This is a list of African Americans, also known as Black Americans or Afro-Americans. African Americans are an ethnic group consisting of citizens of the United States mainly descended from various West African and Central African peoples with possible minor additional ancestry from Europe or indigenous Americans and other regions of Africa. As an ethnic group, African Americans are largely the modern-day descendants of West Africans and Central Africans brought to the US from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade who developed a new and distinct cultural identity during their time in the Americas.

100 Greatest African Americans is a biographical dictionary of one hundred historically great Black Americans, as assessed by Temple University professor Molefi Kete Asante in 2002. A similar book was written by Columbus Salley. First published in 1992, Salley's book is titled The Black 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential African-Americans, Past and Present.