Performing Arts (Dance, Film, Music, and Theater)
Alvin Ailey (dancer and choreographer)
Lauren Anderson (ballerina; dancer)
Marian Anderson (vocalist)
Louis Armstrong (musician; singer; bandleader)
Anita Denise Baker (singer; songwriter)
Josephine Baker (stage performer; World War II French Resistance agent; civil rights activist)
William “Count” Basie (jazz pianist; bandleader; composer)
Harry Belafonte (actor; singer; civil rights activist)
Chuck Berry (musician)
James Hubert “Eubie” Blake (musician; composer)
Art Blakely (jazz drummer; bandleader)
James Brown (singer; songwriter)
Ray Charles (singer; songwriter; pianist; composer)
Charlie Christian (jazz musician)
Nat King Cole (born Nathaniel Adams Cole) (singer; jazz pianist)
Natalie Cole (singer; songwriter; artist)
John William Coltrane (jazz musician)
Misty Copeland (ballerina)
Dorothy Dandridge (actress)
Miles Dewey Davis III (jazz musician; composer; bandleader)
Katherine Dunham (dancer; choreographer; anthropologist; social activist)
Duke Ellington (born Edward Kennedy Ellington) (jazz musician; composer; bandleader)
Fisk Jubilee Singers
Ella Fitzgerald (jazz singer)
Aretha Franklin (singer; songwriter; abolitionist)
John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (jazz musician)
Charles Gordone (actor; playwright; director; educator)
Berry Gordy, Jr. (record producer; record producer; songwriter; film producer; television producer)
Herbie Hancock (pianist; composer)
William Christopher Handy (composer; musician)
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (jazz musician)
Jimi Hendrix (guitarist; songwriter)
Geoffrey Holder (costume designer; dancer; actor; director)
Billie Holiday (jazz and swing music singer; the song, “Strange Fruit”)
Mahalia Jackson (gospel singer)
“Blind” Lemon Jefferson (blues and gospel singer-songwriter; musician)
Robert Johnson (blues guitarist; singer; songwriter)
Esther Jones (jazz singer)
Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. (musician; composer; arranger; producer)
Scott Joplin (musician; composer)
Ulysses Kay (composer; teacher)
Chaka Khan (born Yvette Marie Stevens) (singer; songwriter)
Riley Ben “B.B.” King (known as B.B. King) (guitarist; singer-songwriter; record producer)
Huddie William “Lead Belly” Ledbetter (blues singer; composer)
Shelton “Spike” Lee (film director; actor; producer; screenwriter; professor)
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis (jazz pianist; composer; radio personality)
Charles “Charlie” Mingus (jazz double bassist; pianist; composer; bandleader)
Arthur Mitchell (dancer; founder of the Dance Theater of Harlem)
Thelonius Monk (jazz composer)
Charles “Charlie” Christopher Parker, jr. (“Yardbird” or “Bird”) (jazz musician; composer)
Esther Phillips (born Esther Mae Jones) (rhythm and blues singer)
Mary Violet Leontyne Price (opera soprano)
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III (comedian; actor)
Gertrude Pridgett “Ma” Rainey (blues singer; songwriter)
Lou Rauls (born Louis Allen Rawls) (singer; songwriter; actor; voice actor; record producer)
Otis Redding (singer; songwriter; record producer; arranger; talent scout)
Paul Leroy Robeson (actor; singer; civil rights activist)
Theodore Walter “Sonny” Rollins (Jazz saxophonist)
Bessie Smith (blues singer)
Art Tatum, Jr. (jazz pianist)
Sarah Vaughan (jazz singer)
T-Bone Walker (born Aaron Thibeaux Walker) (blues guitarist; singer; songwriter; multi-instrumentalist)
Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones) (rhythm and blues singer)
Muddy Waters (born McKinley Morganfield) (blues singer-songwriter; musician)
André Watts (concert pianist)
Mattie Wikes (soprano and actress)
Sam and Dave (soul and rhythm and blues duo)
Stevie Wonder (singer; songwriter; musician; record producer)