Cameo biographies along with Lee’s famous pen-and-ink portraits make this book an inviting and inspiring browser for students as well as a useful reference to teachers, writers, librarians, black community leaders and the general reader.
Both major achievements and little-known interesting facts are given on over 200 Americans. The coverage is broad: past and present leaders, performers, musicians and sports greats, scientists, writers and military men and women.
The material is drawn from a newspaper feature which the author created in 1945. The feature continued until 1986 and has appeared in most of the major black newspapers in the United States.

The late George L. Lee was the author of several books. His works of art as well as his other published works, were originally run in a variety of newspapers.

George L. Lee
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 224
Bibliographic Info: 233 illustrations, index
Copyright Date: 2012 [1989]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6767-9
Imprint: McFarland

Foreword by Helen E. Williams      vii

Preface      xiii

Elizabeth Forth Denison      1

lsabella Baumfree      2

Catherine Harris      3

William W. Brown      4

Frederick Douglas      5

Harriet Tubman      6

Jackie Robinson      6

Rosa Parks      7

Frances E. Harper      7

William E. Scott      7

Mary Fields      8

Fanny L. Jackson Coppin      9

Robert Smalls      10

James T. Rapier      10

John S. Lawson      11

William H. Carney      11

Edmonia Lewis      12

Lewis H. Latimer      13

Nat Love      14

Richard R. Wright      15

Daniel H. Williams      16

Anna Julia Cooper      17

Bill Pickett      18

Ida B. Wells Barnett      19

Doris E. Spears      19

George Washington Carver      20

C.J. Walker      21

Frank Yerby      21

William H. Lewis      22

Edith Sampson      22

Scott Joplin      23

Joel E. Spingarn      24

Ada S. McKinley      25

Robert S. Abbott      26

James Weldon Johnson      27

William Monroe Trotter      28

Bill Robinson      29

Mattie Cunningham Dolby      30

Andrew (Rube) Foster      31

Sara S. Washington      32

Jane Edna Hunter      33

Daisy Lampkin      34

R.J. Salisbury      35

Solomon L. Michaux      36

Arthur W. Mitchell      37

Isaac Murphy      37

James Van Der Zee      38

Sadie Waterford Jones      39

Louis T. Wright      40

Bessie Coleman      41

Augusta Savage      42

Grace Lee Stevens      43

Harriet M. West      44

Jane M. Bolin      44

Paul R. Williams      45

Charles H. Houston      46

Alberta Hunter      47

Bessie Smith      48

Andy Razaf      49

William Grant Still      50

William 0.Walker      51

Marjorie S. Joyner      52

Eslanda Goode Robeson      53

Edith Wilson      54

Martha Barksdale Goldman      55

Jackie (Moms) Mabley      56

Paul Robeson      57

Matthew A. Henson      57

Fredda Witherspoon      58

Sadie Tanner Alexander      59

lrvin C. Mollison      60

Percy L. Julian      61

Martin L. King, Sr.      62

Clayton Bates      63

Jessie “Ma” Houston      64

Thomas A. Dorsey      65

Louis Armstrong      66

Duke Ellington      67

Juanita Hall      68

La Julia Rhea      69

Langston Hughes      70

Charles R. Drew      71

Ralph J. Bunche      72

Henry W. McGee      73

William H. Hastie      74

Count Basie      75

James B. Parsons      76

W.C. Handy      76

JamesA. Porter      77

Lois Mailou Jones      78

Elizabeth Catlett      79

Charles Alston      79

Thurgood Marshall      80

Ralph Metcalfe      81

Mary Lou Williams      82

Pauli Murray      83

Katherine Dunham      84

Odetta      85

Howlin’ Wolf      85

Mahalia Jackson      86

Clarence Mitchell      87

Gordon Parks, Sr.      88

Lionel Hampton      89

Clara Jones      90

Margaret Harris      90

Joe Louis Barrow      91

Emmett Ashford      92

Carolyn Payton      93

Lelia Foley      93

Billie Holiday      94

Muddy Waters      95

Gwendolyn Brooks      96

Adele Chilton Gaillard      97

Alonzo Smith Gaither      98

Thomas Bradley      99

Fannie Lou Hamer      100

Jesse Owens      101

Margaret Bush Wilson      102

Lena Horne      103

Willa Brown      104

Margaret Burroughs      105

Charles White      106

Coleman A. Young      107

Daisy Bates      108

John Steward Sloan      109

Pearl Bailey      110

Nat “King” Cole      111

James Edwards      112

Barbara Watson      113

Nicholas Bros.      114

Charlie Parker      115

Wade Hampton McCree      116

Della Reese 11      7

Jane Cooke Wright      118

Dorothy L. Brown      119

Gloria Richardson      120

Daniel James, Jr.      121

Jesse Brown      122

Whitney M. Young, Jr.      123

Dorothy I. Height      124

Alex Haley      125

Leon H. Sullivan      126

Harold Washington      127

Robert L. Kimbrough      128

Dorothy Dandridge      129

Gwendolyn B. Cherry      130

Nathaniel Clifton      131

James Baldwin      132

Charley Pride      133

Sarah Vaughan      134

Lou Gossett, Jr.      135

Vel Phillips      136

Shirley St. Hill Chisholm      137

Malcolm X      138

Benjamin L. Hooks      139

Patricia R. Harris      140

Sidney Poitier      141

Leontyne Price      142

Althea Gibson      143

Ralph David Abernathy      144

Gerald E. Thomas      145

Mary Elizabeth Mahoney      145

Roscoe Robinson      146

The Black Panthers      146

James Earl Jones      147

Lee Elder      148

Frank E. Petersen      149

Constance Baker Motley      150

Coretta Scott King      151

Andrew Young      152

Ray Charles      153

Bill Cosby      154

Charles C. Rogers      155

Hazel W. Johnson      155

Clifford Alexander      156

Quincy Jones      157

Barbara Jordan      158

“Sugar” Ray Robinson      159

James H. Meredith      160

Ruth Love      161

C. Delores Tucker      162

Amayla Kearse      163

Toni Morrison      164

Micki Grant      165

Nikki Giovanni      165

Samella S. Lewis      166

Vinnette Carroll      167

Grace Bumbry      168

Charles Gordone      169

Parren Mitchell      169

Diana Sands      170

Maya Angelou      171

Hank Aaron      172

Diahann Carroll      173

Frank Robinson      174

Shirley Verrett      175

Ernest Green      176

Diana Ross      177

Joe Frazier      178

Elizabeth D. Koontz      179

Azie Taylor Morton      180

Blanche Kelso Bruce      180

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.      181

Richard Hunt      182

Autherine Lucy      183

Darwin T. Turner      183

Judith Jamison      184

Ernie Davis      185

Willye White      186

Jesse Jackson      187

Al Green      188

Guion S. Bluford, Jr.      189

Yvonne B. Burke      190

Sam Boynes      191

Oscar Robertson      192

Mary Hatwood Futrell      193

Ronald V. Dellums      194

Marva Collins      195

Faye Wattleton      196

Addie Wyatt      196

Gladys Knight      197

Reggie Jackson      198

Roberta Flack      199

Cicely Tyson      200

Arthur Ashe      201

JillBrown      202

Otis B. Young      202

Milton L. Olive, 111      203

Stevie Wonder      204

Janie Mines      205

Dan Burley      205

About the Author      207

Index      209

“arranged chronologically, the collection is wide-ranging, including political leaders, musicians, sports figures, scientists, writers, and members of the armed services…fascinating reading and contains many little known facts about a number of influential black Americans. Recommended”—Library Journal; “his facial portraits are lifelike and the cartoons he draws can be either provocative or funny…this book provides a worthwhile compendium of Afro-American men and women of influence…strongly recommended”—ARBA; “this collection is entertaining and serves to identify many black Americans that have contributed significantly in diverse fields”—Preview.