Bio:

You know you are beyond when a skyscraper—on another continent—has been imagined in your likeness. Or when you drop a surprise album and the cultural conversation immediately shifts. But more than towering over music, fashion, conversation and vernacular (see: “flawless,” “watta-melon,” “Becky,” “surfbort”), Beyoncé has gracefully metamorphosed into her grown black womanness, armed with outsize talent, synergistic business acumen and an unsparing critique of the current state of things. Her Super Bowl performance of “Formation,” which was assessed, discussed and debated ad nauseam, primed us (but we weren’t ready tho) for her $100 million tour and grand, visual, surprise album, Lemonade, a soaring love letter to and for black women and girls.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

One can never tire of using biblical allusions for “King James” because his story is so epic. Yes, the prodigal son of Akron, Ohio, delivered Cleveland its first-ever NBA title, taking on a Goliath competitor, and winning his third NBA Finals MVP in the process. Yes, he signed a lifetime deal with Nike worth a billion dollars; and yes, as beneficent ruler of his brand, James has empowered his peers and laid a template for more favorable contracts for all players. But the best part, though, is how this young phenom consistently stands up in the face of injustice and gives back in spades. Such majesty!

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

A beautiful man with a beautiful mind is a hero both on and off the screen. When Williams was honored for his humanitarian work at the 2016 BET Awards, he used his mic time to highlight the urgent fight for black justice, delivering the best two-minute-and-four-second acceptance speech the network ever aired. The Grey’s Anatomy star executive-produced Stay Woke, a documentary on the Black Lives Matter movement—also on BET—and teamed up with boss and fellow Chicagoan Shonda Rhimes for America Divided, a series investigating domestic inequality scheduled to air on Epix Sept. 30. Williams and his wife, Aryn Drake-Lee Williams, have also been busy creating: Together, they launched a new app called Ebroji and welcomed their second child, Maceo.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

This season, San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel during the national anthem so that he could stand for the sanctity of black lives. Kaepernick’s action has set off a wave of solidarity from athletes all over the country—from junior high school students to professional competitors in other sports. Though some peers and fans have spoken against Kaepernick’s action, many are supportive, as evidenced by his jersey going to No. 1 in sales (the proceeds of which he says he will donate to charity, in addition to $1 million). In the tradition of activist athletes like Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown, Kaepernick is this generation’s shining black prince on the field. Salute.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

What an unlikely prospect. Yet, at 6 feet 3 inches tall and 190 pounds dripping wet, Wardell Stephen Curry has been rewriting record books since he hit 162 3-pointers as a sophomore at Davidson College. This year, Curry won his second-straight NBA MVP Award—the first ever won by unanimous vote—and led his Golden State Warriors to a 73–9 record during the regular season. With a winning combo of boyish exuberance, laser focus and a wicked jump shot, the relentless competitor suffered a surprising team loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, but the playful family man and all-around good guy is still golden.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

There couldn’t have been a better actor to play the role of former Vice President Aaron Burr in the blockbuster musical Hamilton. He passionately prepped for the part, read for the part and repeatedly texted the director to tell him that he wanted the part. When he got it, he rapped and danced Aaron Burr better than Aaron Burr could have rapped and danced himself. For his work, Odom was rewarded with a 2016 Tony for best actor in a leading role in a musical, the highlight of a year of special. Next up for the apparent history enthusiast: He’s partnering with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for r-Evolution, Dream, based on the sermons and speeches of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

At just 31, Carruthers is already a veteran organizer as leader of the Black Youth Project 100, a Chicago-based organization with six national chapters made up of queer and cis students and activists ages 18-35, who work to end black criminalization and expand rights for women and the LGBT community. This year, BYP was on the front lines in fighting to remove Cook County (Ill.) State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez for failing to prosecute police misconduct and waiting too long to charge Chicago police in the death of Laquan McDonald. (Alvarez lost her bid for re-election to Kim Foxx, also a 2016 Root 100 honoree.) In August, she examined movement-building from the inside as co-instructor of “Black Organizing for Economic Justice and Police Accountability,” a free workshop at the University of Illinois, Chicago, that breaks down leadership concepts and models for social-justice-minded students and community members. It’s especially critical information for residents in Chicago, and Carruthers continues to lead by example: This summer, she also organized a march to Chicago police headquarters to demand alternatives to traditional policing.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Her brilliance continues to make Hollywood a bigger, starrier, more inclusive place. DuVernay directed and executive-produced the new OWN series Queen Sugar alongside Oprah, creating what’s expected to be one of the most compelling and diverse shows of the season. She relaunched the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement as ARRAY to give more women and people of color the platform to tell stories in film form. The multigifted filmmaker is a pioneer in modern history—the first black woman to win best director at Sundance and the first black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe—and is now the first woman of color to direct a $100 million production after signing on for Disney’s 2017 adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, based on the celebrated children’s book.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Ten-time Grammy and recent Oscar winner John Legend has distinguished himself as a remarkable singer and musician, but also as a social-justice tour de force. Last April, Legend unveiled the #FreeAmerica movement, a multiyear campaign to end mass incarceration in the U.S.; he has also partnered with an innovative program that works with prosecutors to stem the tide of juvenile imprisonment. In his new role as a producer, Legend has turned out some of the most unique, cutting-edge projects of the year, including the WGN series Underground and the off-Broadway play on Dick Gregory’s life, Turn Me Loose.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

If we could seriously elect one cultural ambassador for all of black America, Coates would be a top contender. His work as a national correspondent at The Atlantic is always astute analysis on agendas, politics and issues, particularly race. His New York Times best-seller, Between the World and Me—penned as a candid letter to his teenage son—earned the distinguished National Book Award for nonfiction last year. On top of that honor, he’s also a superhero (sort of). Coates’ Black Panther for Marvel is one of the best-selling comics of 2016, proving that he pretty much stays winning when it comes to this writing thing.

Visit his website.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Sometimes, it’s those random acts of courage that mark our place in history. Such is the case with Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, the fiancee of Philando Castile, who was pulled over and shot to death by a Falcon Heights, Minn., police officer in an absurd act of racial profiling this July. Reynolds, using Facebook Live, immediately captured Castile slowly bleeding to death, her calm use of the word “Sir” with the officer, in front of her 4-year-old daughter and dying boyfriend, chilling a nation. “The police took an innocent man’s life,” she shouted during a protest outside the governor’s mansion the next day. “He didn’t do anything. He did exactly what the police asked,” she said sobbing. “It could’ve been you. It could’ve been you or you or you.”

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

She brings balanced, credible coverage to ESPN as host of the weekend edition of NBA Countdown and, in October, will expand her sportscaster magnificence to serve as lead host for SportsCenter on the Road. Steele is one of ESPN’s standout talents and one of the most recognizable—she’s everywhere the action is, from sideline interviews at the All-Star Game to running the halftime show of this year’s NBA Finals to on-site coverage of the Super Bowl—so her new role will keep her even more in motion as part of its on-site programming initiative. A champion for women in media, Steele has slain the dragons of ageism and sexism in her 21 years in the business, leading both by example and activism to make opportunities more abundant for younger women and even for herself because she ain’t close to being done yet.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Jones ain’t never scared of controversy. It’s kind of his thing. So when he wore a “Caucasians” shirt during his appearance on ESPN’s Mike & Mike to make a statement about the hypocrisy of the Cleveland Indians’ mascot, the man known on Twitter as El Flaco stayed cool through the firestorm of trollish tweets, posts and clapbacks. It’s par for the course for the media intellectual who set up shop at the intersection of sports and culture as the host of The Right Time With Bomani Jones on ESPN radio and co-host of the ESPN sports talk show Highly Questionable. The economist-turned-writer-turned-sports analyst gave a TEDx talk in November and, more regularly, hosts a weekly podcast, The Evening Jones, where his cool-brother commentary shines solo.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

He literally put his life on the line. After becoming charged by the protests in Ferguson, Mo., and tired of repeated and ignored incidents of racial aggression on campus, University of Missouri graduate student Jonathan Butler vowed to undertake a hunger strike until the university president resigned, among other demands. In the days following, Butler and the campus group #ConcernedStudent1950’s actions snowballed into hundreds of students and faculty of all races joining in support—including the school’s Division I football team, which vowed not to play—an incredible display of solidarity that received national attention. University President Tim Wolfe and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin did leave their posts at Mizzou days later, proving that one valiant action can, in fact, change the world.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

It’s a familiar refrain with a new set of names: Hillary Clinton doesn’t care about black people and neither does the would-be first husband, at least according to Garza. Like many voters, she’s not impressed with the major-party candidates in this year’s election, taking the Democratic nominee to task for using black people for votes and not standing in support of the $15 minimum wage increase. She also clapped back at Bill Clinton in a scathing CNN op-ed, responding to his comments about the Black Lives Matter movement and pointing out the contradictions in the co-campaigning he and his wife have now done three times. “Bill Clinton’s comments attempted to position Hillary Clinton as someone who has always worked for black lives to matter. Pinocchio’s nose has never grown so long,” Garza wrote.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Patrisse Khan-Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, is also executive director of Dignity & Power Now, an organization she established after her brother was beaten, choked and had a Taser used on him in Los Angeles County Jail, which has a torrid history of abuse. After three years of advocacy, she and her team celebrated the implementation of a civilian oversight commission this year to create greater accountability for the largest jailer in the country. She engaged revolution in a more beautiful form, too. This spring, she married partner Janaya Khan, telling Esquire: “We reflected on the time when marriage was illegal for black people and remembered when it was illegal, just months earlier, for LGBTQ people. We understood our love as an act of political resistance.”

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

We first fell in love with Issa Rae when she became a YouTube superstar, writing, producing, directing and acting out semi-autobiographical details in her web series The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl. This fall, she’ll spread her brilliance across a slightly larger screen as the creator and star of Insecure on HBO. With her co-creator, veteran comedian Larry Wilmore, Rae is determined to use Insecure to deliberately reframe the public perception of black life in Los Angeles—so often stereotyped as filled with gangs and violence—by portraying loving, authentic and real friendships between black women. Already, we’re giving her a slow clap and standing ovation for it.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Although black women represent by voting in astronomical numbers in electoral politics, our voices are woefully absent from the national conversation. One of the finest exceptions is in Nia-Malika Henderson, a journalist who has been on the political beat for years, reporting on the White House and national elections for Politico, the Washington Post and Newsday. CNN snagged Henderson exclusively in April, and these days, you can catch her on the network holding forth and sometimes sparring with her colleagues with candor and depth—not only about the news of this election but how it is informed by race and gender (you know, the black and pink elephants in the room).Both her words and presence do us proud.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Since Heben Nigatu joined the staff of BuzzFeed, she has penned some serious cultural criticism as well as some hilarious analysis of whiteness in pop culture. Last year, she and Tracy Clayton launched the wildly successful Another Round podcast, chopping it up with the likes of Ta-Nehisi Coates on reparations and how Howard folks be so arrogant; and with Hillary Clinton on her hand in black mass incarceration and the best deodorant to use on the campaign trail. This year, Nigatu was named one of Brooklyn, N.Y,’s 50 funniest and will use her sharp wit writing full time for the Stephen Colbert show, surely set to sprinkle #BlackGirlMagic all over late night.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics gave us two weeks of respite from the emotional intensity in our communities and threw an international spotlight on it at the same time. These were Anthony’s fourth Olympic Games, making him the first American male basketball player to compete that many times, and he engaged his platform to organize fellow players and athletes around justice here at home as well as in Rio, where he visited a favela, home to some of Brazil’s poorest residents. On the court, he used his talent to lead Team USA to its record-setting 15th gold medal—the third in a row in Olympic competition—and became the all-time leading scorer in U.S. men’s Olympic basketball history, bypassing LeBron James, David Robinson and Michael Jordan. On that high note, the New York Knick forward retired from Team USA and international play after what’s likely been the journey of a lifetime.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

It was one hell of a year for Kendrick Lamar. He earned 11 Grammy nominations for his platinum-selling sophomore album, To Pimp a Butterfly, just one short of the record set by Michael Jackson in his Thriller-era reign. Lamar took home five Grammys, including one for “Alright,” the unofficial protest anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement. For his artistry and activism in music, everybody’s favorite Compton, Calif., emcee was awarded the key to the city, honored by the California Senate with the Generational Icon award and partnered with Reebok to redesign the classic leather sneaker to represent unity between Bloods and Crips in his hometown. And he dropped a new project, Untitled Unmastered. Lamar’s social life is equally lit: He was invited to celebrate President Barack Obama’s birthday with President Obama. Just another 365 days of being K. Dot.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

If you watched the Rio de Janeiro Olympics or caught the daily highlights, you probably saw “The Dive,” that millisecond moment when Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas lunged across the finish line to win gold. We watched the ever-smiling Felix take the silver, but she was a champion nonetheless—that medal made her the most decorated U.S. woman in Olympic track and field history, breaking her existing tie with the legendary Jackie Joyner-Kersee. She topped that off with two golds, one in the 4-x-100 meter relay and another in the 4-x-400 meter relay. She was 5 feet 6 inches of pure, long-legged power in Rio, her fourth Games, where she also became the only female track and field athlete to win six career gold medals. She now has nine Olympic medals overall.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Writer, producer and showrunner Misha Green joins the rarified air of black women who are helming successful shows on television today. As co-creator of the thrilling, fastidiously researched and musically ambitious hit, Underground, Green expertly depicts how America’s most “peculiar institution” affected those from all strata of life. Last season, the WGN show pulled in a total of 3 million viewers and tweets by the thousands each week; the upcoming second season will introduce us to the majesty of Harriet Tubman and more of the dangerous quest for freedom. No, this is not just another show about slavery. This narrative is a rich commitment to black humanity and history, one that keeps us on the edge of our seats.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Kadir Nelson’s prolific hand has created art for everyone from Spike Lee to Ntozake Shange to Drake. His portrait of Shirley Chisholm hangs in the U.S. Capitol; he has authored (yes, he writes, too) and illustrated more than 30 children’s books and painted 12 commemorative stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. His work frequently delves into African-American history, and he is often awarded for both his words and illustrations. His most recent New Yorker cover, “A Day at the Beach,” coincidentally released around the time of the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, resonated with many.  “…the cover provides counterpoint to a lot of what’s going on in the country right now— these very unnecessary and tragic, heartbreaking experiences,” he said.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

His virtuosic tongue and acting chops amazed. Daveed Diggs, who won a 2016 Tony Award for his deft portrayals of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton, rapped 19 words in just three seconds every single night. No stranger to the genre, the former middle school teacher developed a rap curriculum for students in California’s Bay Area and is set to release more music this fall with his alt-hip-hop trio, clipping. Like many other original cast members, Diggs left Hamilton this summer, but will be on your small screen (season 3 of Black-ish; first season of The Get Down) and on film, too, with a part in Wonder starring Julia Roberts, releasing in 2017.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Don’t call it a comeback, she’s been here for years. Such could be the refrain for singer and actress Renée Elise Goldsberry, who had a triumphant year winning a Tony, a Drama Desk and a Lucille Lortel award for her role in Broadway’s runaway hit Hamilton. But before her turn as the rapping-singing Angelica Schuyler, Goldsberry put in years as a TV actress (One Life to Live, The Good Wife) and on Broadway (The Lion King, Rent). Next up: She zips from the 18th to the 20th century as the lead in the Oprah-produced HBO film, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and then zips to the 25th century as a revolutionary leader in Netflix’s 2017 sci-fi series Altered Carbon.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Shortly after her father’s July 2014 death, Erica Garner began holding rallies and protests on New York City’s Staten Island, not only because she “saw her dad die on TV” (spurring thousands into the streets), but because the police officer who held him in a banned choke hold was not indicted for it. Erica Garner became politicized after her father’s needless homicide and eventually founded the Garner Way Foundation in his name. Her powerful endorsement of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders raised her profile this year; more recently, she fearlessly raised her voice during President Barack Obama’s town hall on race relations, later calling the ABC broadcast “nothing short of full exploitation of black pain and grief.”

Visit her website.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Darnell Moore exercises his labors of love at the intersection of journalism, activism and education. As senior editor at Mic, he uses his platform to dismantle systemic oppression—whether around race, religion, gender, sexuality, socioeconomics or age, writing about everything from racism’s impact on mental health to how the current Supreme Court vacancy intersects with the Movement for Black Lives. Music, marijuana and (toxic) masculinity—it’s all in there. This January, Mic launched its investigative reporting series The Movement, with Moore hosting and exploring the social issues impacting underserved communities, where there is also joy and resilience. “It’s easy to locate media accounts highlighting social ills, but less available, are narratives of progress and transformation,” he says.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

When Bakari Sellers spoke on the last day of this year’s Democratic National Convention, he brought the crowd to its feet by asking the audience to stand for Black Lives Matter, but also by name-dropping Fannie Lou Hamer and Shirley Chisholm. The former South Carolina legislator last year joined CNN after its president saw both his adroit analysis and his genuine emotion in the wake of the horrific Charleston, S.C., church massacre. He is now a regular fixture on the network, strongly opining on politics in general and the presidential election specifically. But government may still beckon: We wouldn’t be surprised if he is named to a post in Hillary Clinton’s administration (if she wins, of course) or makes a run for governor in 2018.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

On His & Hers, the ESPN2 show-slash-podcast she co-hosts with Michael Smith, Hill doesn’t just analyze sports, though she definitely shines in that expertise. The two infuse their banter with astute commentary on current events and social issues, two things Hill is never reluctant to speak on. It’s why she was selected to moderate “The President and the People: A National Conversation,”a town hall with President Barack Obama aired on ABC to create open dialogue about race, policing, justice and equality at the height of a summer when it was particularly dangerous to be black. She then facilitated “An Undefeated Conversation: Athletes, Responsibility and Violence” on ESPN, a discussion with pro athletes concerned about the violence, like Dwyane Wade and Jabari Parker, pulling on Hill’s dexterous skill set to keep the necessary dialogue going.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

The first black female principal of a major American ballet company continues to gracefully step into new spaces, making her Broadway debut as—what else?—a dancer-slash-actress in the musical On the Town. The newlywed Copeland is also slated to be lead dancer in a Disney adaptation of The Nutcracker. She’s serious about giving other young brown and black women the opportunity to live their dance dreams, too. She founded Project Plié, a diversity initiative with the American Ballet Theatre to color up the field, and launched Égal Dance, a line of dance wear that accommodates our natural curves, ranging from an A cup to E cup, with plans to add plus sizes. A superhero who opts for a tutu instead of a cape, she shared her autobiographical story of grit and determination in A Ballerina’s Tale and celebrated the release of the Misty Copeland Barbie as part of Mattel’s Sheroes line (which includes fellow magical black girls Zendaya and Ava DuVernay).

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

When Shaun Harper gave the keynote address at a national education conference in May, he wielded a baseball bat to drive his point home … à la Beyoncé in “Hold Up.” The University of Pennsylvania professor pointedly asks, “Why do we love these white schools so much when they don’t love us back?” Harper’s Center for the Study of Race & Equity in Education has been asking (and answering) these and other questions on race, racism, campus climates and equity in education through ambitious research agendas for years. In 2016, it released a searing report on the dismal graduation rates of black NCAA Division I athletes (pdf) and another on how black men resist and respond to stereotypes in higher ed.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Chicago South Sider Kim Foxx handily trounced Anita Alvarez in the Cook County, Ill., state’s attorney primary this March. If she emerges victorious in November, she will become Chicago’s first African-American top prosecutor, overseeing a $104 million annual budget and more than 900 lawyers. Foxx ran on a “transformative” platform, calling for an independent prosecutor in every police-shooting case, active collaboration between public hospitals, mental-health facilities and jails, and a smarter approach to keeping juveniles out of the criminal courts. As for those who think her proposed reforms rash, Foxx doubles down. “People have been so cautious in their approach,” she says. “And that’s how our systems have been allowed to stagnate and become so dysfunctional.”

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Laura Weidman Powers has an innovative plan to close the racial wealth gap: Get young folks into the tech pipeline. Her nonprofit Code2040 takes black and Latino engineering students and places them in top tech companies, where more than 90 percent received full-time offers from their employers. In just four short years, the company has been able to roll out a residency program for entrepreneurs of color and double its programs thanks to a $1.2 million grant from the Knight Foundation. This summer, President Barack Obama came calling, and Weidman Powers began a six-month term as a senior policy adviser to the U.S. chief technology officer, a post where she will focus on issues of diversity and inclusion in tech.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Heretofore, the U.S. government kept no data on fatal police shootings in America. Enterprising journalist Wesley Lowery was a lead reporter on a team at the Washington Post that did just that. Said crew won a Pulitzer Prize for the “Fatal Force” project, and not only that, the FBI announced this year that it would start keeping such statistical information in 2017. Lowery continues to keeps his more than 420,000 Twitter followers up-to-date on pressing stories of national importance and has written a book, They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement (out Nov. 15), which he describes as his “latest attempt at grappling with our nation’s ongoing struggle with race, justice and ongoing penance for our original sin.”

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

In the last year, Blavity fell into our timelines like a “sun-splosion” from cyberspace. Since its launch in July 2014, the platform has morphed into a community known for its fast takes on everything from breaking news and the benefits of Costco membership to the video series “Strictly 4 My Blerds”—all in the authentic voice of its audience. Blavity currently reaches over a million unique visitors per month and 30 million via social media. Yet, co-founder DeBaun can’t stop, won’t stop: In 2016, the tech entrepreneur kicked off the first ever BlogHer empowerment conference; became a spokesperson for Cadillac; hit the Forbes “30 Under 30” list and launched Blavity Life.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Just call him the energetic operative. Marlon Marshall has been organizing in politics since John Kerry’s 2004 White House bid. He made his mark in the Obama administration but stepped down in January 2015 to return to his 270 Strategies consulting firm. As Hillary Rodham Clinton’s director of state campaigns and political engagement, Marshall is the highest-ranking African-American staffer of any presidential campaign, and is credited with helping to create a diverse campaign team for HRC. He remains a trusted adviser to Clinton—both personally and politically. After the Charleston, S.C., church massacre, Marshall helped the then-Democratic front-runner craft her somber address to the nation afterward, one widely praised for its deep resonance on race in America.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Christopher Emdin had already proved himself an innovative educator when he used hip-hop to teach middle school science in the Bronx, N.Y., years ago. These days his New York Times best-seller, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood … and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education, attempts to revolutionize the way school is taught by upending long-held practices (excessive testing, zero tolerance policies) he says rob black students of “joy.” The Columbia professor instead posits that teachers ditch the hero complexes and learn the culture and mores of the communities in which they teach. The best part of his “reality pedagogy” is that it is free—it just takes a little time to learn a new way of seeing things. A-plus.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

In business, as in life, information is power. And so is capital. To the first point, Kathryn Finney compiled a proprietary research report titled “#ProjectDiane” in 2015 to document just how much venture capital goes to women of color (less than 1 percent). To reconcile that, this summer in Atlanta, Finney’s digitalundivided launched the BIG Innovation Center, a 6,000-square-foot hub to support (and fund) black and Latina entrepreneurs as well as offer paid computer-programming internships to college students in the area. The goal? Economic empowerment. “We think it’s important for all communities to participate and use tech as a tool to foster economic growth,” says Finney.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

He started his career as an intern at Nike and, last year, masterminded a lifetime, billion-dollar deal with the company—that’s billion with a B, billion with nine zeros—on behalf of childhood friend and business partner, LeBron James. That’s an amazing come-up story for the orchestrator of the largest celebrity apparel deal in history, which he retold in May as a guest speaker at Harvard Business School. As much of a phenom as James is on the court, Carter is that much of a business genius, helming other projects that intertwine branding and basketball, including an upcoming movie for Warner Bros., a reality show, the possibility of a Space Jam sequel and the development of Uninterrupted, a first-person storytelling platform for professional athletes hosted by Bleacher Report. That’s the formula for a billion more dollars in the making.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Welteroth is editor of Teen Vogue.

Bio:

Paul Judge shows no signs of relinquishing his crown as the king of “serial entrepreneurs.” This year, as co-founder of tech startup Luma (which recently received a $12.5 million Series A investment from Amazon), Judge plans to upend the personal cybersecurity space by protecting millions of home networks from hackers and viruses. Then there’s Tech Square Labs, a 15,000-square-foot open-plan innovation hub launched in June, created for the next crop of entrepreneurs in partnership with Google. And lest you think he’s just a geek (which is fine), Judge has also launched Curateurs.com, a men’s fashion site with something for tastes that run from Jerry Lorenzo to Kanye West.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

In the treacherous labyrinth that is our criminal-justice system, prosecutors don’t get a lot of scrutiny. And that’s a problem for Adam Foss. “If you think about the number of lives that are ruined by prosecutors, it’s some exponent of the number of people killed by police,” says the former assistant district attorney of Suffolk County, Mass. Last year, Foss teamed up with John Legend to lead Prosecutor Integrity, an outfit seeking to bring a new lens to crime and punishment, training prosecutors on unconscious bias and presenting real alternatives to incarceration (especially with juvenile offenders). His brilliant TED talk on what that could look like has been viewed more than 1.3 million times.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Even if you’re not anything close to a theater lover, you couldn’t avoid the hype around Hamilton, the blockbuster musical about Alexander Hamilton’s life. In it, Jackson shines as Founding Father No. 1, George Washington, an ironic part for a black man to masterfully play. Jackson played it so well, in fact, that he was nominated for a Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical. He didn’t win—fellow cast member Daveed Diggs took home the trophy—but the veteran actor is a standout talent, even on a stage of standout talents. Jackson was also one of the more than 100 members of the theater-arts community to contribute to “Broadway Circle Up—This Is How We Shoot Back,” a video project protesting the continuous violence against black Americans.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

“I wanna be counted; it’s our hands that built this country, our blood that runs through the heart of it,” affirms actor Aldis Hodge as Noah, the smoldering moral center of  WGN America’s hit show Underground. Hodge first caught our attention as Ray “Voodoo” Tatum in a small, but intense, arc on the TV show Friday Night Lights, and then again as an intense MC Ren in Straight Outta Compton. We expect big things from the part-time horologist and watchmaker: Next up, Hodge will star opposite Tom Cruise in the new Jack Reacher movie, and after that, in the film Hidden Figures, with Taraji P. Henson, dropping in 2017.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

When Bozoma Saint John stepped onto the stage at Apple’s famous developer conference in June, she brought all 6 feet of her fierceness to her presentation; she also brought the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” much to the pleasure of the audience of 3,000. As global head of Apple Music, “Boz” has been instrumental in implementing a DJ’s sensibility (human curation) into the music-streaming system, she’s also inked exclusive iTunes deals with such artists as Taylor Swift, and even fashioned that terrific MJB, Taraji and Kerry Apple commercial. The accolades abound: In March, this “bad mama jama” was honored by BET, and in June, she was honored at Apple’s Women of Influence Los Angeles Awards Gala.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

After Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida, Orlando, Fla., native Samuel Sinyangwe wanted to use his gifts to fight the power. The Stanford grad soon realized that there was no accurate data on state and police violence (not even compiled by the government) and so, he and others who “met” on Twitter founded Campaign Zero, which begat the Mapping Police Violence project, which not only compiles comprehensive records on citizens killed by police, but through statistical data, is able to firmly debunk myths like “black-on-black crime justifies police occupation” and the so-called Ferguson effect. This millennial definitely appreciates the promise of technology: “We can use 21st-century tools to amplify and accelerate community building, advocacy, activism and storytelling,” he said.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Not one to just talk big things for the sake of fans, cameras and likes on the ’Gram, Killer Mike issued a #BankBlack call-to-action that catalyzed the opening of more than 8,000 accounts at the black-owned Citizens Trust Bank in Atlanta in just five days. Infuriated by the legitimated slayings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and the corporate silence that surrounds violence against black people, he also called out Michael Jordan, a multi-multimillionaire thanks to black consumers of his eponymous sneaker line, to deposit profits from his $190 “Olympic” Air Jordan 7 into black-owned banks. Jordan didn’t do it, but Killer Mike is holding our public and political figures accountable to make our $1.3 trillion spending power work for us. Killer Mike also jumped into the political arena as an ardent supporter of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

The world was excited about her debut novel well before it was something we could have, hold and enjoy. The buzz around Homegoing was heightened by the spectacular seven-figure advance the Ghanian-born, Alabama-raised Gyasi earned when the book was still in draft form. Tracing the bloodline of two sisters through enslavement and freedom, it’s a multiperspective historical journey that sparkles with her command of a story that will never finish being told. When Homegoing hit shelves, it delivered on every expectation around it, making Gyasi—a graduate of Stanford and the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop—one of the most celebrated new novelists to put words to page.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Green committed her education and career to defeating cancer after the aunt and uncle who raised her were both diagnosed with the disease. As a researcher, the University of Alabama alumna—the second black woman to graduate from there with a doctorate in physics—worked at Tuskegee Institute to improve on existing methods to develop a laser treatment that heats and destroys cancer cells. Chemotherapy and radiation affect the whole body, but Green paired her research with an FDA-approved drug to more effectively narrow treatment to a specific area of infection. To continue her necessary work, she received a $1.1 million Career Development Award from the HBCU Research Scientist Training Program. The cancer slayer is now an assistant professor at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Before her recent promotion to deputy director of congressional affairs for the Hillary Clinton campaign, LaDavia Drane served as Clinton’s director of African-American outreach, where she acted as an influential liaison between Clinton’s presidential platform and the urgent interests of black voters. Her new role is powered by the credibility she built as the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus and a director of federal and regional affairs in the Washington, D.C., mayoral office. In short, sis got this. Will we see a similar turnout for the first woman nominated by a major party as we did for similarly historic elections in 2008 and 2012? If Drane has her way, the answer will be “Yes.”

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Her year has been the kind that writers dream about. Commissioned by Marvel this summer to write the Black Panther series spinoff, World of Wakanda, the story of two black, queer warrior women, Gay will team up with fellow writer Ta-Nehisi Coates for what will be her first experience writing a comic and the first Marvel comic to be written by a black woman. Her debut novel, An Untamed State, is becoming a movie, with a screenplay she’ll co-write with the film’s director, Gina Prince-Bythewood (of Love and Basketball and Beyond the Lights fame). And, to make the last 365 days just a bit more sensational, Gay—who is an associate professor of creative writing at Purdue University—also won the notable 2015 Freedom to Write Award from the PEN Center USA.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Given the current political climate against Muslims in the United States, it was especially significant that Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first American to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab. Of course, Muhammad repped the country with aplomb and came home with a team bronze for saber-fencing. Her mere presence (like her Mini campaign) defies labels, and the creator of Louella clothing has strong opinions she is not afraid to express: “I’m hoping that through my experiences here at the Olympic Games—winning a medal—that I combat those stereotypes about Muslims and African Americans, and even women.” Muhammad also has a very American sense of humor. “I’m just your basic Hijabi Zorro,” she jokingly says.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

A career-long provocateur of civil rights and racial justice, Hannah-Jones’ expertise as a journalist is school segregation, an issue she heroically explores with rigor and perspective. Now a reporter for the New York Times Magazine, she won the prestigious 2016 Peabody Award for her three-part This American Life series, detailing the uniquely emotional experiences of students encountering school segregation in Ferguson, Mo., Hartford, Conn., and the Bronx, N.Y. She personalized the conversation in “Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City,” a pivotal piece about how she decided to educate her child in New York City. To top off a year full of flourish, Hannah-Jones co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting to support journalists of color in deeper research and storytelling.

Visit her website.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

We know Hill for being a CNN-commentating, BET News-hosting cultural analyst and education expert. But, sometimes, a guy just wants to lighten up a little. His late-night show, VH1 Live, premiered in July and lets him be more Marc Lamont and less Dr. Hill and dive into pop culture and current events from a conversational angle. He can talk about Colin Kaepernick’s anthem protest and Yung Joc’s perm with the cast of Power or the stars of Love & Hip Hop. His new venture hasn’t watered down his wokeness, though. A professor of African-American studies at Morehouse, Hill earned a spot among the New York Times best-sellers this year with his insightful release, Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Pastor Howard-John Wesley is making sure that the Alfred Street Baptist Church is living up to its glorious legacy. In the 1920s, the now 213-year old church created the first high school curriculum for black students in the area; last year the church gave away $2.1 million in scholarship money at its annual HBCU fair, the largest in the nation. The thriving activist congregation has nearly 80 ministries taking on issues from food insecurity to racial justice. Last November, ASBC gave a $1 million gift to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, more evidence that Pastor Wesley leads “a church that’s real about its walk … and its work in the world.” Praise God.

Visit his website.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

The Bernie Sanders campaign wasn’t successful in its most obvious goal: getting the senator to the Oval Office. But it was a showcase for Symone Sanders’ amazing ability to build, manage and make thrive a press presence that fed a frenzied, almost rock-star movement. As people were feeling the Bern, they were really feeling the work of Sanders, who poignantly articulated his platform in the media, wrangled throngs of reporters and crafted responses to protesters who wanted to test the candidate’s grit, particularly around highly emotional and inflammatory issues (but what isn’t in an election year?). A champion for women and a Black Lives Matter supporter, she bridged conversations between Bernie Sanders and would-be voters who saw in him the possibility for change. That’s the result of the Symone Sanders effect.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

When a brother with a degree from Stanford School of Business has a heart for consumers who look like him, their problems become his inspiration. Frustrated with multiblade razors that burdened 80 percent of black consumers with razor bumps, Walker developed Bevel, a five-product shaving system with an optimal, single-blade razor that is kinder to our skin. His conscientious startup, Walker & Co., raised $24 million in capital from investors including Magic Johnson, John Legend and Andre Iguodala, with a freshly inked deal to sell Bevel in select Target stores and plans to develop more high-quality products for people of color. Bonus: He’s breaking with Silicon Valley tradition by intentionally recruiting women and minorities for the growing company.

Visit his website.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

If any news of note breaks in the African-American community, chances are Shaun King is on it—disseminating the latest developments in real time. Keeping his more than 365,000 Twitter followers in the loop, the activist and writer significantly expanded his platform last year by becoming a justice writer for the New York Daily News, a New York tabloid with national reach, and amplifying issues of import to the black community. Though dogged by controversy from both the right and the left, King remains unbowed and prolifically committed to unearthing injustice; this summer, penning a 25-part series on exactly how to remedy the scourge of police brutality in America, required reading for anyone serious about reform.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Like many other young, black men, Smith didn’t think he’d live to see 25. When he did, it was a pivotal moment, even more so because it was also the year in which Trayvon Martin was killed. Black men seeing the deaths of other black men while they’re still trying to stand up in their own awareness is one of the issues Smith poignantly reflects upon in his book, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education, which published this year as an immediate New York Times best-seller. The book is an extension of the thought-provoking writing Smith does regularly as a contributor to The Nation, a Knobler fellow at the Nation Institute and a freelance writer and social analyst on issues around social justice, hip-hop, identity and blackness.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Clayton is a superstar at BuzzFeed, the millennial-driven media powerhouse where she writes big, funny things. That evolved into Another Round, the podcast she co-hosts with fellow BuzzFeed staffer Heben Nigatu, and which they describe as “happy hour with friends you haven’t met yet.” The two create hilarious, insightful, boozy conversation—they really knock back drinks, which Clayton says is an important part of the show—in an unapologetically black space that shuts down “What will white people think?” respectability. Sometimes they have guests, including Valerie Jarrett, Marlon Wayans and Hillary Clinton, giving Clayton a chance to flex the reporting skills that also helped make her the enviable 2016-2017 Ida B. Wells Media Expert-in-Residence for the Anna Julia Cooper Center at Wake Forest University.

Visit the podcast’s website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

The commonality threading Lucas’ former gig as publisher of Guernica, the self-described magazine of art and politics, and her newest role as executive director of the National Book Foundation is adoration for the magic of reading, writing and expression with words. It’s the kind of job cherished by a woman who’s been deep in love with books her entire life. Lucas is only the third person to hold the leadership position at the 27-year-old organization, which oversees the National Book Awards, and she is the first woman and the first African American to have the job. In addition to her day-to-day responsibilities of being the boss, she’s working to build diversity and inclusion so that the books we love reflect the lives we all live.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

You know your work is meaningful when the United Nations invites you to be part of a conversation about race. Tometi is a member of the tripartite team of exceptional women who founded #BlackLivesMatter, now expanded to 28 chapters nationwide, and is also executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. Before she delivered her remarks in July as part of the UN’s interactive panel on advancing equality, she paused for a moment of silence in honor of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, proving even in that gesture that the fight against institutional and structural racism must war on. During her address, she cited three challenges the United States and other countries have to improve to advance human rights: global capitalism, white supremacy and the suppression of democracy.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

It makes perfect sense that longtime labor advocate Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins counseled Prince on his final deal with Warner Brothers, a company he was once at war with. In the year before his death, Prince gained control of his masters in what Ellis-Lamkins termed  a “magnificent” feat, not only cementing his own legacy but gifting all musicians a blueprint for just compensation. Ellis-Lamkins, the former CEO of Green for All and current head of care at Honor, a worker-friendly home health care company backed by Marc Andreessen, continues her own legacy of fighting for the exploited—whether they be minimum-wage workers in California’s Bay Area or pop icons gone too soon.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

She says the things that you want to say but don’t, except she says them funnier. Ajayi’s wit and candor spilled out from Awesomely Luvvie, the blog that changed how we internet, into the pages of her first book, I’m Judging You: The Do Better Manual, a laugh-out-loud collection of essayed observations about pop culture, bad behavior and Herculean pettiness. It was a best-seller on Amazon from presales, shouted out by Shonda Rhimes and featured on Oprah’s Supersoul 100 list, all before the book was even released. The writer and humorist is also an activist, using her platform to increase awareness around how HIV and AIDS affects women and girls, through the Red Pump Project, the nonprofit organization she co-founded in 2009.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

McSpadden has been busy ensuring the world never forgets her son, Michael Brown, his life and the inhumane way in which it ended on a street in Ferguson, Mo., in unwarranted police gunfire. This year, she paid silent tribute to Michael in Beyoncé’s epic visual album, Lemonade, and met with presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton as part of a delegation of mothers whose children were killed in gun violence. Her autobiography, Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, and Love of My Son Michael Brown, continues her work to keep his story alive, detailing her own life as well as her experiences rearing—and losing—her son.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Towns is a lifelong tech guy who is serious about firming inclusive entrepreneurship for more people of color to get into the field and build their own flourishing businesses. A serial entrepreneur himself, he created and facilitated the Entrepreneur in Residence Program at CODE2040, a partnership with Google that gives black and Latino startup founders funding, support and space to work on their respective business ideas full-time under the promise that they be committed to giving back to their local tech community of color. He’s helped black-owned startups get millions of dollars in funding, and now the venture capitalist will continue that highly necessary work with the launch of Groundwork, a $10 million hybrid accelerator and venture fund to connect and nurture minority-owned startups across the country, starting in Washington, D.C.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

There are times when an N.W.A lyric makes the ideal sentiment, and May found hers at a rally dubbed “Chicago’s Day of Action,” on behalf of the embattled public school district. Following a string of polite addresses from union leaders, she took the mic for her scheduled comments and said, “[F–k] the police, [f–k] CPD and [f–k] anybody who roll with them.” An educator at Village Leadership Academy, a private school in the city, and a member of Assata’s Daughters, a group of young, black women organized around community issues in Chicago, her every mode of communication was flooded with vitriol, the ire of city leadership, even death threats. But after protesting the police killing of Laquan McDonald in the streets and publicly calling for the abolition of the police department, May ain’t never scared.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

In a speech that had her whole audience dabbing at tears at the 25th anniversary Teach for America summit, Hanks recalled how encountering a student she’d previously expelled changed her approach to school discipline. Using her authority as an administrator to help black students stay out of the school-to-prison pipeline, she revamped zero-tolerance discipline policies that failed to explore and solve student misbehavior. She then eliminated suspensions in preschool through third grade and revised the list of offenses punishable by suspension or expulsion for grades 4–12. “In our first year of implementation, we saw suspensions decrease by more than 40 percent across the district, which restored 1,900 days of what would have been lost instruction—1,200 of which were for African-American students,” she said.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Carter has adventured through the music industry to get to his latest big move. As CEO and founder of the artist-management firm Atom Factory, he oversaw the careers of hit-makers like Lady Gaga and John Legend and built a wow-factor portfolio of tech investments that include Uber and Dropbox. In June, Spotify recruited the music-business mastermind to lead the global creator services team, acting as the central contact for artists and managers and securing prime content to delight its 89 million (and counting) users. His talents give the company a one-up in the music-streaming face-offs between Apple, Tidal and others on the way up. “My job is just a natural continuation of what I’ve always done—protect the voice of artists. Always have and always will,” he wrote on Facebook.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

It’s both an honor and a responsibility to be called a “genius,” and she accepts both with a determination to instigate change around environmental justice and preserving community history. Frazier was a TED2015 fellow and the only photographer to earn the distinguished MacArthur “genius” grant last year. For her latest photographic storytelling project, “Flint Is Family,” she visited Flint, Mich., capturing the catastrophic effects of the water crisis on the predominantly black city from the perspective of 32-year-old resident Shea Cobb and three generations of her relatives. Frazier’s collection of provocative photos and short film humanizes the “worst man-made environmental catastrophe in recent national memory.”

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

By now, it’s no longer an internal secret that the tech industry needs an implosion of diversity and inclusion. After 15 years in that world, Baker wanted to be the one to light the fuse. In 2014, she told the truth and shamed the devil in “The Other Side of Diversity,” a viral post about what it’s like to be an “only” inside Silicon Valley culture. This year, she joined four other leading women in tech to launch Project Include, a collaboration to compile and share data that helps companies, especially new ones, be intentional about hiring across race, gender, orientation and beyond. It’s also part of her daily job responsibilities: She left her engineering gig at Google for one at tech startup Slack after its CEO replied to a photo she live-tweeted from a Ferguson, Mo., protest, and has been fielding inclusion there ever since.
Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Baker co-founded the Project Include initiative to increase diversity and inclusion in the tech industry.

Bio:

It took a year for Kassandra Frederique and community stakeholders in Ithaca, N.Y.—from the city’s mayor and police chief to local drug users and their families—to formulate a revolutionary approach to drug deaths and overincarceration there. In February, the result was “The Ithaca Plan: A Public Health and Safety Approach to Drugs and Drug Policy,” which changes the punitive model that’s ineffectively used across the U.S. to engulf a disproportionate number of people of color and low-income people in the criminal-justice system. Frederique and her team have worked to save lives by advocating for the nation’s first supervised shooting gallery, a controlled health care setting where heroin users can more safely inject drugs and get access to treatment, medical care and social services.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

She takes on the kind of TV and film projects that make people pay attention. (Y’all saw Dear White People, right? Yeah, she produced that. Ever watch Bones? Good, ’cause she wrote for that show, too.) Waithe shone in front of the camera last year, adding intersectional depth as Denise, a black lesbian, opposite Aziz Ansari in Netflix’s Master of None and incorporating another credential to her already multihyphenate title. What’s really buzzing is her upcoming Showtime pilot, The Chi, a coming-of-age drama about a young, black man, set in her native South Side Chicago and executive-produced by Common. Waithe—one of the Hollywood Reporter’s 10 TV breakout stars—will write and co-executive-produce the hourlong pilot for the network.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

McAllister’s campaign slogan, #OneBigTeam, describes his intention to unify Pittsburgh’s historically divided 14th Congressional District, where he grew up. In the April primary, he earned more than 2,000 votes, double the number he needed to become the write-in candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Congress. And, if he wins, he’ll be the first black U.S. congressman in the history of Pittsburgh’s congressional seat. His platform is built on being “urban-focused,” establishing relationships with people in both the streets and the suburbs to make his conservative vision work for everyone. A former youth minister, McAllister distances himself from Donald Trump’s politics, operating, instead, under what he calls “conservatism with inclusion and diversity,” a good strategy given the temperament of the current political climate in his city.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

He wakes up every day to do a job that he created to help close the tech divide for African Americans and Hispanics. In 2013, Cambry founded Blue1647 to train students in computer languages—his is the only national apprenticeship program in software development to be certified by the Department of Labor—and provide co-working space for business owners to grow their tech startups. He opened two locations in Chicago, then St. Louis and Compton, Calif., serving more than 2,400 mostly black and Hispanic people. Alums of the programs have gone on to intern at Google and qualify for tech jobs they never would have been able to get had they not gone through the Blue1647 experience. This year, Cambry won the SXSW community service award, a well-deserved honor for community-changing work.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

The first thing to know about Stacy Brown-Philpot: Sis is smart. She went to undergrad at Wharton and has an MBA from Stanford, but it’s the natural sensibilities for tech, not necessarily her alma maters and degrees, that make her intelligence shine. When she was promoted from COO to CEO of TaskRabbit this year, she celebrated a double victory: one for her own career and one for all women of color, making herself a role model to young girls and women who aspire to leadership in the tech field. In her volunteer time, the change-maker, who is a 2016 Henry Crown fellow and Aspen Global Leadership Network member, is a director of Black Girls Code, shaping an impending influx of young women qualified to fill businesses in California’s Bay Area with color.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

In May, Buie was among the 105 honorees invited by President Barack Obama to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the country’s highest accolade for researchers in the early stages of their independent careers. An associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he explores how microbial physiology and flow physics can apply to a range of problems in the world outside of the laboratory. Six months after he started, his sister died from sepsis, a bacterial infection, further fueling his passion for helping others through his advanced postdoctoral research. Buie reaches back to help more minority scientists become faculty, a much-needed addition to our research labs and classrooms.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

In the last few years, travel abroad has become de rigueur for adventurous black millennials thanks in large part to Evita Robinson, founder of Nomadness Travel Tribe, an international online travel community of more than 13,000 members. Last year, was a banner one for the outfit with the launch of the web docuseries, The Nomadness Project (co-produced by celebrated creative Issa Rae), as well as a merchandise partnership with Rue107, launching a line of haute “curve friendly” swimsuits. This year sees the second #NMDN, an alternative travel conference with unique panels such as “LGBTQ Travel,” “Beauty on the Go,” “Black Lives Abroad” and travel wisdom from “seasoned” (50 and older) travelers. Wanderlust has never been so black … and beautiful.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Whether working in entertainment (as CEO and founder of WEEN), the nonprofit world (the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network) or government (U.S. Department of Commerce), Valeisha Butterfield-Jones continues her career-long trajectory of combining community empowerment, engagement and activism. Since January, when she moved into her dream job as Google’s head of black community engagement, Butterfield-Jones has already made a dent, not only spearheading efforts of black recruitment and retention within the company, but vigorously supporting organizations like Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative, Black Lives Matter and Black Girls Code to the tune of a $2.8 million space in its New York City headquarters.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Haben Girma is the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School. In her final year, the once-competitive ballroom dancer and budding surfer was named by fellow Harvard Law graduate President Barack Obama as a White House Champion of Change. After working as a disability-rights lawyer, Girma is now a full-time advocate and educator. This summer, she spoke at Apple’s renowned World Wide Developer Conference, stressing the benefit of tech inclusivity for us all. The onus, after all, is on us. “Disability never holds anyone back,” stresses Girma. “All the barriers that exist are created by society, and it’s up to all of us to work together to dismantle [them].”

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Jedidah Isler is a star who studies them. In 2014, she became the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Yale; two years later, she continues to shine as a National Science Foundation astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt. This May, Isler was named one of National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers and will be project lead for a group studying massive black holes in distant galaxies called blazars. Last December, this popular TED fellow shut down a Supreme Court justice’s insipid questions around affirmative action in a New York Times op-ed, and she continues to mentor young women in STEM, as she once was. One day, she plans to become an astronaut. Brilliant.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Lisnr is the world’s first and only data-over-audio solution, using “smart tones” (audio completely silent to humans) that effectively turn any speaker—be it a stadium public-address system or the TV in your living room—into a beacon that can trigger second-screen experiences on any device, regardless of Wi-Fi connectivity. Co-founded in 2012 by MBA and business guru Rodney Williams, Lisnr is having a banner year. It was nominated as a finalist for this year’s SXSW’s Music and Audio Innovation Award for its Made in America Festival app, and has raised a $10 million series B round led by Intel Capital. Disruption in this case is a good thing. “Our goal is to have the Lisnr button right next to the Bluetooth button,” says Williams.

Like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

They say today’s movement is leader-ful. Proof positive would be one Idalin “Abby” Bobé, who is commanding her corner of the world at the intersection of tech and activism. Back in 2014, Bobé was on the ground in Ferguson, Mo., developing and helping to fund Hands Up United’s Roy Clay Sr. institute—named for the Missouri native and “Black Godfather of Silicon Valley.” The institute offered a free, multiweek workshop for area residents ages 16-30 that taught them HTML, mobile app design and entrepreneurial skills. Bobé is currently an IT consultant and social-justice lead at ThoughtWorks. Her life’s work has been about creating technology-centered programs dedicated to bridging the digital divide among youth activists and developing more technical community-driven leaders.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Jimmere has a gorgeous head of hair and an entrepreneurial mind, both of which have helped her be her best testimonial. The Detroit-based CEO is a history-maker as the first black woman to patent a natural-hair-care product and a moneymaker who has turned Naturalicious, the rapidly growing business she launched with just $32 in the bank, into a seven-figure brand. She uses her growing enterprise to give back to the community: She intentionally hires employees for her production team who are overcoming mental and physical challenges and co-founded Pitch Proof, a platform to coach and prepare aspiring entrepreneurs for the process of pitching their business ideas to potential investors.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

You know how they say everything happens for a reason? If Hutson hadn’t served 51 months in federal prison for marijuana trafficking, he may not have learned how difficult it is for folks on the inside to stay connected to the people they love outside. He might not have gotten the business idea for Pigeonly, the app he started working on in 2012 when he was in a Tampa, Fla., halfway house. Fortunately, his journey led to six backers, who funded the tech startup that allows inmates to share pictures, send letters and make lower-cost phone calls to family and friends. Now with $5 million in venture capital, Hutson has plans to create more real-life tech solutions for underserved and low-income markets, making Pigeonly social entrepreneurism at its best.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

In 2011, while studying biochemistry at Bowie State, Luke Lawal Jr. launched HBCU Buzz, an online news outlet that provides daily coverage of all 105 HBCUs. In five short years, HBCU Buzz has become the premier online news source for everything HBCU (including a store) and covers everything from a taste of game day marching bands to overcoming depression at an HBCU. The site now offers premiere video content and brand extensions with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, HBCUs for Obama, and political on-campus events across the nation. In April, HBCU Buzz partnered with Black Enterprise to expand media coverage and foster pride for the HBCU community.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Mapp is on a rafting, hiking, camping, biking, skiing, fishing mission to connect black folks to and through the bounties of nature. She started Outdoor Afro as her blog in 2009, and it’s bloomed into a community of 16,786 adventure enthusiasts spanning 31 MeetUp groups across the country, and scads of others who join activities via social media and word of mouth. As their fearless leader who trains other outdoorists to be leaders too, she kicks down stereotypes and institutionalized obstructions. For her work as the ultimate tour guide through the great outdoors and leadership in environmental education and justice, Mapp—a former analyst—was honored this year with the Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs Award by the North American Association for Environmental Education.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Her blog, Afrobella, turned 10 this year and it was a happy birthday for the pioneering site, created by Yursik in 2006 when she was looking for an online space that honored the natural beauty of women of color—our curly hair, our curvy figures—and couldn’t find any. The “Godmother of Brown Beauty Blogging,” she has leveraged her blogging and beauty expertise into an explosive brand, partnering this spring with Eden BodyWorks to host her first-ever travel event as part of the company’s #EDENGoesGlobal campaign to celebrate women’s interpretation of beauty around the world. Bonus: It was in her native Trinidad.

Visit her website and like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

As an academic who has fastidiously examined black political and social struggle in this country, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor has been able to aptly show the keen connection between state violence and poverty (“Perhaps American violence is most acutely evident in the extreme inequality that exists here,” she wrote). In her recently released book, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, Taylor has absconded from the ivory tower to break down the current Movement for Black Lives, arguing that it holds the potential to reignite a broader push for black liberation. The outspoken writer and professor indeed uses her mind. Perhaps if we listen, our free can/will follow.

Like her Facebook page.

Claim to Fame:

Bio:

Richards was looking for some spiritual healing following a breakup when he got the divinely inspired idea for his thriving online business. With $700,000 in startup funding from a team of black investors, the Morehouse grad launched Roho, an online library of some 15,000 hours of sermons from hundreds of African-American ministers nationwide. Richards, a minister himself who resigned from his position as assistant pastor at Harlem’s historic Abyssinian Baptist Church this year to build Roho—which means “spirit” in Swahili—cherishes the word, but measures the analytics, studying viewers’ interactions with sermons to help him bridge the tech divide for black Christians. With some big-deal ministers on board to use Roho, a comparable “Spotify for sermons,” he’s reaching 50,000 people a month and counting.

Visit his website and like his Facebook page.

Claim to Fame: