100 Greatest African Americans

100 Greatest African Americans is a biographical dictionary of the one hundred historically greatest African Americans, as assessed by Molefi Kete Asante in 2002.

Criteria

Asante used five factors in establishing the list:

"significance in the general progress of African Americans toward full equality in the American social and political system"
"self-sacrifice and a willingness to take great risks for the collective good"
"unusual will and determination in the face of great danger and against the most stubborn odds"
"a consistent posture toward raising the social, cultural and economic status of African Americans"
"personal achievement that reveals the best qualities of the African American people"

Asante consciously omits some contemporary celebrities, whom he did not consider notable enough for a historical list.

Asante does not rank the historical figures.

List

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Critique

A reviewer of this dictionary noted the brevity of some entries, then stated: "More serious perhaps is the lack of more critical information on the people’s [sic] whose biographies are presented." ^[1]

Notes

^ Cline, A, Book review of Asante, MF, "100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia", 2002, in Website of about.com, a part of The New York Times Company Accessed January 5, 2009.

References

Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.

[1] Cline, A, Book review of Asante, MF, "100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia", 2002, in Website of about.com, a part of The New York Times Company Accessed January 5, 2009.

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