People love top ten lists. Most of us have spent time debating with family, friends, and colleagues on the greatest albums, athletes, musicians, singers or teams. I, being a lover of Black History, thought it would be interesting to create a top-ten list of Black Historical figures. As I created my list, I found that I ran into the same problems and difficult decisions that I run into with all my previous list. I had to explain my unpopular picks. When I created my other list, I had to explain Why I picked Stevie over Michael, or All Blues over Giant Steps, Songs in the Key of Life over Thriller, or …gasp…Kareem over Jordan? Yes, you read right, I didn’t mention LeBron. There has always been someone that read my lists and gave passionate arguments against any one of those picks and I am hoping there is just as much passion regarding these. After all, these people impacted our lives, not just by entertaining us. These people struggled against all odds and succeeded. They gave their time, their freedom, and even their lives. They put themselves in harm’s way for the betterment of others. They deserve to be fawned over by us, to be given the same airtime in our conversations as we give to those heroes that entertain us.
This is my top ten and I’ll explain why each one has their place on my list. This selection was just as difficult, if not more, than any other list that I have compiled. Many have impacted history, and it is almost impossible to just pick ten. But, that is what makes top-ten lists so compelling, right?
10. Sundiata Keita, Founder of the Mali Empire
As a kid I was fascinated by the ancient African city of Mali. Mali was an empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita (c. 1214 – c. 1255) and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa (Musa Keita). At its peak, Mali was the largest empire in West Africa, widely influencing the culture of the region through the spread of its language, laws, and customs. It was a pleasant surprise to learn through studying my ancestry that the largest portion of my DNA is from this region. Sundiata, by unifying the military force of 12 states, became an emperor known as the Lion King of Mali, who controls tribes from the Niger River west to the Atlantic Ocean. Walt Disney Studios reprised the story of Sundiata in 1994 as an animated film, The Lion King, with animals substituting for the humans of Mali legend. I would love to hear the story about why Disney choose to depict a powerful African nation and it’s king as animals instead of people. I wonder how many people actually know that the movie and play are depicting historical figures? In any event, it was during his reign that Mali first began to become an economic power, a trend continued by his successors and improved on thanks to the groundwork set by Sundiata, who controlled the region’s trade routes and gold fields. The social and political constitution of Mali were first being codified during the reign of Mansa Sundiata Keita. He was also the great-uncle of the Malian ruler Mansa Musa, who is usually regarded as the wealthiest person of all time.
9. Kamala Harris, 49th Vice President of the United States
Kamala Harris’ accomplishments positioned her to earn the second highest political position in the United States and some would say the world. Harris, an attorney, born October 20, 1964, to Shyamala Gopalan, a Tamil Indian biologist, and Donald J. Harris, a Stanford Professor, is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well as the first African American and first Asian-American vice president.
Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her career in the office of the district attorney (DA) of Alameda County, before being recruited to the San Francisco DA’s Office and later the City Attorney of San Francisco’s office. In 2003, she was elected DA of San Francisco. She was elected AG of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Harris served as the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021; she defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to become the second African-American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate. As a senator, she advocated for healthcare reform, federal de-scheduling of cannabis, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the DREAM Act, strict gun control laws, and progressive tax reform. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, but withdrew from the race prior to the primaries. She was selected by Joe Biden to be his running mate, and their ticket went on to defeat the then incumbent president and vice president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Harris and Biden were inaugurated on January 20, 2021.
As President of the Senate, Vice President Harris set a new record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a Vice President in history – surpassing a record that had stood for nearly 200 years. And her votes have been consequential. This includes casting the decisive vote to secure passage of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment ever in tackling the climate crisis. She also presided over the unprecedented vote to confirm the first Black woman, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the Supreme Court while working alongside President Biden to achieve historic representation of women and people of color among nominees at all levels of the federal government.
8. Madam C.J. Walker – American Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
There is no Robert F. Smith, David Stewart, Alexander Karp, or Oprah Winfrey, without Madam C.J. Walker. Born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867, she was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records. Though it is disputed that other Black women entrepreneurs like Mary Ellen Pleasant or Annie Turnbo Malone who Walker used to be a distributor for and who some say derived her formula from, it is undisputed that Walker was the most notable and made the greatest impact in history.
Indianapolis’s Walker Manufacturing Company headquarters building, renamed the Madame Walker Theatre Center, opened in December 1927. It included the company’s offices and factory, a theater, beauty school, hair salon and barbershop, restaurant, drugstore, and a community ballroom. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
7. Harriet Tubman – American Abolitionist and Social Activist
Born Araminta Ross, March 1822, Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue about 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women’s suffrage. Harriet is on my list because of the sacrifice and risks she took each time she made a trip into the slave holding states. Once she escaped, she could have stayed safe and sound at her new home, but she chose to return first for her family and then others.
Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by enslavers as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight, intending to hit another slave, but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. After her injury, Tubman began experiencing strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God. These experiences, combined with her Methodist upbringing, led her to become devoutly religious.
In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, only to return to Maryland to rescue her family soon after. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other enslaved people to freedom. Tubman (or “Moses”, as she was called) travelled by night and in extreme secrecy, and later said she “never lost a passenger”. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, she helped guide escapees farther north into British North America (Canada), and helped newly freed people find work. Tubman met John Brown in 1858, and helped him plan and recruit supporters for his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.
6. Shirley Chisolm – Former United States Representative
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was the first Black American woman in Congress (1968) and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties (1972). Her motto and title of her autobiography—Unbought and Unbossed—illustrates her outspoken advocacy for women and minorities during her seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. She paved the way for, the later U.S. Presidential candidacies of Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and ultimately the winner Senator Barack Obama.
In 1964, Chisholm ran for and became the second African American in the New York State Legislature. After court-ordered redistricting created a new, heavily Democratic, district in her neighborhood, in 1968 Chisholm sought—and won—a seat in Congress. Sitting in the 175th, 176th and 177th New York State Legislatures which lasted from 1969 to 1983, “Fighting Shirley” introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation and championed racial and gender equality, the plight of the poor, and ending the Vietnam War, In August 1968, she was elected as the Democratic National Committeewoman from New York State. She was a co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971, and in 1977 became the first Black woman and second woman ever to serve on the powerful House Rules Committee.
Chisholm, a founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, supported the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortions throughout her congressional career, By May 1965, she had already been honored in a “Salute to Women Doers” affair in New York. One of her early activities in the Assembly was to argue against the state’s literacy test requiring English, holding that just because a person “functions better in his native language is no sign a person is illiterate”. By early 1966, she was a leader in a push by the statewide Council of Elected Negro Democrats for black representation on key committees in the Assembly.
Her successes in the legislature included getting unemployment benefits extended to domestic workers. She also sponsored the introduction of a SEEK program (Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge) to the state, which provided disadvantaged students with the chance to enter college while receiving intensive remedial education.
5. Thurgood Marshall – Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Thoroughgood “Thurgood” Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Norma and William Canfield Marshall. His father held various jobs as a waiter in hotels, in clubs, and on railroad cars, and his mother was an elementary school teacher.
He was the Supreme Court’s first African American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he was an attorney who fought for civil rights, leading the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Marshall was a prominent figure in the movement to end racial segregation in American public schools. He won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court, culminating in the Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which rejected the separate but equal doctrine and held segregation in public education to be unconstitutional.
Marshall’s voice was a liberal one which held great influence early on in his term. As a proponent of judicial activism, he believed that the United States had a moral imperative to move progressively forward. He staunchly supported upholding individual rights, expanding civil rights, and limiting the scope of criminal punishment. Justice William Brennan shared many of Marshall’s opinions and they usually voted in the same bloc. In Furman v. Georgia, these justices argued the death penalty was unconstitutional in all circumstances, and dissented from the subsequent overruling opinion, Gregg v. Georgia, a few years later. He also made separate contributions to labor law (Teamsters v. Terry), securities law (TSC Industries, Inc. v. Northway, Inc.), and tax law (Cottage Savings Ass’n v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue). He had strong views on affirmative action and contributed greatly to opinions on constitutional law. Marshall maintained a down-to-earth style and would often joke with Chief Justice Burger as they passed in the hallways by asking “What’s shakin’, Chief baby?” As the court made a shift towards conservatism, however, Marshall became frustrated and his influence weakened. Despite the change of currents, Marshall’s voice remained strong until his retirement. Marshall died on January 24, 1993 of heart failure in Bethesda, Maryland.
4. Nelson Mandela – Former President of South Africa
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, born Rolihlahla Mandela; (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist, politician, and statesman who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997. Mandela served 27 years in prison. How much fortitude did it take to spend half of your life behind bars and become president after being released. It speaks to the greatness of the man.
3. President Barack Obama – The 44th President of the United States.
Few presidents have walked a more improbable path to the White House. Born in Hawaii to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, Obama was raised with help from his grandparents, whose generosity of spirit reflected their Midwestern roots. The homespun values they instilled in him, paired with his innate sense of optimism, compelled Obama to devote his life to giving every child, regardless of his or her background, the same chance America gave him.
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States, winning more votes than any candidate in history. He took office at a moment of crisis unlike any America had seen in decades – a nation at war, a planet in peril, the American Dream itself threatened by the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression. And yet, despite all manner of political obstruction, Obama’s leadership helped rescue the economy, revitalize the American auto industry, reform the health care system to cover another twenty million Americans, and put the country on a firm course to a clean energy future – all while overseeing the longest stretch of job creation in American history. On the world stage, Obama’s belief in America’s indispensable leadership and strong, principled diplomacy helped wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, decimate al Qaeda and eliminate the world’s most wanted terrorists, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program, open up a new chapter with the people of Cuba, and unite humanity in coordinated action to combat a changing climate.
2. Martin Luther King Jr – Civil Rights Leader and Minister
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. A church leader and a son of early civil rights activist and minister Martin Luther King Sr., King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination.
King participated in and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he helped organize some of the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches during the 1965 Selma voting rights movement. Through King’s pressure and persistence, especially at the White House, the civil rights movement achieved pivotal legislative gains in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
1.Frederick Douglass – Social Reformer, Abolitionist, Orator, Writer, and Statesman
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, c. February 1817 or February 1818 – February 20, 1895, was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He became the most important leader of the movement for African American civil rights in the 19th century. I became a huge Frederick Douglass fan after reading his biography as a young boy. I will always be fascinated with how an escaped enslaved person could advance to become an influential voice in the Lincoln Whitehouse. I am constantly amazed at the resiliency of Black people.
After escaping from slavery in Maryland in 1838, Douglass became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, during which he gained fame for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to claims by supporters of slavery that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been enslaved. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography.
He was the most influential African American of the nineteenth century, Douglass made a career of agitating the American conscience. He spoke and wrote on behalf of a variety of reform causes: women’s rights, temperance, peace, land reform, free public education, and the abolition of capital punishment. But he devoted the bulk of his time, immense talent, and boundless energy to ending slavery and gaining equal rights for African Americans. These were the central concerns of his long reform career. Douglass understood that the struggle for emancipation and equality demanded forceful, persistent, and unyielding agitation. And he recognized that African Americans must play a conspicuous role in that struggle. Less than a month before his death, when a young black man solicited his advice to an African American just starting out in the world, Douglass replied without hesitation: ″Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!″
Edward Odom
