in Black politics.
Maya Angelou (born 1928)
Novelist and poet, the first volume Angelou’s autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings became in 1970 the first non-fiction work by a Black woman to top national bestseller lists. Her distinctive, highly politically charged style has influenced a generation of authors; her work has furthermore encouraged many Black women into professional writing. One of her poems, Still I Rise, begins: 'You may write me down in history/ With your bitter, twisted lies, / You may tread me in the very dirt/ But still, like dust, I'll rise'.
Martin Luther King (1929–1968)
King was a clergyman turned political activist from Atlanta, Georgia in the heart of Americas' deep South. Inspired by Gandhi, he supported civil disobedience (non-violent struggle), mobilising both the Black and pro-equality white community in sit-ins, freedom rides (bus rides where Black and white people sat together in solidarity, a direct legacy of Parks ’ work) and mass rallies, including his iconic ‘ I have a dream …’ speech. His work focussed on Black equality and justice through voting rights, better housing and education, but tragically was assassinated before his vision became reality.
Miriam Makeba (born 1932)
Born in South Africa and resident during her life in Guinea and the USA, jazz diva Makeba has irrevocably changed the landscape of both modern music and politics. Leaving South Africa for New York in 1959, Makeba became the first African artist to gain recognition by Western audiences; her work with Harry Belafonte, suffused with both American jazz and South African mbube, effectively kick-started the ‘world music’ genre. Makeba’s testimony before the United Nations in 1963 was the first exposure of the abject oppression of apartheid to the West; in response the South African government formally exiled her for over two decades. Nonetheless, she inspired many South Africans to speak out against apartheid.
Nina Simone (1933–2003)
Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone showed prodigious ability as a pianist from an early age. Her experiences with racism, however, dissuaded her from following a purely classical path: at her first solo recital, at the age of 10, her parents were removed from the front row of the audience to allow a white couple to sit down; at the age of 18, she was rejected by the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music at Philadelphia due to her colour. Simone financed her further education by working as a bar singer-pianist; it was at one that she was noticed by a record label, recording her first album in 1957. Her music, fusing classical piano, jazz and protest song in Simone’s unique rough-edged voice, became a signature of the Civil Rights movement; several of her works, particularly ‘Mississippi Goddam’, ‘To Be Young, Gifted And Black’ and ‘Four Women’ played pivotal roles in motivating people to follow King’s ideals, and rank as some of the most powerfully political songs ever written.
Audre Lorde (1934–1992)
Poet and educator, Lorde was also a prominent activist for Black, women’s and gay rights. Her work- often strongly, even painfully confrontational- dealt frequently with her experiences of being a member of all three oppressed groups; professionally she helped establish links between African émigrés and descendants across Europe, the USA and South Africa, and founded the Women Of Colour Press. Her 1973 collection, From a Land Where Other People Live, was nominated for the US National Book Award For Poetry, and her final autobiographical work The Cancer Journals gained (overdue) wide acclaim. One often repeated quote regarding Civil Rights states "liberation is not the private province of any one particular group".
Bishop Wilfred Wood (born 1936)
Born in Barbados in 1936, Wood immigrated to Britain in 1962, becoming curate of St. Stephen’s Church, Shepherd’s Bush, a position held until 1974. In 1985, he was appointed Bishop of Croydon, becoming the first Black bishop appointed by the Anglican Church, a position in which he remained until 2003.
Wangari Maathai (born 1940)
The first woman in East and Central Africa to gain a PhD (in biology), Professor Wangari Maathai has been the most active figure in the African environmentalist movement over the past three decades. In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, a tree planting programme spanning across Kenya that has to date planted 30 million trees, and has thereafter founded similar movements in countries across Africa including Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, proving instrumental in reduction of soil erosion and groundwater loss across Africa. Maathai was elected to Kenya’s national parliament with a 98% majority in 2002, currently dividing her time between lecturing, political work, and serving as Assistant Minister for Environment. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, the first environmentalist to do so.
Huey Newton (1942–1989)
Founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defence with Bobby Seale in 1966, after a period of American race riots. The Panthers rejected the Civil-Rights Movements' ideas of non- violent resistance and armed themselves to patrol the streets of Oakland, defending Black people from police brutality, where necessary. The Panthers outlined a Ten Point Programme calling for Black rights to food and clothing for children and held political education classes.
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay in 1942)
Within 6 years of taking up boxing, Clay had become the 1960 Olympic Light Heavyweight champion, but threw his medal away in disgust at the way he was, even as an acclaimed sportsman, treated by segregated America. Four years later he became heavyweight champion of the world and converted to Islam, dropping his 'slave-name'. Ali continually stressed the importance of upholding principles, refusing on political grounds to fight in the Vietnam War, even when his medals were stripped from him. Ali thereafter won his championship status back and has been world champion three times. He is often acknowledged as the greatest boxer ever.
Angela Davis (born 1944)
Angela grew up amongst racial tension in Alabama, USA, eventually becoming a member of the Black Panther Party and the third woman in history to appear on the FBI's most wanted list. She was falsely charged with murder and kidnapping, spending sixteen months behind bars, until her subsequent acquittal of all charges. Upon release, Davis ran for Vice President of the USA for the Communist Party and today lectures at the University of California Department Of Women's Studies. She continues to be a political and social activist on issues such as prison reform and equality for Black women of all social classes.
Steve Biko (1946–1977)
As a medical student in Natal, Biko founded the all-Black South African Students' Organisation. He travelled around different Black campuses establishing solidarity and working for students to be "accepted on their own terms as an integral part of the South African community", by emphasising pride, self-respect, self-reliance and belief in the ability to achieve political and social justice. His organisation grew to a coalition of over 70 Black Groups that stood as a national political party at a time when the main Black parties (including the African National Congress- today's South African government), had been banned. He designed 'Programmes' specifically to uplift the Black community. He was frequently under observation and imprisoned for his work, and at the age of just 31 was tortured and beaten to death while in jail.
Mumia Abu-Jamal (born 1954)
A highly respected, multi-award winning political journalist, known as 'The Voice of the Voiceless'. Whilst working as a taxi driver, in 1981, Mumia saw a policeman beating up a Black man. Mumia intervened to try to stop it happening, then realised that the victim was his brother. During the incident the policeman was shot dead. Although witnesses claim that it was not Mumia who fired the shot, he is now a prisoner on death row, in Pennsylvania, USA, after a notoriously unfair trial. He continues to write and broadcast from his prison cell.
Oumou Sangare (born 1968)
Singer, songwriter and campaigner from the Wassoulou region of Mali, Sangare has for the past fifteen years occupied a pivotal role in African feminism. She has used her songs to give social commentary to the masses, being especially critical of polygamy (in Mali, under sharia’h law, a man is allowed to have up to four wives: Sangare’s own mother was abandoned by her father for his second wife, causing Sangare to grow up in poverty). Her work- both the messages of her songs and also her position as an intelligent, independent woman in a male-dominated society- has caused a complete change in attitude across Mali: polygamous marriages are now in decline and may well die out in the near future. Other recent works have criticised domestic violence, inter-ethnic tension, racism towards migrant groups and the widening wealth gap between different social classes in West Africa.
Stephen Lawrence (1974–1993), Doreen and Neville Lawrence
Murdered in a racially motivated knife attack when aged only 18, Lawrence’s death highlighted not only how much work needed still to be done to promote harmony between the different ethnic groups in Britain but also the still widespread racism in certain sections of the police force. Despite being given the names of five suspects within 24 hours of Lawrence’s murder, the police did not make any arrests for two weeks, allowing witnesses and evidence crucial to any trial attempts to be intimidated and destroyed. Stephen’s parents, Doreen and Neville, carried out their own investigations, including finding a video made in 1994 of the five suspects holding knives and pretending to kill Black people, eventually forcing the suspects to be called to trial in 1996. During the trial, the police intentionally denigrated the testimony of Duwayne Williams, a surviving victim of the attack; the suspects were acquitted. The Lawrences pressed for an inquiry to be held into police action during the trial, and in 1999 the result, the MacPherson Report, concluded that the police had continually acted against the legal process in both the murder investigation and trial, and caused a mass change in police training methods. Doreen and Neville Lawrence were both awarded OBEs for their work and continue to campaign against racism; Stephen Lawrence was buried in Jamaica.
