Black Scholars and Educators

Updated June 13, 2022 | Infoplease Staff

Notable African-American Scholars and Educators

• Benjamin Banneker, American intellectual and scientist
• Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator
• Kenneth B. Clark, American educator and psychologist
• W. E. B. Du Bois, American author and teacher
• John Hope Franklin, American historian
• Marcus Garvey, American proponent of Black nationalism
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr., scholar
• Archibald H. Grimke, African American author and crusader for Black advancement
• Richard Gordon Hatcher, law professor, politician
• A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., prominent Black federal judge and historian
• Anita Hill, lawyer, educator, author, activist
• Zora Neale Hurston, American writer
• John Johnson, publisher
• Barbara Jordan, lawyer, public official, and educator
• Ernest Everest Just, biologist, educator
• Maulana Karenga, scholar
• John Mercer Langston, educator, public official, diplomat
• Alain Locke, philosopher
• Robert Russa Moton, educator
• A. Philip Randolph, U.S. labor leader
• Virginia Randolph, educator
• Hiram R. Revels, U.S. clergyman, educator, and politician
• Joel Elias Spingarn, educator and literary critic
• Booker T. Washington, American educator
• Robert C. Weaver, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, activist
• Cornel West, scholar
• Walter White, American leader
• Carter G. Woodson, U.S. historian and publisher