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Activists in Arts & Letters

149 people, across 9 fields.

Maya Angelou 1928–2014Literature & DramaPoet and memoirist whose I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings broke new ground in autobiographical writing.James Baldwin 1924–1987Literature & DramaEssayist and novelist whose searing explorations of race, sexuality, and identity remain profoundly relevant.Elizabeth Taylor 1932–2011Film, Television & ComedyTwo-time Academy Award winner who turned the largest fame in the world into the first mass-audience campaign against AIDS.Allen Ginsberg 1926–1997Literature & DramaHowl, Kaddish, and the 1957 obscenity trialNina Simone 1933–2003MusicSinger and pianist who joined classical training to jazz and civil rights protest songs.Spike Lee b. 1957Film, Television & ComedyFour decades of American films about race that refuse to end in reconciliation.Alice Walker b. 1944Literature & DramaThe first Black woman to win the Pulitzer for fiction, and the writer who recovered Zora Neale Hurston.John Hammond 1910–1987MusicRecord man who signed Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.BABenny Andrews 1930–2006Visual Arts & DesignAfrican American painter and sculptor whose collage works addressed civil rights and social justice.