Most Notable African American Authors of All Times

Some of the most notable African American Authors of all times are also poets, lecturers, professors, historians, producers, actors and activists. Some are Pulitzer Prize winners and others are Emmy-award winners or Grammy-award winners. Because of this, the list of most notable African American authors of all time is vast and varied. The following list represents only a few of the greatest African American authors that ever lived. The list includes: Dr. Maya Angelou, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alex Haley and Alice Walker.

Before Dr. Maya Angelou became famous for her autobiography I know why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), she was already San Francisco’s first African American streetcar conductor, she had been a dancer and a stage actor and she had also lived in Egypt and worked as an editor for The Arab Observer and she lived in Ghana and worked as a writer and administrator for the University of Ghana and editor for The African Review. In addition, in 1959, at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s request, she became the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Dr. Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Johnson, April 4, 1948 in St. Louis, was already wildly successful in her own right and among prominent professionals around the world before the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. But it was this autobiography that made her famous to the rest of the world. In 1971, Dr. Angelou’s collection of poetry Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and she went on to write more than a dozen best-selling books. Maya Angelou is a professor, historian, writer, playwright, producer, actor, director and poet. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning spoken word artist (1993, 1995 and 2003) and she holds a lifetime position as First Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.