Eddie Jordan, lawyer Vernon Jordan, lawyer, business executive, civil rights activist Florynce Kennedy, lawyer, civil rights advocate Leondra Kruger, lawyer Reginald Lewis, lawyer, businessman William H. Lewis, lawyer Lori Lightfoot, lawyer, politician Loretta Lynch, lawyer, 83rd United States Attorney General Conrad Lynn, lawyer, civil rights activist Thurgood Marshall, lawyer, judge Thurgood Marshall Jr., lawyer Wade H. McCree, lawyer, judge, professor Robert Morris, lawyer Constance Baker Motley, lawyer, judge, politician, civil rights activist Pauli Murray, lawyer, author, priest, civil rights activist Ronald Noble, lawyer Barack Obama, former president of the United States Deval Patrick, lawyer, author, businessman, politician Charlotte E. Ray, lawyer, first African-American female lawyer Terri Sewell, lawyer, politician Bryan Stevenson, lawyer, professor Clarence Thomas, lawyer, judge, government official Jordan A. Thomas, lawyer, writer Larry Thompson, lawyer Samuel Wilbert Tucker, lawyer Mel Watt, lawyer, politician Tony West, lawyer Military List of African-American Medal of Honor recipients Ministers and other religious leaders Ralph Abernathy Richard Allen Thea Bowman Alexander Crummell Henriette DeLille Louis Farrakhan Henry Highland Garnet Julia Greeley Wilton Gregory Jesse Jackson Mother Mary Lange Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X Warith Deen Mohammed Elijah Muhammad Al Sharpton Augustus Tolton Pierre and Juliette Toussaint T. D. Jakes Benjamin Hooks Vashti Murphy McKenzie Raphael G. Warnock Calvin O. Butts III Kirbyjon Caldwell Joseph H. Walker III J. Edgar Boyd Delman Coates Fred Luter Jr. Michael Todd Novelists and poets Ron Allen, poet, playwright Elizabeth Alexander, poet, essayist, playwright Maya Angelou, novelist, poet, and activist James Baldwin, novelist, playwright, and activist Amiri Baraka, poet, writer, activist, and essayist Gwendolyn B. Bennett, poet, writer, journalist, and artist Arna Bontemps, poet, novelist, and librarian Gwendolyn Brooks, poet, author, teacher Lucille Clifton, poet, writer, and educator Jayne Cortez, poet, activist, publisher Katherine Jackson, writer and novelist Countee Cullen, poet, novelist, and playwright Frank Marshall Davis, poet, journalist Samuel R. Delany, novelist, author, editor, professor, and literary critic Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet, novelist Ralph Ellison, novelist, literary critic, and scholar Percival Everett, novelist Nikki Giovanni, poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator Alex Haley, novelist, author Lorraine Hansberry, playwright Frances Harper, poet Yona Harvey, poet, professor Robert Hayden, poet, essayist, and educator Gil Scott-Heron, poet, author Chester Himes, novelist Langston Hughes, poet, activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist Erica Hunt, poet, essayist, and teacher Zora Neale Hurston, novelist Nella Larsen, novelist, librarian, and nurse Brent Leggs, historian and preservationist, writer, academic Alain LeRoy Locke, writer Louise Meriwether, novelist,