Legacy Honorees
Part of Reckoning with Academy History
The Legacy Recognition Program recognizes individuals who were not members of the Academy and whose accomplishments were overlooked or undervalued due to their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.
The initiative, launched in 2023, is rooted in the values of the Academy’s Anti-Racism Committee and its statement establishing a responsibility to “seek to undo the wrongs and to move us forward in the search for racial justice, advancing the ongoing project of perfecting our Union.” This is part of the Academy's commitment to reckoning with its history.
All Legacy Honorees – recognized in 2024 (the first year), 2025, and just added in October 2026 – are in alphabetical order.
Legacy Honorees
Henry “Hank” Aaron
Athlete; Company executive; Advocate (civil rights)
Julian Francis Abele
Architect
Abigail Adams
Humanitarian; Advocate (women's rights)
Numa Pompilius Garfield Adams
Physician; Educator; Academic administrator
Jane Addams
Social worker; Reformer; Writer (essays, nonfiction)
Alvin Ailey
Dancer; Choreographer
Louisa May Alcott
Writer (novelist, short story writer, poet)
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander
Lawyer; Advocate (civil rights)
Maya Angelou
Writer (poet, memoirist, nonfiction writer, novelist); Advocate (civil rights)
Louis Armstrong
Musician (trumpeter, vocalist)
Ruth Aiko Asawa
Artist (sculptor)
Joaquin Guadalupe Avila
Lawyer; Advocate (voting rights)
Ella Josephine Baker
Community organizer; Nonprofit organization executive; Advocate (civil rights)
Josephine Baker
Dancer; Musician (singer); Actor
James Baldwin
Writer (essays, novels); Advocate (civil rights)
Benjamin Banneker
Mathematician; Astronomer; Naturalist
Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton
Nurse; Educator; Nonprofit organization founder and executive; Humanitarian
Derrick A. Bell, Jr.
Lawyer; Scholar; Advocate (civil rights)
Louis Dembitz Brandeis
Lawyer; Jurist (U.S. Supreme Court)
Gwendolyn Brooks
Writer (novelist, poet); Poet laureate; Educator
Letitia Woods Brown
Historian
Pearl S. Buck
Writer (novelist, essayist); Humanitarian
Carlos Bulosan
Writer (novelist, poet)
Annie Jump Cannon
Astronomer
Tommy Wayne “T. C.” Cannon, Pai-doung-a-day (One Who Stands in the Sun)
Artist (painter, printmaker)
Rachel Carson
Marine biologist; Writer (nonfiction); Conservationist
George Washington Carver
Agricultural scientist; Inventor
Elizabeth Catlett
Artist (sculptor, printmaker); Educator
Shirley Anita Chisholm
Legislator; Member U.S. House of Representatives
Mamie Phipps Clark
Social psychologist
Harvey Lavan “Van” Cliburn, Jr.
Musician (pianist)
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman
Aviator
Marvel Jackson Cooke
Journalist; Writer (literary critic, essayist); Advocate (civil rights)
Rupert Costo
Writer (nonfiction writer); Historian; Publisher; Engineer; Farmer; Philanthropist
Marie Maynard Daly
Biochemist
Ella Cara Deloria, Aŋpétu Wašté Wiŋ (Beautiful Day Woman)
Writer (novelist, nonfiction); Educator; Ethnographer; Linguist
Vine Victor Deloria, Jr.
Writer (nonfiction writer); Historian; Theologian; Advocate (Native American rights)
Frederick Douglass
Social reformer; Abolitionist; Orator; Writer; Statesman
Charles R. Drew
Surgeon; Medical scientist
W. E. B. Du Bois
Sociologist; Historian; Advocate (civil rights)
Katherine Dunham
Dancer; Choreographer; Anthropologist; Advocate (civil rights)
Matilda Arabella Evans
Physician; Hospital founder and administrator
Ella Jane Fitzgerald
Musician (singer); Songwriter; Composer
Aretha Franklin
Musician (singer, pianist); Songwriter
John Garcia
Psychologist
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Arts patron; Philanthropist
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry
Writer (playwright); Advocate (civil rights)
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Writer (poet, essayist, novelist, short story writer); Advocate (civil rights, women's rights)
Dorothy Irene Height
Advocate (civil rights, women’s rights)
William Augustus Hinton
Bacteriologist; Pathologist; Educator
Billie Holiday
Musician (singer)
Charles Hamilton Houston
Lawyer; Academic administrator
Zora Neale Hurston
Writer (novelist, essayist, short story writer); Anthropologist; Folklorist
Omar ibn Said
Islamic scholar; Writer (autobiographer)
Creola Katherine Johnson
Mathematician
Scott Joplin
Composer; Musician (pianist)
Barbara Jordan
Lawyer; Member, U.S. House of Representatives; Educator
Ernest Everett Just
Biologist; Embryologist; Cytologist; Writer (science writer)
Hedy Lamarr
Actor; Inventor
Henrietta Swan Leavitt
Astronomer
Bruce Lee
Actor; Filmmaker; Philosopher
Edmonia Lewis
Artist (sculptor)
John Robert Lewis
Advocate (civil rights); Member, U.S. House of Representatives
Lin Yutang
Writer (essayist, novelist, translator, nonfiction writer); Linguist
Alain Locke
Philosopher; Writer; Educator
Audre Lorde
Writer (poet, novelist, essayist); Advocate (civil rights, women's rights)
Alfred James Lotka
Mathematician; Physical chemist; Biostatistician
Thurgood Marshall
Lawyer; Jurist (U.S. Supreme Court)
Maria Montoya Martinez, Po’ve’ka (Water Lily)
Artist (potter)
Festus Claudius “Claude” McKay
Writer (poet, novelist)
William D’Arcy McNickle
Anthropologist; Historian; Writer (novelist, short story writer); Advocate (Native American rights)
Ynés Enriquetta Julietta Mexia
Botanist
Patsy Takemoto Mink
Lawyer; Member, U.S. House of Representatives; Advocate (women's rights)
Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
Lawyer; Businessman; Diplomat; U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
Margaretta Hare Morris
Entomologist
George Morrison, Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Ga Bo (Standing in the Northern Lights)
Artist (painter, sculptor)
Constance Baker Motley
Lawyer; Jurist; Public official; Advocate (civil rights)
Luis Muñoz Marín
Journalist; Government official
Pauli Murray
Legal scholar; Writer; Clergy member; Advocate (civil rights, women's rights)
Mary Alice Nelson (Molly Dellis, Molly Spotted Elk)
Dancer; Actor; Writer (novelist, nonfiction writer)
Amalie Emmy Noether
Mathematician
Zelia Nuttall
Archaeologist; Anthropologist
Alfonso Alex Ortiz
Cultural anthropologist
Nam June Paik
Artist (multimedia and video artist, sculptor)
Frances Perkins
U.S. Secretary of Labor; Advocate (workers’ rights)
Susan LaFlesche Picotte
Physician; Advocate (Native American rights)
Alexander Lawrence Posey
Writer (poet); Humorist; Journalist; Politician; Academic administrator
Tatiana Avenirovna Proskouriakoff
Archeologist
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor
Comedian; Actor
Ernest Anthony “Tito” Puente, Jr.
Composer; Musician (percussionist)
Paul Robeson
Musician (bass-baritone); Actor; Advocate (civil rights)
Howard Rock, Uyaġak (Rock)
Newspaper editor; Advocate (Native American rights)
William Penn Adair “Will” Rogers
Columnist; Humorist; Social commentator; Actor
Solomon Schechter
Rabbi; Scholar; Educator
Fritz William Scholder V
Artist (painter, lithographer, sculptor)
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
Historian; Writer (nonfiction writer, essayist); Curator; Political activist
Nina Simone
Musician (pianist, singer, songwriter); Advocate (civil rights)
Georgiana Rose Simpson
Philologist
James McCune Smith
Physician; Advocate (civil rights)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Writer; Advocate (women's rights)
Nettie Maria Stevens
Geneticist
Maria W. Stewart
Abolitionist; Advocate (women’s rights); Educator; Journalist
Maria Tallchief, Wa-Xthe-Thomba (Two Standards)
Ballet dancer
Vernie Merze Tate
Historian
Mary “Mollie” Church Terrell
Journalist; Educator; Advocate (civil rights)
Vivien Theodore Thomas
Surgeon; Educator
Michel-Rolph Trouillot
Anthropologist; Scholar
Sojourner Truth
Advocate (civil rights, women’s rights, temperance); Abolitionist
Charles Henry Turner
Zoologist; Entomologist; Behavioral scientist
William “Willie” C. Velásquez
Advocate (civil rights)
Margaret Abigail Walker
Writer (poet, novelist)
Wassaja (Signaling), Carlos Montezuma
Physician; Advocate (Native American rights)
Levi Watkins, Jr.
Surgeon; Educator; Advocate (civil rights)
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Journalist; Educator; Advocate (civil rights)
Phillis Wheatley
Writer (poet)
Daniel Hale Williams
Surgeon; Hospital administrator
Sarah Winnemucca, Thocmetony (Shell Flower)
Historian; Writer (autobiographer); Lecturer; Educator; Advocate (Native American rights)
Anna May Wong
Actor
Carter G. Woodson
Writer (nonfiction); Editor; Publisher; Historian
Zitkala-Ša (Red Bird), Gertrude Simmons Bonnin
Advocate (Native American rights, women’s rights); Writer; Librettist; Musician (violinist)