About the African American National Biography

The African American National Biography (AANB) will be the largest narrative collection of black lives ever assembled in our nation"s history by almost tenfold. Utilizing a base of 1,000 biographies of black Americans from the American National Biography (ANB), the project is commissioning more than 3,500 additional original biographies, written by some of today"s most eminent scholars.

A team of gifted writers and editors has been assembled at Harvard University"s W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American American Research by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Starting in the fall of 2002, they have been working with the scholarly community in gathering African American lives that fall into three categories. The first are those individuals who do not appear in the ANB but who achieved a level of fame and whose lives have been written about and studied, including such figures as Henry "Box" Brown, a slave who mailed himself in a crate to freedom; the classicist W. S. Scarborough; educator, suffragist, and author Frances Rollin; and the blues musician Arizona Dranes. The second category will capture a layer of African American biography never before collected and written as an accessible narrative, even though supporting documents and records exist. These will possibly be the most exciting entries because readers will be introduced to new historical figures. The third category will encompass a select group of living African Americans, a departure from ANB practice. It is important to include this group because a disproportionate number of African Americans who have made significant historical contributions did so in the twentieth century and more specifically in the latter half of the twentieth century. And many of these people are alive. We are thinking of individuals such as Maya Angelou and Gordon Parks, Sr., figures who have made a lasting impression on our nation and our identity as Americans.

Upholding the editorial and academic standards set by the American National Biography, AANB entries, ranging in length from 900 to 3000 words, will be signed by their authors and will include bibliographic notes and citations. Extensive indexing will provide a quick resource for both pinpointing individuals and browsing categories. Indispensable as a research tool into black history, the African American National Biography will be a milestone in the field of African American studies.