Paying Homage
A verified registry of the people building, making, and shaping what shows up on black.wiki. Over time, verified entries will receive plaques, certificates, and contributor cards — a durable record of who put in the work.
Public Enemy — Fight the Power
1989 song featured in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.
R. Kelly — 12 Play
R. Kelly's 1993 debut album — a difficult legacy artist with an undeniable commercial impact at the time.
Ralph Ellison — Invisible Man
1952 novel that opens at a Southern Black college modeled on Tuskegee and ends in a Harlem coal cellar.
Ray Charles — Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
1962 album that broke the country-music color line.
Richard Pryor — Live in Concert
1979 Richard Pryor concert film widely cited as the greatest stand-up special ever filmed.
Roxane Gay — Bad Feminist
2014 essay collection that brought Black feminist criticism into the mainstream.
Sade — Promise
1985 sophomore album from Sade Adu that consolidated her as one of the era's defining vocalists.
Sam Cooke — A Change Is Gonna Come
Sam Cooke's 1964 protest anthem still played at moments of civil-rights reckoning.
Selma
Ava DuVernay's 2014 film centering the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting-rights marches.
Snoop Dogg — Doggystyle
Snoop Dogg's 1993 solo debut, produced by Dr. Dre.
Solange — A Seat at the Table
2016 album that centered Black female interiority, rage, and worth.
Solange — When I Get Home
2019 album celebrating Houston, Texas as Solange's home and Black Southern interiority.
Spike Lee — Do the Right Thing
Spike Lee's 1989 Brooklyn-summer-day film.
Spike Lee — Get on the Bus
1996 road film following Black men traveling cross-country to the Million Man March in DC.
Stacey Abrams — 2020 Concession Refusal
Stacey Abrams's 2018 refusal to concede the Georgia gubernatorial race.
Stevie Wonder — Innervisions
1973 Stevie Wonder album recognized as one of the greatest in pop history.
Stevie Wonder — Songs in the Key of Life
1976 double-LP considered Stevie's masterpiece and one of the greatest albums in pop history.
Ta-Nehisi Coates — Between the World and Me
2015 epistolary essay to Coates's son on Black life in America.
The Color Purple
Alice Walker's 1982 epistolary novel set in rural Georgia between the wars.
Tina Turner — Private Dancer
1984 comeback album that established Turner as a global rock star.
TLC — CrazySexyCool
TLC's 1994 sophomore album that became the best-selling album by a female group ever.
Toni Braxton — Toni Braxton
Toni Braxton's 1993 debut album.
Toni Morrison — Beloved
1987 novel based on the true story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved woman who killed her daughter rather than allow her recapture.
Toni Morrison — Jazz
Toni Morrison's 1992 novel set in 1920s Harlem.