Marian Anderson: A Life in Song  One of our very best sites, it tells the great life of Marian Anderson in detail, with fine images as well as audio and video clips. 

Maya Angelou  This is really much too brief, but it will give you a little biographical information on the famous author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Art of the Harlem Renaissance  Beautiful presentation, but kind of hard going.  This is mainly about the ideas behind the Harlem Renaissance, not about the people involved.  The illustrative art is magnificent. 

A Brief History of the Blues  Brief is right.  Followed by some helpful links. 

Katherine Dunham  She was the one of the greatest figures in modern dance, bringing to the older forms elements from African American and Afro-Carribbean folk dance.  Near the end of her life she was a powerful fighter for the rights of the Haitian people.  Unfortunately, there is little of substance about her on the web.

The Harlem Renaissance  A very good introduction to the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, put together by Microsoft's Encarta Schoolhouse.

The Essence of Duke Ellington  An elegant tribute to a Jazz genius. 

History of Jazz Timeline   Very well designed and useful in seeing Jazz from its distant roots to the present. 

Langston Hughes  Perhaps the finest African American poet, but also the author of a beautiful autobiography and of innumerable humorous, short pieces done for the Chicago Defender. 

Toni Morrison  The first African American to win a Nobel Prize in literature. 

Motown  A mixed group of sites on the Detroit company that changed the history of music.

Paul Robeson  Here was a truly exceptional individual, outstanding as an athlete, singer, actor, linguist, scholar and leader.    Robeson had a deep connection to Chicago where he was associated with Margaret Walker, Richard Wright and other prominent figures in Chicago's Black Renaissance.

William Grant Still: America's Premiere Black Musician  A very rich tribute to the famous classical musician. 

Phyllis Wheatly  Many poems of America's earliest black poet.  There is no biography included. 

Richard Wright  Good biographical material assembled to follow up a PBS special on the writer.  Wright was a leader of the Chicago Black Renaissance of the 1930's and much of his work started here.