- Adams, Osceola MacarthyCo-founded Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in 1913; pioneering Black actress and acting teacher who performed under the stage name Osceola Archer1890-1985
- Anderson, ClaudAuthored 'PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America' and 'Black Labor, White Wealth,' influential books on Black economic self-sufficiency and group economics; held senior federal and state economic development posts1936-
- Armstrong, Byron KennethCo-founded Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity in 1911; earned a PhD and built a career as a professor and academic dean across multiple universities1892-1980
- Asante, Molefi Kete (Arthur Lee Smith Jr.)Coined the theory of Afrocentricity; founded the first PhD program in African American Studies in the United States at Temple University in 19881942-
- ben-Jochannan, Yosef Alfredo AntonioProlific self-published author and lecturer on African and Egyptian history who influenced generations of Afrocentric scholars and students, though his claimed advanced academic credentials were directly contradicted by the institutions involved and several of his specific historical claims have been documented as factually impossible1918-2015
- Bethune, Mary McLeodFounded a school for Black girls in 1904 that grew into Bethune-Cookman University; first Black woman to lead a federal agency1875-1955
- Brown, Charles IgnatiusCo-founded Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity in 1914; his fate remained a decades-long mystery within the fraternity until researchers located his final resting place in 20151885-1981
- Brown, Charlotte Hawkins (Eugenia)Founded and led Palmer Memorial Institute for over 50 years, transforming it into one of the first accredited college-preparatory schools for Black students in the South1883-1961
- Burroughs, Nannie HelenFounded the National Training School for Women and Girls in 1909 and the Woman's Convention Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention, which grew to represent over a million Black Baptist women1879-1961
- Callis, Henry ArthurCo-founded Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in 1906, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established for African American men1887-1974
- Clark, Kenneth BancroftFirst African American to earn a psychology PhD from Columbia University; first Black president of the American Psychological Association; co-developed the 'doll test' research cited in Brown v. Board of Education1914-2005
- Clark, Mamie PhippsFirst African American woman to earn a PhD in psychology from Columbia University; originated the 'doll test' research on Black children's racial self-identification later cited in Brown v. Board of Education1917-1983
- Clark, Septima PoinsetteDeveloped the Citizenship School model that trained more than 10,000 teachers and helped register an estimated 700,000 Black voters before 1969; called 'The Mother of the Movement' by Martin Luther King Jr.1898-1987
- Clarke, John HenrikSelf-taught historian who became a Hunter College professor and founding chairman of its Black and Puerto Rican Studies department without ever earning a high school diploma or PhD1915-1998
- Coleman, FrankCo-founded Omega Psi Phi Fraternity in 1911; became chairman of Howard University's Physics Department1890-1967
- Cooper, Anna Julia (Haywood)Fourth African American woman to earn a PhD, completed at the Sorbonne at age 67; influential educator, feminist theorist, and author of 'A Voice from the South'1858-1964
- Cooper, Oscar JamesCo-founded Omega Psi Phi Fraternity in 1911; practiced medicine in Philadelphia for over 50 years1888-1972
- Coppin, Fanny JacksonFirst African American woman to become a school principal and the first African American school district superintendent in U.S. history1837-1913
- Diggs, Elder WatsonPrimary founder and first Grand Polemarch of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, originally chartered in 1911 as the first incorporated Black fraternity in the United States1883-1947
- Diop, Cheikh AntaSenegalese physicist and historian whose argument for ancient Egypt's Black African identity became foundational to Afrocentric scholarship and Black Studies programs across the United States1923-1986
- Franklin, John HopeAuthored From Slavery to Freedom in 1947, the field-defining survey of African American history that sold more than three million copies, was translated into multiple languages, and became the standard textbook that brought Black history into mainstream American college curricula for the first time1915-2009
- Frazier, Edward FranklinFirst African American to earn a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago; first Black president of the American Sociological Association; author of pioneering, sometimes controversial studies of Black family life and the Black middle class1894-1962
- Gates, Henry Louis Jr.Built Harvard's Hutchins Center into the leading institution for African and African American research, recovered and authenticated lost early Black literary works including the first known novel by an African American author, and has brought African American history to tens of millions of viewers as writer and host of PBS documentary series including Finding Your Roots, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, and The Black Church1950-present
- Glaude, Eddie Steven Jr.Served as founding chair of Princeton University's Department of African American Studies when it became a full academic department in 2015, leading it for more than fourteen years, and became one of the nation's most prominent public intellectuals on race and democracy through bestselling books and regular television commentary1968-present
- Gordon-Reed, AnnetteBecame the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for History, in 2009, for The Hemingses of Monticello, her groundbreaking multigenerational history of Sally Hemings's family that transformed mainstream scholarly understanding of Thomas Jefferson's decades-long relationship with Hemings, an enslaved woman he owned1958-present
- Hicks, Albert 'Bus'Co-founded and became the first national president (Founding Polaris) of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity in 1963, the ninth and most recently established of the historically Black Greek-letter organizations known as the Divine Nineunknown
- Higginbotham, Evelyn BrooksCoined the influential concept of the “politics of respectability” in her landmark 1993 book Righteous Discontent, the first full scholarly account of Black women's central role in building the Black Baptist church into a vehicle for social and political change, and later revised and updated John Hope Franklin's foundational textbook From Slavery to Freedom1945-present
- Hine, Darlene ClarkHelped found the field of Black women's history as a serious area of academic study, establishing the first comparative doctoral program in African American history at Michigan State University in 1987 and editing Black Women in America, the first major historical encyclopedia devoted to the subject1947-present
- Hope, JohnFirst Black president of both Morehouse College (1906) and Atlanta University (1929)1868-1936
- Huggins, Nathan IrvinWrote the landmark 1971 cultural history Harlem Renaissance, a National Book Award finalist still considered essential reading on the movement four decades later, and became Harvard's first W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of History and Afro-American Studies, building the university's Du Bois Institute into a leading center of Black scholarship1927-1989
- Johnson, Mordecai WyattFirst African American president of Howard University, serving 34 years and transforming it into the nation's leading Black research university1890-1976
- Jones, Eugene KinckleCo-founded Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in 1906; became the first Executive Secretary of the National Urban League, serving 20 years in that role1885-1954
- Laney, Lucy CraftFounded the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in 1883, leading it for 50 years; personally taught and mentored John Hope, Mary McLeod Bethune, and other major Black educators1854-1933
- Little, Mary Lou Allison GardnerPrimary founder and first national president of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority in 1922, the only one of the four historically Black sororities founded outside Howard University1896-1992
- Logan, Rayford WhittinghamCoined the term “the nadir” to describe the post-Reconstruction era of American race relations in his landmark study The Betrayal of the Negro, and edited the Dictionary of American Negro Biography, a foundational reference work still cited by historians of Black America today1897-1982
- Love, Edgar AmosCo-founded Omega Psi Phi Fraternity in 1911, the first international Black fraternity founded on a historically Black college campus; became its first Grand Basileus (National President) and later a Methodist bishop1891-1974
- Marable, William ManningFounded and directed Columbia University's Institute for Research in African-American Studies, wrote more than 20 books examining race and political economy in America, and was posthumously awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for History for Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, completed just before his death and released the day after1950-2011
- Mays, Benjamin ElijahPresident of Morehouse College for 27 years; widely regarded as Martin Luther King Jr.'s most influential personal mentor and 'intellectual father'1894-1984
- McClure, CubenaCo-founded Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority in 1922 and hosted its first initiation ceremony; died of complications from appendicitis surgery before she could use the prestigious scholarship she had wonc.1900-1924
- Morse, Leonard FrederickCo-founded Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity in 1914; personally selected its Greek name and wrote its founding constitution1891-1961
- Murphy, Vashti TurleyCo-founded Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in 1913; founded the organization's Baltimore alumnae chapter and married into the family publishing the influential Afro-American newspapers1891-1958
- Prosser, Inez BeverlyFirst African American woman to earn a PhD in psychology, though her dissertation's findings were later controversially cited by opponents of school desegregation1895-1934
- Quarles, Benjamin ArthurDocumented Black Americans as active participants rather than passive bystanders in the American Revolution and Civil War through landmark works including The Negro in the American Revolution (1961) and The Negro in the Civil War (1953), and became the first Black historian published in a major mainstream historical journal1904-1996
- Slowe, Lucy DiggsFirst Black woman to serve as a university Dean of Women anywhere in the United States; first African American woman to win a national title in any sport; co-founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first sorority founded by Black women1883-1937
- Spruill, Lonnie C. Jr.Co-founded Iota Phi Theta Fraternity in 1963 and became its second national presidentunknown
- Stemons, Arizona CleaverFounding president of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority in 1920, formed at the direct suggestion of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity brothers, making it the only sorority constitutionally bound to a Black fraternity1898-1980
- Sumner, Francis CecilFirst African American to earn a PhD in psychology; known as 'the Father of Black Psychology' for building Howard University's psychology department into a national training ground for Black psychologists1895-1954
- Taylor, A. LangstonCo-founded Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity in 1914; coined its motto and helped establish Zeta Phi Beta as the only constitutionally bound sister sorority to a Black fraternity1890-1953
- Van Sertima, Ivan GladstoneAuthored 'They Came Before Columbus' (1976), a widely read but scientifically rejected argument for pre-Columbian African contact with the Americas1935-2009
- Washington, Booker TaliaferroFounded the Tuskegee Institute in 1881; most influential Black educator and political figure in the United States from the 1890s until his death1856-1915
- Woodson, Carter GodwinFounded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and created Negro History Week in 1926, the direct forerunner of Black History Month; second African American to earn a PhD from Harvard1875-1950