40 Black Writers Whose Work Changed The World

These Black screenwriters, poets, authors, and songwriters have left an indelible mark on readers everywhere.

In honor of Black History Month, these are some of the many Black writers whose work has been a cultural game changer in the United States and throughout the world.

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"Some day we'll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. I think they get on the walls, they get in your wallpaper, they get in your rugs, in your upholstery, in your clothes, and finally, into you." —Maya Angelou

1. Stevie Wonder

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Stevie Wonder, who was born Stevland Hardaway Judkins, began singing and playing instruments early in his youth. At age 11, he auditioned for Berry Gordy of Motown Records and was promptly signed to the label. He went on to have an iconic career in music, with hits such as "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours," "Superstition," "I Wish," and "I Just Called to Say I Love You."

In addition to his performance abilities, Wonder possesses astounding talent as a songwriter. He wrote "Superstition," "Higher Ground," "Isn't She Lovely," "Sir Duke," and "Part-Time Lover," to name a few. His writing accomplishments earned him a spot in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983. Wonder has also won 25 Grammy Awards and has been recognized for his philanthropic efforts, as he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2014.

2. James Baldwin

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Baldwin discovered his love for writing during his teen years in the midst of growing up in poverty with eight siblings in Harlem, New York. 

He began his professional career as a preacher, but later shifted to become a writer by penning book reviews. Baldwin went on to publish a number of works, including novels, essays, and plays, many of which pulled from his personal experiences and explored race and sexuality. Some of his most influential works include the novels Go Tell It on the Mountain and The Fire Next Time, and his essay collection, Notes of a Native Son. Baldwin passed away in 1987 at age 63. He is revered for his dedicated activism as a member of the Congress on Racial Equality, as well as his iconic pieces of literature. 

3. Ava DuVernay

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Academy Award-nominated director, producer, and writer Ava DuVernay began writing her first screenplay in 2003, and had not begun filming anything until she was 32 years old.

She later wrote and directed projects like the films I Will Follow and Middle of Nowhere. The latter project earned DuVernay the Best Director Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012.

In the years since, she's created and written the series Queen Sugar for the Oprah Winfrey Network and the miniseries When They See Us. As a director, she's led highly successful films like Selma and Disney's A Wrinkle in Time. 

Some of DuVernay's next writing ventures include the TV series Naomi and the TV movie Battle of Versailles.

4. Maya Angelou

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Angelou was a successful singer and actor before venturing into writing and editing throughout the 1960s. She traveled to Egypt and Ghana during this time and befriended human rights activist Malcolm X, with whom she would organize the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which ended after his assassination in 1965.

She achieved critical acclaim for her 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which became the first nonfiction bestseller written by a female African American author. Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, And Still I Rise, and I Shall Not Be Moved are a few of Angelou's most celebrated poetry collections. 

The author, activist, and poet passed away in 2014. During her life, Angelou won three Grammy Awards for spoken versions of her writings, including "On the Pulse of Morning," which she recited at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, was a National Medal of Arts recipient, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

5. Issa Rae

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Rae is a producer, writer, and director best known for co-creating the hit HBO series, Insecure, which wrapped up its final season on Dec. 26. The show was based on Rae's online series, Awkward Black Girl. She wrote Insecure with the intent to create content that wasn't yet being covered by mainstream media.

"I was complaining a lot about ... what I wasn't seeing on TV. And this was creating a character and a world to be like, if I can do it, then I know mainstream TV can do it," Rae said in a Today interview. "And so I was even surprised after the [success of the] first episode. Then I was like, 'Oh god, I gotta write more and catch up.'"

Following the prosperous run of Insecure, Rae's next writing project is the series Rap Sh*t, a show about a female group of rappers that will air on HBO Max in 2022.

6. Leon Bridges

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Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Leon Bridges is a talented artist from Fort Worth, Texas, who combines soulful sounds reminiscent of the '50s and '60s era with penetrating and sentimental lyrics. Bridges has co-written songs like "Beyond," "Coming Home," and "Bet Ain't Worth the Hand," which won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance in 2019.

His most recent album release, Gold-Diggers Sound, has resulted in two Grammy Award nominations for the artist: Best R&B Album and Best Traditional R&B Performance for the track "Born Again."

7. Lorraine Hansberry

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During her high school years in Chicago, Hansberry developed a passion for the arts. After her graduation, she studied painting before moving to New York City, where she wrote her most famous play, A Raisin in the Sun. This was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced for the Broadway stage when it premiered in 1959. 

In the next two years, A Raisin in the Sun was translated into 35 different languages and performed by theatre groups internationally. It was also developed into a screenplay, and the 1961 film version of Hansberry's play starred actors Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil. 

Hansberry passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1965, when she was 34 years old. She is remembered for her pioneering artistic contributions and civil rights activism, as she was a contributor to organizations like Daughters of Bilitis, the first US lesbian civil rights group.

8. Mariah Carey

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Carey is considered by many to be one of the most prolific female songwriters in history, as she has co-written and performed hits like "Dreamlover," "Heartbreaker," "All I Want for Christmas Is You," "Emotions," "Hero," "Honey," "Vision of Love," and more.

For all of her contributions to songwriting, Carey was nominated as a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee in 2020. The ceremony is scheduled to be celebrated in person in 2022. 

9. Tyler Perry

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Perry survived experiences of abuse throughout his childhood to become one of the most successful creators in entertainment. He wrote and developed his first play, I Know I've Been Changed, in 1992, but its run only lasted for one weekend, as less than 50 people showed up to watch it.

Years later, Perry would write and release the plays I Can Do Bad All by Myself and Diary of a Mad Black Woman in 2000 and 2001. Both featured the humorous grandmother character, Madea, whose presence led to a loyal audience of fans. His plays next made their way to the silver screen, beginning with Diary of a Mad Black Woman being adapted into a film in 2005. As he released more films, Perry founded his own production company, called Tyler Perry Studios. He's gone on to create and write projects like House of Payne on TBS, Madea's Family Reunion,  and Love Thy Neighbor and The Haves and the Have Nots on the Oprah Winfrey Network. In 2021, Perry was presented with an Oscar for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

10. Langston Hughes

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Throughout his formative years, Hughes moved often and had resided in six different US cities before the age of 12. He later traveled internationally, visiting places like Holland, Mexico, Italy, and France. This exposure to various cultures served to enrich Hughes' writings, which gave realistic portrayals of the lives of working-class black Americans.

His releases of the 1920s and 1930s included the poetry collection Fine Clothes to the Jew, and the essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” His work earned Hughes a position as of one of the driving forces behind the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural phenomenon that promoted Black art and culture. 

Hughes passed away from prostate cancer in 1967. He wrote and published an autobiography, The Big Sea, in 1940, which details his memories of emerging as a prominent writer during his life. 

11. Berry Gordy

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Gordy achieved early success in the music world by writing or co-writing hit songs for Jackie Wilson like "Lonely Teardrops" and "To Be Loved." He desired to do more in entertainment, however, and used an $800 loan to start his own label, Motown Records. Here, Gordy signed and developed some of the most successful artists in history, including Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, and Michael Jackson.

Some hits written or co-written by Gordy are "Money (That's What I Want)," "Do You Love Me," "I'll Be There," "ABC," and "I Want You Back."

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and became the first living individual to receive the Songwriters Hall of Fame Pioneer Award in 2013. He also released an autobiography on his life, called To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown in 1994.

12. Toni Morrison

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Morrison worked as an editor at Random House before publishing her first novel, The Bluest Eye, in 1970 at age 39. This started a string of novels, as well as essays and plays, that brought Morrison to the status of one of the best authors in the world. 

Sula and Song of Solomon were Morrison’s next novels, and in 1987, she published one of her most famous writings, Beloved. The book drew from the harrowing real life story of an African American slave and remains an essential example of Morrison's incorporation of Black experiences into literature. It also resulted in Morrison winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Beloved was later made into a film starring Oprah Winfrey in 1998. 

Morrison passed away in 2019 at age 88, leaving behind an enduring legacy through her work. She has been honored with a number of prestigious accolades for her accomplishments as a writer, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and a place in the National Women’s Hall of Fame, as she was posthumously named as an inductee in 2020. 

13. Tupac Shakur

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Rapper, poet, and actor Tupac Shakur was a gifted lyricist who wrote copiously over the course of his career. He released four studio albums while he was alive, and wrote or co-wrote hits like "California Love," "Keep Ya Head Up," "Dear Mama," and "Brenda's Got a Baby."

In addition, Shakur crafted a poetry collection in his spare time, which was released as a book called "The Rose That Grew From Concrete" in 1999. 

In September of 1996, Shakur was tragically killed at the age of 25 in a drive-by shooting. Due to the heavy amount of writing and music recording he did during his lifetime, seven albums have been released posthumously in his name. He continues to be remembered for his impact on the world, including through the documentary on his life, Tupac: Resurrection, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 2005.

14. Lauryn Hill

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Hill was surrounded by music while growing up in New Jersey and joined a rap group as a freshman at Columbia High School. Prakazrel "Pras" Michel and a fellow female student were the group's original members, but Wyclef Jean, Michel's cousin, later replaced the other student. They named themselves the Fugees and released two albums before Hill ventured into a solo career.

in 1998, Hill released her solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album achieved triple platinum certification in November of the same year and led to Hill being the first woman to win five Grammy Awards in one night. She wrote or co-wrote all of the album's songs, other than her cover of Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." 

After the album's great success, Hill chose to retreat from the spotlight and focus on raising her family. She went on to release an MTV live performance of new work in 2002, and in 2007 put out a collection of old and new songs called Ms. Hill. 

She has performed for numerous tours and other live shows in the years following and has a handful of upcoming live performances set for 2022.

15. Rita Dove

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In her collections of poems, such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Thomas and Beulah, and On the Bus With Rosa Parks, Dove combines historical writing with an intimate expression of language. She's included topics ranging from her grandparents' life stories and the civil rights movement in her expressive poetry writings.

Dove has also written novels, short stories, and lyrics for musical artists. In 1993, she became the youngest person and the first African American to hold the title of US Poet Laureate. She now serves as a University of Virginia Commonwealth Professor of English.

16. Spike Lee

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She's Gotta Have It, Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing, and BlacKkKlansman are some of Spike Lee's many iconic films that he both wrote and directed. His films address race relations and involve inspiration from Lee's upbringing in Brooklyn.

Lee won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his writing of BlacKkKlansman in 2019, and recently gave his best advice to aspiring writers during a 2021 collaboration with Masterclass.

He has also written books on his film projects, including Spike, a visual novel that was released in November 2021. The book showcases never-before-seen photos from behind the scenes of Lee's movie shoots.

17. Ryan Coogler

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Following graduating from film school at USC, Coogler wrote and directed Fruitvale Station, which was based on the true story of Oscar Grant's murder in Oakland at the hands of BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. Since the film received strong critical reception, Coogler has continued leading high-profile Hollywood projects.

He has co-written the screenplays for two prominent film series: Creed and Black Panther. The Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is Coogler's most recent project. He was 29 when he co-wrote and directed the first film of this franchise, making him the first Black director to lead a Marvel film.

18. Alice Walker

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Walker earned the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her writings, which include bestsellers like Possessing the Secret of Joy, The Temple of My Familiar, and The Color Purple, which was later made into a film starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Oprah Winfrey and directed by Steven Spielberg. Her books have sold over 15 million copies internationally and have been translated to more than two dozen languages.

Walker has additionally written a number of collections of poetry and short stories, and has worked as a human rights advocate throughout her career. 

Walker still writes regularly for her blog, alicewalkersgarden.com.

19. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Adichie earned a master’s degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and a master of arts degree in African history from Yale University. 

Her first novel was Purple Hibiscus, which was followed by Half of a Yellow Sun. Both writings were award-winning, as was her novel Americanah, which was named as one of the New York Times Top Ten Best Books of the year in 2013.

In Nigeria, her homeland, Adichie conducts an annual creative writing workshop as she divides her time between here and the United States. Her most recent book is Notes on Grief, which used personal experiences following the passing of her father.

20. Oprah Winfrey

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In addition to Winfrey's incredible contributions to broadcast media, she has also authored several successful books that are geared toward finding purpose and working on self-improvement. 

What I Know for Sure shares personal accounts from Winfrey and the many life lessons learned from her encounters, while The Path Made Clear and The Wisdom of Sundays offer highlights from some of Winfrey’s insightful interviews. 

The most recent book written by Winfrey is What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing. She collaborated with Bruce D. Perry, a trauma expert, for the book to identify how our behavior can be better understood by analyzing our past experiences. 

21. Zadie Smith

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Smith's first novel, White Teeth, explores the lives of two friends and their families in England's multicutural landscape. This release was met with very favorable responses from critics and won numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. 

She has published other award-winning works like On Beauty, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction. In addition to presently serving as a New York University tenured professor of fiction, Smith is an American Academy of Arts and Letters member.

22. Michelle Alexander

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Civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander authored The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness in 2010. The book discusses how our current criminal justice system perpetuates modern racial discrimination in the United States. After conducting research and writing the book, Alexander said, “We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."

The book has spent close to 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and remains a catalyst for social justice activism. Alexander now writes for the opinion section of the New York Times and teaches as a visiting professor at the Union Theological Seminary.

23. Saeed Jones

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Jones previously worked for BuzzFeed and was the founding editor of BuzzFeed LGBT. He also hosted the BuzzFeed News morning show, AM to DM. 

In 2019, Jones won the Kirkus Prize for the memoir How We Fight for Our Lives, and his poetry collection, Prelude to Bruise, won the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. 

When asked about his writing influences in an interview with PEN America, Jones stated, "My mind always finds its way back to the crossroad where sex, race, and power collide. Journeys, transformation as well as dashed attempts to transform, fascinate me as well."

24. Nikki Giovanni

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Giovanni was often sick as a child, which gave her time to stay home and read books that she enjoyed. Her love for reading later evolved into an unparalleled writing career, in which she has contributed poetry for adults and children, poetry recordings, and essays.

Just a few of the many honors that have been bestowed upon Giovanni include being included as one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 Living Legends, receiving the title of Woman of the Year from Ebony magazine, and earning a total of seven NAACP Image Awards. 

Giovanni has said that writing was never her goal in life. Instead, she had the intention to contribute something to the world that had not yet been created.

"My dream was not to publish or to even be a writer: My dream was to discover something no one else had thought of," Giovanni said. "I guess that’s why I’m a poet. We put things together in ways no one else does."

25. Ne-Yo

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Before embarking on a career as a performing artist, Ne-Yo, born Shaffer Smith, emerged onto the music scene through songwriting when he co-wrote Mario's "Let Me Love You" with composer Kameron Houff in 2004. The track quickly gained popularity, and in 2005 it held the number-one spot of the Billboard Hot 100 for nine continuous weeks.

Since this release, Ne-Yo has remained one of the most prolific songwriters in the pop music industry.

He has performed and co-written hits such as "So Sick," "Sexy Love," "Because of You," "Closer," "Miss Independent," "Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)," "Time of Our Lives," and "Give Me Everything." In addition, he's written other artist's songs, including Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," Rihanna's "Take a Bow," and Paula DeAnda's "Walk Away (Remember Me)." 

His next album, The Escape, will be out in 2022. 

26. Prince

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Along with singing and performing, Prince played numerous instruments, and wrote and produced music. He wrote hits like "Purple Rain," "Little Red Corvette," "Kiss," "Let's Go Crazy," "When Doves Cry," and "Raspberry Beret," to name a few.

Prince also lent his songwriting talents to a number of other artists. He co-wrote "Jungle Love" by the Time, and wrote "Manic Monday" by the Bangles and "I Feel for You" by Chaka Khan.

He passed away in 2016, at the age of 57, and was recently remembered by his  music industry collaborators for the five-year anniversary of his death in an Esquire article.

27. Zora Neale Hurston

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Hurston published short stories, articles, a collection of Black Southern folklore called Mules and Men, and the novel Jonah’s Gourd Vine early in her career. She wrote several more novels after this, including her most famous work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in 1937. The novel follows the story of Janie Crawford, who evolves throughout three marriages during her life. The independent protagonist states that there are “two things everbody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves.”

Although the book was initially met with critical reviews due to its independent Black female lead, it has survived as one of the most important writings in the history of African American literature.

28. Brit Bennett

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The Mothers, Bennett's first novel, became a New York Times bestseller, and her sophomore release, The Vanishing Half, was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller upon its release. 

In July 2020, Bennett closed a seven-figure deal with HBO to adapt The Vanishing Half  into a series after a bid involving 17 television companies. The book tells the story of twin sisters Stella and Desiree, who have contrasting experiences as one of them is white and the other is Black.

For her literary accomplishments, Bennett was featured on the cover of Time magazine and named as one of their "Time 100 Next" most influential people of 2021.

29. Shonda Rhimes

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Hit shows like Grey's Anatomy and Scandal were created and executive produced by Rhimes, who also wrote many episodes of the series. 

She has written the screenplays of the films Crossroads and Princess Diaries 2: A Royal Engagement. Rhimes released a bestselling book, Year of Yes, in 2015, in which she revealed stories of a year she spent saying yes to everything that scared her.

Rhimes was included in Time Magazine’s 100 list of the most influential people on two occasions, was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and has won the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement from the Writers Guild of America, West. 

30. Amanda Gorman

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Harvard University graduate Amanda Gorman is currently one of the most promising young poets in the world. She was the first person to be named as a national youth poet laureate of the United States in 2017, and has authored poetry collections The Hill We Climb and The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough. 

In January 2021, Gorman was chosen to recite her poem “The Hill We Climb" for the inauguration ceremony of President Joe Biden, which made her the youngest person ever to fulfill this duty.

Gorman has used her platform to create One Pen One Page, which offers creative writing workshops for underprivileged children.

31. The Notorious B.I.G.

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Born Christopher George Latore Wallace, the rapper known as the Notorious B.I.G., or Biggie Smalls, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1972. He was a top English student as he attended the George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School before dropping out at age 17. 

After serving jail time for drug dealing, Biggie began recording his raps as a fun hobby on the side, which led to him being discovered and signed by Bad Boy Records in 1992. He went on to write or co-write his hits like "Hypnotize," "Big Poppa," "Mo Money Mo Problems," and "Juicy." 

Biggie passed away at age 24 in 1997, when he was shot at a red light after leaving a Vibe magazine party in Los Angeles. He was remembered through the 1997 hit song "I'll Be Missing You," which featured his then-wife Faith Evans and his friend and Bad Boy Records founder Sean "Diddy" Combs. A biopic about his life, Notorious, was released in 2009, and earned over $44 million worldwide.

32. Phillis Wheatley

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After being kidnapped from her home in Africa in 1761, Wheatley was permitted to learn how to read and write by the family who held her as a slave in the United States. She then started to write poetry and had published her first poem by 1767 at age 14. 

Wheatley became the first Black woman to publish a book in the US when she released her collection of poems, called Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. After this debut, she was emancipated from slavery. She is credited for creating work that showed pride in her African roots and proved the intellectual capabilities of African Americans to slave owners.

Wheatley married a free Black man, John Peters, in 1778, and passed away from childbirth complications in 1784. The influential work she created during her life is remembered as a catalyst for the abolition movement.

33. Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Coates is a highly accomplished author and journalist who has written bestsellers such as the 2015 National Book Award winner Between the World and Me. The book utilizes Coates' personal experiences to answer questions about the history and present conditions of race in America, as well as to introduce ideas on how our society can move toward progress in this area.

Several graphic novels have been written by Coates, including the Black Panther and Captain America comics series.

Aside from these works, Coates has written for the Atlantic, Time, and the Village Voice. 

34. Michaela Coel

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One of Coel's first writing ventures was penning the coming-of-age Netflix series Chewing Gum, which resulted in her being nominated for a British Screenwriters' Award for Best Comedy Writing on Television in 2016. 

Coel has since gone on to write I May Destroy You, which tells the story of protagonist Arabella's journey of navigating her life, including work and personal relationships, after she is raped. As a sexual assault survivor, Coel used her own experiences when she wrote the series.

I May Destroy You has been widely praised for representing an honest reflection of the experiences of survivors of rape and sexual assault. Coel recently received an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie as a result of her accomplishments, making her the first Black woman to win this award.

35. Frederick Douglass

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Douglass was taught the alphabet as a young boy while he was held as a slave in Maryland. He then taught himself how to read and write, and would later show other slaves how to read with his Bible. After numerous attempts, Douglass escaped from slavery in 1838, and eventually settled in Massachusetts with his wife, Anna Murray. Douglass next became a leader of the abolitionist movement and began an abolitionist newsletter, the North Star, which was later renamed to Frederick Douglass’ Paper in 1847. 

In addition to guiding the abolitionist movement, Douglass simultaneously was emerging as a supporter of women's rights. He would later include this topic in his newsletter.

In 1860, Douglass published his autobiography and most well-known writing, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. In the book, he explores the journey of his life and how he managed to stay optimistic in the face of abuse before his eventual escape from slavery.

He passed away after suffering a heat attack in 1895, but Douglass's legacy of using writing to fight for the equality of Black Americans and women remains.

36. Michael Jackson

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"The King of Pop" is a moniker Jackson earned through his unparalleled success as a singer-songwriter. After signing with his brothers, Tito, Marlon, Jackie, and Jermaine to Motown Records as a member of the Jackson 5, Jackson and his siblings rose to stardom as their first four singles consecutively hit number one on the charts.

His 1984 Thriller album resulted in him winning eight Grammy Awards in one night, and in 1993 at age 35 he became one of the now 15 people to earn a Grammy Legend Award. Jackson wrote a number of his hits, including "Bad," "Beat It," "Billie Jean," and "I Just Can't Stop Loving You." 

In 2002, Jackson was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The organization noted that Jackson wrote a total of over 200 songs, more than 20 of which rose to multi-millionaire performance status for radio stations and television programs. Jackson passed away in 2009, and his legacy was recently addressed in the controversial documentary Leaving Neverland.

37. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is known as one of the most influential leaders in history who was a dominant force in the civil rights movement. As well as possessing incredible oratory skills, King was a skillful writer who had the ability to to inform and inspire audiences.

He wrote “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” while imprisoned for organizing nonviolent protests against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. The letter addressed King's critics and stressed the importance of civil rights participants continuing the fight for justice. King additionally co-wrote and improvised parts of his inspiring "I Have a Dream" speech, which is remembered as one of the most famous and impactful lectures in US history.

In April 1968, King was assassinated at the age of 39. He was the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize when he achieved this honor at age 35 years old, and his activism was instrumental in getting the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act passed by Congress. After his passing, his wife, Coretta, created the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in his honor.

38. Ida B. Wells

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By the time she was 24, Wells had written several news articles. She chose to pursue journalism full time when she was let go from her teaching position for condemning the conditions of Memphis schools. After a friend of hers, a grocer named Thomas Moss, was lynched by a group of white grocers, she began writing anti-lynching editorials. She also supported women's right to vote and was a co-founder of the the Alpha Suffrage Club in Illinois. 

Wells passed away in 1931. She wrote an autobiography during her life, which she never released, but her daughter, Alfreda M. Duster, edited and published the book, called Crusade for Justice: the Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, in 1970. She was recently awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for her reporting in 2020.

39. W.E.B. Du Bois

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In addition to being a founding member of the NAACP, Du Bois was the first Black American to earn a PhD from Harvard University. In 1897 he wrote the essay "Strivings of the Negro People," which urged Black Americans to embrace their roots. Du Bois later published his collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, and wrote "An Appeal to the World," a well-known publication of the NAACP.

Du Bois passed away in 1963 while living in Ghana as he was working on creating an encyclopedia on the African diaspora. 

40. Malcolm X

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Human rights activist Malcolm X, who was born Malcolm Little, was first an advocate for the Nation of Islam whose influence helped gain about 30,000 members for the organization by 1963. After the NOI's leader, Elijah Muhammad, was found to be violating the group's practices and having affairs with numerous women, Malcolm started his own group, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. He became one of the most influential leaders of the civil rights movement for his work and crafted powerful speeches throughout his career such as "The Ballot or the Bullet" and "By Any Means Necessary." 

In 1965, Malcolm was assassinated while speaking at an event in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom. He collaborated with Alex Haley to write his acclaimed autobiography, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was released eight months after his death. Malcolm was remembered through Spike Lee's 1992 film, Malcolm X, and X: A Novel , which was released by his daughter Ilyasah Shabazz in 2015.

Make sure to head right here for more of BuzzFeed's Black History Month coverage.

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