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.”
The first Legacy Recognition honorees were announced in September 2024.
Legacy Honorees
Abigail Adams
Humanitarian; Advocate (women's rights)
Numa Pompilius Garfield Adams
Physician; Educator; Academic administrator
Jane Addams
Social worker; Reformer; Writer
Louisa May Alcott
Writer (novelist, short story writer, poet)
Maya Angelou
Writer (poet, memoirist, nonfiction writer, novelist); Advocate (civil rights)
Ruth Aiko Asawa
Artist (sculptor)
Joaquin Guadalupe Avila
Lawyer; Advocate (voting rights)
Josephine Baker
Dancer; Musician (singer); Actor
James Baldwin
Writer; Advocate (civil rights)
Benjamin Banneker
Mathematician; Astronomer; Naturalist
Derrick A. Bell, Jr.
Lawyer; Scholar; Advocate (civil rights)
Louis Dembitz Brandeis
Lawyer; Jurist (U.S. Supreme Court)
Gwendolyn Brooks
Writer; Poet laureate; Educator
Letitia Woods Brown
Historian
Pearl S. Buck
Writer (novelist, essayist); Humanitarian
Carlos Bulosan
Writer (novelist, poet)
Tommy Wayne “T. C.” Cannon, Pai-doung-a-day (One Who Stands in the Sun
Artist (painter, printmaker)
Rachel Carson
Marine biologist; Writer; Conservationist
George Washington Carver
Agricultural scientist; Inventor
Shirley Anita Chisholm
Legislator; Member U.S. House of Representatives
Mamie Phipps Clark
Social psychologist
Harvey Lavan “Van” Cliburn, Jr.
Musician (pianist)
Marvel Jackson Cooke
Journalist; Writer (literary critic, essayist); Advocate (civil rights)
Marie Maynard Daly
Biochemist
Ella Cara Deloria, Aŋpétu Wašté Wiŋ (Beautiful Day Woman)
Writer; 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
John Garcia
Psychologist
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Arts patron; philanthropist
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry
Writer (playwright); Acdvocate (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)
Charles Hamilton Houston
Lawyer; Academic administrator
Zora Neale Hurston
Writer (novelist, essayist, short story writer); Anthropologist; Folklorist
Scott Joplin
Composer; Musician (pianist)
Barbara Jordan
Lawyer; Member, U.S. House of Representatives; Educator
Hedy Lamarr
Actor; Inventor
Bruce Lee
Actor; Filmmaker; Philosopher
Edmonia Lewis
Artist (sculptor)
Alain Locke
Philosopher; Writer; Educator
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)
Ynés Enriquetta Julietta Mexia
Botanist
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
Amalie Emmy Noether
Mathematician
Zelia Nuttall
Archaeologist; Anthropologist
Alfonso Alex Ortiz
Cultural anthropologist
Frances Perkins
U.S. Secretary of Labor; Advocate (workers’ rights)
Susan LaFlesche Picotte
Physician; Advocate (Native American rights)
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)
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)
Maria W. Stewart
Abolitionist; Advocate (women’s rights); Educator; Journalist
Maria Tallchief, Wa-Xthe-Thomba (Two Standards)
Ballet dancer
Vernie Merze Tate
Historian
Sojourner Truth
Advocate (civil rights, women’s rights, temperance); Abolitionist
William “Willie” C. Velásquez
Advocate (civil rights)
Margaret Abigail Walker
Writer (poet, novelist)
Wassaja (Signaling), Carlos Montezuma
Physician; Advocate (Native American rights)
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Journalist; Educator; Advocate (civil rights)
Phillis Wheatley
Writer (poet)
Daniel Hale Williams
Surgeon; Hospital administrator
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