The Root 100 – 2021

1. Kizzmekia Corbett

Viral immunologist

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While the COVID-19 pandemic forced most of the world to shut down in an effort to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett and her team at the National Institutes of Health went into overdrive. The fruits of their labor came in the form of the Moderna vaccine, which was one of the first two mRNA vaccines in the United States to receive emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. Corbett has since used her platform to both educate people on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine while also rebuilding trust in the Black community where some were initially (and understandable) hesitant about taking the vaccines. She described the process of building that trust as a “brick-by-brick” effort and wants other physicians and scientists to approach educating about the vaccine in the same way. Harvard University announced in May that Corbett would be joining its T.H. Chan School of Public Health as an assistant professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases—furthering her mission to be a teacher and leader in the fight to develop life-saving vaccines.

2. Nikole Hannah-Jones

Journalist, Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University

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Nikole Hannah-Jones continues to live rent-free in the minds of conservatives. Republican lawmakers and conservative talking heads are still in their feelings about The 1619 Project, the landmark journalistic effort she helped create for the New York Times. They’ve tried everything in their power to keep the history of slavery and its legacy from be taught, including passing legislation to stop the teaching of “critical race theory,” a term that’s been co-opted by the right to mean anything that discusses the history of slavery and racism—like The 1619 Project (Wait until they find out that The 1619 Project is coming out as a book on Nov. 16). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tried her by denying the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist tenure for a position that historically came with that protection—a decision which, despite the university’s board of trustees’ best attempt to claim this was for other reasons, was 100 percent influenced by her involvement with The 1619 Project. After UNC eventually decided to grant Hannah-Jones tenure, she turned them down in favor of a new position created at Howard University. As the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Journalism for the HBCU, Hannah-Jones will also head the newly created Center for Journalism and Democracy to nurture aspiring Black journalists.

3. Cori Bush

U.S. representative for Missouri

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We knew Missouri’s U.S. Rep. Cori Bush was a fearless voice for the people when we put her on our list last year based on her work in Ferguson after Michael Brown was killed by police in 2014. That hasn’t changed since she was elected as the first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress. Bush didn’t waste time or words when she spoke during the House debate on the impeachment of Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, calling him the “white supremacist in chief” and saying he needed to be removed from office—regardless of potential backlash. Then came the moment when she and fellow Reps. Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley slept outside the Capitol building to protest the expiration of the country’s pandemic eviction moratorium. While President Joe Biden kept saying his hands were tied, Bush went to bat for the people who needed help the most. The attention the protest garnered led to an extension of the moratorium. After Texas’ abortion ban took affect, Bush revealed during a congressional hearing on reproductive rights her own personal, traumatic story of abortion after she was raped at 18. “To all the Black women and girls who have had abortions or will have abortions, we have nothing to be ashamed of. We live in a society that has failed to legislate love and justice for us. But we deserve better. We demand better. We are worthy of better,” the Missouri congresswoman said. Bush isn’t just out here saying what people want her to say. She’s putting in the work, too.

4. Renee Montgomery

Co-owner of the Atlanta Dream

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The WNBA is always on the frontlines of the fight for equality and representation, and despite her 5-foot 7-inch stature, Renee Montgomery is a giant among them. She made last year’s The Root 100 list for leaving her 11-year career as a two-time WNBA champion with the Atlanta Dream to dedicate her time to social justice. Montgomery embodied her “turn moments into momentum” philosophy by taking her activism from the Atlanta streets to the boardroom of the Atlanta Dream. She is the first former WNBA player to become a team owner. “My dream has come true,” said Montgomery said in a statement. “Breaking barriers for minorities and women by being the first former WNBA player to have both a stake in ownership and a leadership role with the team is an opportunity that I take very seriously.” This boss move is even more epic because she will replace former Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who previously co-owned the Dream and condemned the league’s social and racial justice advocacy. Montgomery and fellow Dream players campaigned to help Rev. Raphael Warnock defeat Loeffler in a runoff with record voter turnout. Montgomery also has an impressive resume in sports media as an Atlanta Hawks analyst, podcast co-host of Talkline, NCAA women’s basketball announcer and host of her own new podcast called Remotely Renee. She is the epitome of a gamechanger for women’s basketball.

5. Candace Parker

WNBA player, sports broadcaster

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Candace Parker, undeniably one of basketball’s most decorated players, will rightfully appear on the Mount Rushmore of basketball: the cover of the NBA 2K22 videogame. With a 14-season professional career as one of the most consistently dominant athletes, Parker was an obvious choice for the WNBA 25th anniversary special edition cover. She was the first woman to win the McDonald’s All-American slam dunk competition as a high school freshman. At the University of Tennessee, she earned a communications degree and multiple Player of the Year awards. In 2008, Parker started her WNBA career with the Los Angeles Sparks as the first overall draft pick, won a gold medal on the USA Olympic basketball team and became the first WNBA player to win MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season. She even outdid Wilt Chamberlain and Wes Unseld, the only other players with the same distinction, because she did it while pregnant with her daughter, Lailaa. As a free agent in 2021, she came home to play for the Chicago Sky and helped lead the team to its first championship title. Parker’s iconic presence extends beyond the court as an analyst for NBA and NCAA at Turner Sports. Her podcast, Moments with Candace Parker focuses on what Parker considers her most significant achievement: parenting.

6. Allyson Felix

U.S. Olympic track and field athlete

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During the Tokyo Olympics, Allyson Felix ended her Olympic career on the highest of notes by becoming the most decorated U.S. Olympic track and field athlete of all time. She and her teammates ran all the way to the gold during her final event, the 4×400 relay, bringing her medal total to 11. Not only was this an impressive feat on an athletic scale, but Felix’s continued excellence on the track was a loud-and-clear signal for all who doubted she’d still be able to perform at a high level after giving birth to her daughter in 2018. Felix has also become a vocal advocate for maternal healthcare after the double whammy of undergoing an emergency Cesarean section in November 2018 and her former sponsor, Nike, refusing to offer support and protection for its female athletes, something Felix called out in a 2019 New York Times op-ed (which her earned her a spot on our 2019 list). This year, Felix partnered with her new sponsor, Athleta, to create a $200,000 fund to help cover the cost of childcare for 10 athletes who are mothers. “Even though I was terrified, it was really important for me to speak my truth,” Allyson Felix told Highsnobiety. “It was really the shift of becoming a mother, and also the mother to a girl. I did not want her to face the same challenges that have been here my entire career.”

7. Chadwick Boseman

Actor

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We were all stunned when Chadwick Boseman—who had made a career of playing heroes, both real (Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, James Brown) and imaginary (King T’Challa, aka Black Panther)—died on Aug. 28, 2020 at 43 after a private battle with stage IV colon cancer. His life’s work became even more awe-inspiring when we discovered that Boseman had been waging his cancer fight since 2016, when he was filming his career-defining role as Black Panther in three Marvel films, as well “Marshall,” Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” and his last role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” with Viola Davis, who said of Boseman after his passing that “he lived with the utmost integrity.” Boseman would be honored for his performance as troubled trumpeter Levee Green with countless accolades, including a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award (he was also nominated for his supporting role in “Da 5 Bloods”), but none were bigger than the Oscar nod for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Though Boseman lost to Anthony Hopkins in a stunning upset (even the Academy, which had moved its Best Actor award to the end of ceremony, where normally the Best Picture award would be presented, seemed caught off guard by the loss), his legacy is cemented in stone—literally. In May, Boseman’s alma mater, Howard University, named the College of Fine Arts after him, with fellow alumna and mentor Phylicia Rashad serving as dean. While there are no plans to digitize Boseman or recast his role in next summer’s “Black Panther 2,” his last performance as T’Challa lives on in his voiceover work in an episode of the Marvel animated series “What If…?” on Disney+. In “Black Panther,” T’Challa’s nemesis, Erik Killmonger, asked the people of Wakanda a question, one that could very well be applied to Boseman: “Is this your king?” The answer is: Yes, absolutely. Chadwick Boseman forever.

8. Marc Lamont Hill

Host of “<em>Black News Tonight</em>,” professor, author

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Conservatives love to create boogeymen, and this year’s scary monster is critical race theory, a topic that has been maligned, incorrectly defined and a source of needless legislation. Enter Marc Lamont Hill. For the past year, the professor of media studies at Temple University has been inviting CRT’s most ardent critics—including the man who started the whole anti-CRT thing—to come on his show weeknights on the Black News Channel, where he destroys their ill-informed arguments wielding nothing more than facts and a killer smile. The author of six books—including his latest, “We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest & Possible,” an exploration of the resilience and resistance of Black people in 2020—Hill fearlessly speaks truth to power, whether defending the rights of Palestinians (which cost him his CNN gig in 2018) or advocating for the end of Black oppression and white supremacy, something he’s done most of his life. Ever the professor, Hill always has time for a teachable moment—even from his sickbed. After recently suffering a mild heart attack, he called out those spewing misinformation about the COVID vaccine: “I’m seeing videos and tweets from anti-vaxxers saying that I developed blood clots from the vaccine. This is ridiculous and completely baseless,” he tweeted. “For some, it is a cynical and dishonest claim. For others, it’s a lack of understanding of how medicine and science work.” Class dismissed.

9. Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

Actress, singer

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The category is: Trailblazer! Michaela Jae Rodriguez (formerly Mj Rodriguez) warmed hearts and took the world by storm in the breakout lead role in Ryan Murphy’s drama, “Pose.” For the third and final season of the hit series, Rodriguez was the first transgender woman to receive an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and she is only the third transgender performer nominated in any Emmy acting category. Rodriguez will return to the small screen soon, starring opposite Maya Rudolph in a recently announced untitled Apple TV comedy series. What will the unstoppable star take over next? Your playlist! In June, the Berklee College of Music graduate released her debut single “Something to Say” under the name Michaela Jae. She said of the name change: “I wanted people to see that I was more than just this character that I played on a television screen. … It was only right and even more personal to let people know who the woman inside of Mj is: Michaela Antonia Jae Rodriguez.” As a fierce advocate for the Black, Latinx and LGBTQ communities, she told IndieWire her success is much bigger than herself. “It’s astounding, and it’s not just for me. I’m winning for so many people out there, so many babies out there, the generation that comes after me—that’s who it’s for, it’s not for me.”

10. Ibram X Kendi

Professor, director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research

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No one has done more to spark the current anti-racism movement than New York Times bestselling author and Atlantic contributor Ibram X. Kendi. Since publishing his book, “How to Be an Antiracist” in 2019, Kendi has tirelessly expanded on his work to create a more equitable society. He was recently named director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, which he also founded (he founded a similar center at American University in 2017). He’s written an anti-racism children’s picture book and a book on how to raise an antiracist child, not to mention fostering YA and children’s editions of his bestseller, “Stamped From the Beginning” and co-editing “Four Hundred Souls,” the No. 1 instant bestselling “community history of African America,” in 2021. He recently launched a new podcast, “Be Antiracist,” and a new development deal and production company will ensure he can continue to bring his research and insights to a wider audience. His dedication to fighting injustice and discrimination has not gone unnoticed—he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant last month. And though he is routinely a target of the right, Kendi deftly stays above the fray, arguing that the current mania over critical race theory sweeping through the Republican Party isn’t even a real debate: “The Republican operatives, who dismiss the expositions of critical race theorists and anti-racists in order to define critical race theory and anti-racism, and then attack those definitions, are effectively debating themselves,” he wrote in the Atlantic. “They have conjured an imagined monster to scare the American people and project themselves as the nation’s defenders from that fictional monster.”

11. Megan Thee Stallion

Rapper

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Only a few years have passed since Megan Thee Stallion signed her first label and introduced the world to a rap persona of the same name through the breakthrough “Tina Snow” EP. The rap star dominates everything she touches, from headlining major festivals to leading in nominations for several musical awards. “Good News” was a fitting title for her debut album, which went platinum and earned three Grammys. In addition to Best New Artist, Thee Stallion won Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for “Savage (Remix),” featuring her hero and 2021 The Root 100 honoree Beyonce. Her epic performances, viral visuals, and impeccable pen quickly made her one of the top rappers in the game, but it was her outspoken advocacy for Black women that made the Houston native a household name. After experiencing violence at the hands of man herself, she used her star power to demand that Black women be protected, first in a New York Times op-ed and then with a stunning performance during her debut “SNL” performance. Last month, she told the Evening Standard about ambition for more. “I don’t like to put myself in a box. Anything I can get my hands on, I want to do it. When I’m in my 30s, I don’t want to just be known as Megan the rapper — I want to be Megan, the mogul. I want to have been a director. I want to have all my brand deals. I want to be known as a philanthropist.”

12. Marques Brownlee

Web video producer, tech influencer

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Long before the term “influencer” became a thing, Marques Brownlee was busy building his brand and YouTube channel, MKBHD, which he began in 2009 with a review of his new HP laptop. Twelve years later, Brownlee is a digital star and one of the most respected tech influencers in the game, with videos that routinely garner millions of views from his nearly 15 million subscribers. He has a team of five (and is currently hiring), who helped him produce more than 120 videos last year alone. His channel features interviews with some of the tech industry’s heaviest hitters, including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Bill Gates. As he continues to grow his media empire, the 2016 Young Futurist has big plans for the future; he’s already launched a podcast, Waveform, and a new YouTube channel is in the works. Though he’s keeping details about the new channel secret, he did tell the Verge, “It will have a lot more casual content and things that people have wanted to see but haven’t seen from the MKBHD channel. And that’s going to be a lot of fun.”

13. Aswad Thomas

Chief of organizing and national director of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice

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For people wondering about community safety alternatives amid calls to defund and abolish the police, Aswad Thomas has an answer: listen to the victims. He was 26 and weeks away from leaving the United States to play basketball professionally in Europe when gun violence ended his career and almost ended his life. He realized that victims of crime like himself rarely get the resources for emotional, physical, or financial recovery, and this was true for his assailant, who lost an eye from a shooting. The criminal justice system devastated countless families like Thomas’, but it never addressed underlying causes of crime, like poverty and lack of social services. That pain sparked a passion for advocacy. In 2015, Thomas received a master of social work and became the first to win “Social Worker of the Year” as a student. He joined Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice the following year, a flagship Alliance for Safety and Justice project. As their chief of organizing and national director, he expands their statewide networks of crime survivors and advocates for policies and programs that center survivors, families, and communities most affected by violence and trauma. This year, CSSJ released its first National Crime Victims Agenda, a 10-point plan to address collective trauma.

14. Stephen Satterfield

Chef, sommelier, food writer

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Like much of American history, African-Americans’ contributions to the culinary arts have been erased, whitewashed or completely forgotten. But Netflix’s four-part docuseries “High on the Hog: How African-American Cuisine Transformed America” serves as a much-needed corrective. Based on the book of the same name by noted food historian Jessica B. Harris—whose appearance in the first episode alone makes the show required viewing—”High on the Hog” doesn’t just explain how African-American cuisine shaped the American palate but how it changed the country itself. At the center of this epic journey is chef, sommelier and food writer Stephen Satterfield. Throughout his career, Satterfield has made a point of explaining how food defines the human experience. In 2016, he founded Whetstone, “a groundbreaking magazine and media company dedicated to food origins and culture from around the world.” In “High on the Hog,” Satterfield traces our epicurean roots from Benin to the Caribbean to the American South and spotlights the resilience and ingenuity of Black chefs throughout history. “I have been working for many years, I think, in trying to get people to think more critically about the radical potential that food possesses from the perspective of our own histories and stories, and I was really happy to have the opportunity to be a part of this food storytelling and so grateful for the way that it as received.” he told PIX11. Fortunately for us, Satterfield will continue this journey; Netflix recently announced it has renewed “High on the Hog” for a second season.

15. Tressie McMillan Cottom

Sociologist, author, professor

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Tressie McMillan Cottom is someone who knows a lot about a lot of different things. One moment she’s studying the problematic nature of for-profit colleges. Next, she’s sharing her thoughts about beauty standards, or explaining why Sean Combs is the original influencer. McMillan Cottom’s insights and intellectual contributions on a variety of topics earned her a place among the 2020 class of MacArthur Foundation Fellows. The foundation praised McMillan Cottom for her ability to break down complex topics that tangle our society into knots and make them accessible to a wide audience. This includes her research and Senate testimony on how the federal Higher Education Act can better protect students and taxpayers, and how the hustle economy has a tendency to build its foundation on the labor of Black people. Tressie McMillan Cottom isn’t just part of the conversations; she’s driving the conversations.

16. Park Cannon

State representative, Georgia House of Representatives

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When Black women helped turn Georgia blue in one of the most secure elections in U.S. history, Georgia Republicans quickly drafted a bill that was clearly designed to marginalize the communities who helped make it so. And it was another Black woman who did what she could to call out the co-conspirators who were attempting to suppress the vote. Back in March, Rep. Park Cannon knocked on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s door as he livestreamed himself signing the new voter suppression bill into law. She was swiftly arrested by Georgia state troopers for obstruction of law enforcement and disrupting General Assembly sessions. Prosecutors ultimately decided to drop the case against Cannon, because they (like many others) knew that it was ridiculous to arrest her in the first place. Kemp—”a comic book villain of voter suppression“—may have gotten away with pushing through his legislation that only exists to make it harder for Black people to vote, but lawmakers like Park Cannon won’t allow the marginalized to be disenfranchised without a fight.

17. Mickey Guyton

Country music singer

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As Beyonce tried to tell us, country music has always had Black people in it. But you still wouldn’t know it by looking at today’s lily-white industry, something country music star Mickey Guyton is trying to change. The Grammy-nominated singer made history in April when she co-hosted the Academy of Country Music Awards, becoming the first Black woman to do so. Guyton’s debut album, “Remember Her Name,” taps into themes rarely heard about in country music. On the single “All American,” Guyton name-checks James Brown and dookie braids alongside James Dean and Daisy Dukes before turning the phrase on its head: “Ain’t we all American?” The song “Love My Hair” was inspired by those times early in Guyton’s career when she couldn’t find anyone who could do Black hair and makeup and so she had to drive hours to a salon before hitting the red carpets: “The things I did to try to fit right in / I’ll never justify my skin again.” Keenly aware of her place in history, Guyton also knows it’s important to remember the pioneers who came before her. “Well, a lot of people, especially today, are only seeing Lil Nas X or think that country music is just white guys, beers and trucks, and that is not the case,” she told NBC News. “There’s all types of country music. There have been a lot of Black people in country music pounding the pavement for a very long time.”Now, Guyton can proudly add her name to that legacy.

18. Mia Neal

Hair stylist

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Lead hairstylist and wig designer Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson became the first Black women to win an Academy Award for Best Hair and Makeup in the category’s 40-year history for their work on “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Neal started laying and slaying hair as a little girl in Gary, Ind., playing with Barbies. When Neal was a student at Jackson State University, a coworker at Mac encouraged her to apply to the Juilliard School of Professional Internship for Wigs and Makeup. Her extensive work in New York theater, film, and television was necessary for transforming Viola Davis into the larger-than-life mother of blues, Ma Rainey. The team only had 10 reference photos of Ma Rainey, and they painstakingly researched to bring the characters to life. Neal created over 100 wigs for the film in under three weeks (Wilson, Davis’ personal stylist, was ineligible for our list). Neal meticulously made a historically accurate horsehair wig for Davis, cleaning and ventilating every strand by hand. Neal dedicated her Oscar to the ancestors and told Vogue she hopes it inspires future generations. “Any African American or young person of color going into this field should know people do want diversity. Erase your own fears, doubts, and preconceived notions. You are wanted, and you will be welcomed. Go in and work hard because there is space for you, and we’re living examples of that.”

19. Zendaya

Actress, producer

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The transition from child star to adult success is often a tricky one, but Zendaya makes it look easy with her grownup glow up. After a successful string of blockbuster films with “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “The Greatest Showman,” “Smallfoot” and “Spider-Man Far From Home,” she shocked the world as Rue on “Euphoria.” Last year, she became the youngest in history to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama for the HBO series (and joining Viola Davis as the only other Black woman to win the category). Zendaya’s portrayal of a teenager struggling with addiction, mental health and grief is as brilliant as it is haunting and heartbreaking. When production of the show’s second season halted due to COVID-19, Zendaya teamed up with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson to star opposite John David Washington in Netflix’s “Malcolm & Marie.” She turned the unprecedented challenge of the pandemic into a chance to grow as both an artist and an industry leader. She fought for equity behind the camera as a first-time producer, ensuring that the entire crew received a portion of the proceeds from the film. Whether Zendaya tackles fashion, beauty, film, music, or television, the multitalented and multi-hyphenated Oakland native is determined to break barriers. “It makes me mad,” she told Allure. “I don’t like the idea that you have to box yourself in or stay in one lane. Why wouldn’t I want to try to make the most of my talents and my gifts while I can?”

20. Tina Charles

WNBA player, U.S. Olympian

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In 2020, Tina Charles was looking to get out of a rut. After six years with the New York Liberty, the UConn alum was traded to the Washington Mystics. But like most things in 2020, COVID forced Charles to sit out the 2020 season because her asthma put her at higher risk of catching the disease. Nevertheless, Charles didn’t waste time baking sourdough bread or playing videogames like most people during quarantine. She put in the work, and when the 2021 season started, she was en fuego. At one point, she was averaging 26.2 points a game and was on pace to break Diana Turasi’s single-season scoring record of 25.3 points per game; a dip after the Tokyo Olympics slowed her momentum, but she still ended up leading the league, averaging 23.4 points per game, a career best. At the Olympics, Charles was instrumental in helping Team USA win its seventh gold medal in a row while on her way to snagging her third gold medal. Despite all the accolades this season, Charles still has one key goal in mind before she retires: “I just know I need to win a championship before I retire,” Charles told the Washington Post. “Obviously, some decisions are going to have to be made and I have to look into everything.”

21. Malika Andrews

Sports journalist

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Malika Andrews knows how to seize the moment. When the NBA decided to carry on with its season during the pandemic last year, Andrews became an instant breakout star as one of the first journalists allowed inside the NBA bubble in Orlando, Fla. Thrust into one of the most unique situations ever for a sports journalist, the Oakland, Calif., native made the most of the moment, deftly weaving entertaining behind-the-scenes segments about life inside the bubble with in-depth reporting on issues affecting the players on and off the court, like her piece on players’ reactions to a Kentucky grand jury’s decision not to charge the officers in Breonna Taylor’s death. Andrews perfectly captured the emotional moment, even offering her own personal take, something that isn’t usually welcomed by her employer. But Andrews is undeterred. “When I am aided in doing that job and fulfilling that by sprinkling in some of my own worldview, that no one can tell me is invalid or incorrect because I’ve lived it, then I’ve absolutely been emboldened to do so.” she told GQ. When ESPN needed to find a way to move past the explosive New York Times story in which ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols was caught on video throwing shade at Black colleague Maria Taylor, “the worldwide leader in sports” turned to its rising young star to take Nichols’ place on the sidelines of the NBA Finals, a first for Andrews. She lived up to the moment, earning high praise from fans, players and colleagues for her veteran-level poise, particularly during the post-game trophy presentation with the Milwaukee Bucks. Fortunately for us, ESPN rewarded Andrews with her own show, NBA Today, where we will get to see this budding superstar on a much more regular basis.

22. Tiffany Cross

TV host, political analyst

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Tiffany D. Cross brings a potent dose of Black Girl Magic to cable news as the host of her MSNBC show, “The Cross Connection.” She was already a staple in the political media landscape, regularly appearing on “AM Joy” before succeeding Joy Reid in the Saturday morning time slot. Whether she’s addressing systemic issues like COVID-19 relief and reproductive rights or making headlines for dragging Bill Maher and Megyn Kelly for their racist shenanigans, Cross is as vital as she is vibrant. Her must-see show is dedicated to showcasing political discourse that welcomes everyone to the table with a thorough understanding of the issues and implications. “I really want people to flood my inbox, flood the hashtag, contribute all of your questions…tell your students to submit questions,” she said. “I really believe when people understand government better, it gives them a better sense of their own agency and their role in the American body politics,” she said about her vision for the show.

23. Natasha Cloud

WNBA player, activist

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Whether it be Maya Moore stepping away from the game to focus on reforming America’s criminal justice system or the Atlanta Dream choosing to ignore former co-owner and former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s calls to stick to sports, the WNBA and its players have always been at the forefront of social justice activism in sports. Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics continues to blaze that trail as an activist and athlete when she opted out of a year of competition to instead advocate for changes in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. The previous year, she spoke out tirelessly against gun violence in Washington, D.C., and even organized a media blackout during the WNBA Finals to draw even more attention to the issue. She was recently honored with a mural at New Hope Academy in Landover, Md., for her community work. While Cloud has returned to the court, she acknowledged there’s still a lot of work to be done, saying: “The needle has definitely moved forward a tiny bit, but there’s so much work for us to do still.”

24. Ashley C. Ford

Author, podcast host, cultural critic

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Ashley C. Ford refuses to limit herself to just one form of storytelling. Her sharp wit, brilliant analysis and profound cultural commentary are exceptional in every medium she touches. If she’s not your favorite Twitter account, she probably interviewed your favorite Black female icons, like Vice President Kamala Harris or Missy Elliott. The Indiana native has hosted PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, “The Chronicles of Now” podcast, and most recently, the companion podcast to HBO’s series “Lovecraft Country Radio.” She explores a wide range of topics, from personal journeys with body image and her sexuality to plus-size fashion and disdain for all things red velvet. Ford’s newest title is “New York Times best-selling author” for her highly anticipated debut novel, “Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir.” In the coming-of-age story, Ford balances an unflinching honesty with compassionate grace for not only her past selves, but also her struggling abusive mother and a father who was incarcerated most of her life for rape. The book, narrated from the real-time perspective of younger Ashley, follows the tradition of Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by giving voice to the complex interior life and thoughts of a young Black girl. Oprah was so impressed, she handpicked the book to publish under her Flatiron Books imprint.

25. Clint Smith

Journalist, author, poet

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America may never properly reckon with its racism, but Atlantic magazine writer Clint Smith attempted to do exactly that while researching his instant No. 1 New York Times bestseller, “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America,” visiting eight sites, from within his native Louisiana to Senegal’s Goree Island, which were “pivotal in perpetuating slavery and its aftermath.” Now longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction, “How the Word Is Passed” asks us to look at both the obvious and subtle physical monuments to slavery, in hopes of giving greater perspective and voice to the millions of enslaved people who were foundational in the building of this country. As the journalist and poet—also author of the award-winning 2017 poetry collection “Counting Descent”—told The Root, “The vast majority of people were people, who were trying to carve out opportunity and meaning and purpose and love in their lives in the midst of just unfathomable circumstances.”

26. Leslie Odom Jr.

Actor, singer

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If anyone can hold their own in a star-studded ensemble while bringing the nuances of a historical figure to life, it’s Leslie Odom Jr. He won a Tony, Grammy, and spot on The Root 100 in 2016 for his breakthrough role of Aaron Burr in “Hamilton.” Whether he’s rocking a Broadway stage or Tiny Desk Concert for his album “Mr,” the 20-year veteran makes every performance look effortless. In “One Night In Miami,” Odom starred as R&B crooner Sam Cooke on a fateful night he crossed paths with Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Malcolm X in 1964. He captured Cooke’s compelling inner turmoil between chasing crossover success and using his platform to represent people’s struggles with “A Change Is Gonna Come.” His performance earned dozens of nominations, including Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Song for “Speak Now.” With “Knives Out 2” and reboots of “The Exorcist,” “The Sopranos” and “The Proud Family” in the pipeline, Odom’s talent continues to transcend genres and disciplines.

27. Wesley Morris

Journalist, critic at large

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“The most urgent filmmaking anybody’s doing in this country right now is by Black people with camera phones.” So begins the brilliant and astute essay, “The Videos That Rocked America. The Song That Knows Our Rage,” by New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris, one of several dispatches about race and culture that helped him earn a second Pulitzer for criticism, making him the only person to win that category twice. Morris won his first Pulitzer as a movie critic for the Boston Globe before doing a quick stint at sports and culture site Grantland. He joined the Times in 2015 as critic at large, where he turned his sharp, observational skills to broader range of topics: a provocative take on Black male sexuality; an essay that sparked a larger conversation about criticizing Black art; a humorous, insightful piece on growing a mustache and its connection to Blackness and masculinity. No matter the subject, Morris will always have a smart, compelling point of view. When he isn’t hammering out 3,000-word stories on a same-day deadline, he’s giving us a piece of his brilliant mind on the popular podcast, “Still Processing,” with N.Y. Times colleague Jenna Wortham.

28. Jasmine Crockett

State House representative for Texas’ 100th District

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Most newly elected legislators are expected to watch and learn from experienced colleagues, especially if they’re in the minority. However, Jasmine Crockett didn’t run for office to tread water. She came to make waves. Before being elected to the Texas House of Representatives, she fought injustice as an attorney. As a criminal defense and civil rights attorney, Crockett made headlines defending Black Lives Matter protestors and victims of police brutality. In 2020, Crockett decided she needed to change the legal system itself to make a difference and ran for state representative. Since taking office in January, Crockett has sponsored 185 bills and wrote 75 on her own. Issues like voting rights, the pandemic response, and police reform were too urgent. When Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the GOP-controlled state legislature tried to ram through a restrictive voting bill, Crockett and her fellow Democrats did the only thing they could to stall the onslaught of extreme GOP legislation: They staged a walkout. The battle is only the beginning for Crockett. “I plan to be more aggressive. I plan to study from now until the next session all the rules and pull out all the stops to do whatever it takes to kill as many bad bills as I can.” All we can say is, don’t mess with this Texan.

29. Tamyra Mensah-Stock

U.S. Olympic wrestler

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One of the pleasures of watching the Olympics is seeing Black athletes strive in sports that don’t get nearly the same attention as football or basketball. Seeing Olympian Tamyra Menhsah-Stock’s tearful but joyous interview after she won a gold medal in wrestling—making her the first African-American woman and only the second American woman to earn the acclaim—was definitely one the highlights of an otherwise fraught Olympics, which was plagued by concerns over COVID. Mensah-Stock’s emotional backstory adds context to her joyful tears: In 2009, her father died in a car crash after falling asleep while driving back from one of her wrestling matches when she was in high school. She almost quit the sport. “I wanted to stop so many times because I felt like all this pain wasn’t worth it,” she told Team USA. But she kept competing—and breaking down barriers—on her way to becoming world champion in 2019. Now that she’s achieved her dream of Olympic glory, Menhsah-Stock plans to make her mother’s dream come true by buying her a food truck. “She’s always doing back-breaking work,” she said. “I’ve just seen her struggling ever since my dad died and I don’t like seeing it.” And the wrestler hopes her story will inspire girls and women to never give up their dreams. “Just because you’re female, it doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish the biggest goals, and being Olympic champ is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my entire life,” she said in that viral interview. “I was born for this, I was made for this.”

30. Symone Sanders

Senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris

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Symone D. Sanders was determined to make history with the Biden-Harris campaign and that’s exactly what she’s done on the first-ever all-female White House communications team. Sanders made our list twice as the national press secretary for the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign and senior adviser for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Now she makes history every day as the senior adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris. Sanders also released a memoir last year called “No, You Shut Up!” The title is a clapback referencing a heated debate that went viral when Republican Ken Cuccinelli belittled and disrespected Sanders on live TV. Although Sanders was a notoriously outspoken CNN commentator, she encouraged a return of civil discourse to unite Americans around policy changes that address the needs of marginalized communities. With an unprecedented opportunity to contribute to this presidential administration and over a dozen campaigns under her belt at 31 years old, this political prodigy is already a dynamic leader forging a new future in American politics.

31. Ifeoma Ozoma

Founder and principal of Earthseed

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After leading public policy development and initiatives at Google and Facebook, Ifeoma Ozoma became the face and voice of the progressive change at Pinterest. She spearheaded action against harmful propaganda on its platform like vaccine misinformation. When Pinterest hopped on the Black Lives Matter bandwagon in June 2020, it was the last straw for Ozoma, who resigned over the racism and sexism she said experienced there. A nondisclosure agreement prohibited her from publicly calling out the company about unfair wages, a colleague who plastered her private information on hate sites or the inaction from Pinterest and its founder Ben Silbermann. “I knew I might be sued into bankruptcy, but I cared more about setting the record straight on the hypocrisy of it,” the Yale alumni told The Guardian. With Aerica Shimizu Banks (who is also on this list), a Black coworker who resigned over discrimination and retaliation, Ozoma spoke truth to power. Her tech accountability and public policy consulting firm, Earthseed, co-sponsored the Silenced No More Act. The new California law protects whistleblowers who expose workplace harassment and discrimination, even if they’ve signed an NDA. In addition to pushing companies to adopt clear policies that ensure that misconduct is exempt from nondisclosure agreements, Ozoma recently launched Tech Worker Handbook, which advises whistleblowers on protecting themselves from large corporations.

32. Aerica Shimizu Banks

Founder of Shiso and BEACON, tech policy expert

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“Things will not get better unless we get honest,” Aerica Shimizu Banks declared during her 2019 TEDxTalk. The former White House appointee launched over a dozen diversity programs and BEACON: The DC Women Founders Initiative during her six years at Google. The quote proved true after she joined Pinterest in 2019 to lead federal policy alongside Ifeoma Ozoma (who is also on this list). Banks was severely underpaid and stifled professionally despite a resume that included Oxford, Princeton and a Truman fellowship. Both Black women resigned in May 2020 but publicly remained silent about alleged racism, sexism, pay discrimination, and retaliation for reporting these issues internally because of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) they signed. When Ozoma called out the hypocrisy of Pinterest’s Black Lives Matter statement, Banks risked everything to do the same. “This was about integrity and not letting the company get away with painting themselves as this space for kindness and positivity when they had completely denigrated, abused, and retaliated against us,” Banks told the Guardian. Their bravery inspired shareholders to sue Pinterest’s board and top executives for damaging the company with an alarmingly toxic culture. Changing one company wasn’t enough for Banks, who contributed to the Silenced No More Act, which protects all California employees from NDAs if they speak up about workplace discrimination. Banks was stunned to be embraced instead of exiled by the tech world but found a calling with her consulting firm, Shiso, which takes an intersectional approach to tech, policy, and business solutions.

33. India Walton

Buffalo mayoral candidate

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The Democratic establishment didn’t see India Walton coming. When the registered nurse, activist and self-described socialist announced her plans to run for mayor of Buffalo in December 2020, no one seemed to take her seriously, especially four-time incumbent Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. During the campaign, he refused to debate her. But Walton kept her focus, running on a promise to reform the city’s troubled police department, increase school funding and rebuild communities wrecked by poverty—an issue Walton is familiar with, having been a single mom at 14 and who grew up poor. Even on the campaign trail, she had to support herself doing DoorDash deliveries, which led to some awkward moments. “And I’m just like: ‘Here’s your food. Don’t make it weird,” she told the Buffalo News. “But a lot of people are just, like, happy. It’s just amazing how impressed people are that I do normal things.” Walton won the June primary over Brown in a shocking upset that had some comparing her to fellow New York progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, who both unseated longtime incumbents. A vigorous write-in campaign by Brown interrupted Walton’s hopes of making history as the first socialist and first woman to lead New York’s second-largest city (Ballots were still being counted at press time). Still, the 4-foot, 11-inch dynamo’s resilience and resourcefulness are the hallmarks of a progressive star-in-the-making.

34. Cécile McLorin Salvant

Singer, composer, visual artist

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When Cecile McLorin Salvant hits a stage, she reclaims and stands firmly in the rich tradition of Black women storytellers and activists like Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. She is a student of history, using her classical training and almost four-octave range to reimagine jazz standards and deep cuts nearly forgotten by time. “I don’t care whether what I do is modern or of our time,” she told the New Yorker. “I want to sing songs that have this timeless quality.” Born in Miami to a Haitian father and French mother, Salvant grew up immersed in a melting pot of musical and cultural influences. She began piano at 5, singing at 8, and discovered a love for jazz singing while studying classical voice at the Darius Milhaud Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence, France. At 21, she released her self-titled first album and won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for vocalists. Her next four albums were Grammy-nominated, with “For One To Love” (2015), “Dreams and Daggers” (2017), and “The Window” (2018) each winning for Best Jazz Vocal Album. The vocal virtuoso made the 2019 Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for music. Last year, she received the Doris Duke Artist Award and was the only musician in the 2020 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Salvant is currently working on an animated feature film based on “Ogresse” (2018), her unrecorded theatrical piece, which blends baroque, folk, jazz and country into an odyssey backed by an orchestra.

35. Bianca Smith

Minor League Baseball coach

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Bianca Smith’s lifelong dedication to baseball led her to a dream job as the first Black female coach at the professional level. A staggering resume, extensive knowledge of biomechanical analysis and a passion for coaching made her a perfect choice as the Boston Red Sox’s new minor league coach. Smith followed in her ambitious mother’s footsteps to Dartmouth, where she played varsity softball, managed the college baseball team and was the only female player on the club team. Determined to secure a leadership role in the major leagues, Smith attended Case Western University for a dual J.D./MBA program in sports law and management. She also worked as the school’s director of baseball operations. For that position and later jobs with the Texas Rangers, the headquarters of Major League Baseball, the Cincinnati Reds, and Carroll University in Wisconsin, Smith was primarily paid in experience from roles that she helped create or expand. “I’m perfectly aware that, at least on the college level, I am more qualified than the majority of coaches getting hired,” she told the New York Times. “As a Black person, I don’t feel like I face the discrimination in sports that I do as a woman.” Smith went from dozens of rejections and dead ends in her job search to sponsorships with Oakley, Topps, and Nike. Her agent even hinted to the Times that a Bianca Smith baseball card is on the way. She is an inspiration for millions of fans and future leaders in baseball.

36. Hanif Abdurraqib

Author, poet

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Hanif Abdurraqib’s love of Blackness and Black creativity runs deep; in fact, the music critic and poet’s most recent book of essays, “A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance,” was inspired by rare archival footage of the iconic dance lines of “Soul Train” and dedicated to the pioneering artist-activist Josephine Baker. That book—Abdurraqib’s fifth—is a meditation on and excavation of the profound impact of Black performance in America, as well as the ways in which Blackness itself is conversely performed, both within and outside of popular culture. “I grew 9sense of wonder and awe with the generosity of black evolution; in the way that Black folks are not monolithic in that evolution,” he told The Root. The brilliance of “A Little Devil in America” earned it a spot among this year’s National Book Award finalists, while Abdurraqib was named one of the MacArthur Foundation Fellows’ Class of 2021.

37. Simone Manuel

U.S. Olympic swimmer

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Simone Manuel doesn’t have anything left to prove. In 2016, Manuel became the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming at the Rio games, where she went on to win three more medals—one gold, two silver. With four Olympic medals under her belt, she set a new standard for activist athletes with an unprecedented inclusion rider, which stipulated that her sponsor, swimwear brand TYR Sport, meets specific inclusion standards and provides meaningful opportunities for marginalized people. But even though Manuel’s winning streak continued throughout 2019, by the time she started competing to qualify in the Tokyo Olympics, she began experiencing overtraining syndrome, a medically diagnosed form of “burnout,” that causes nerve and muscle pain, stress and depression. But she still fought through it to qualify for the 50m freestyle and was voted co-captain by her teammates. Though her Olympic plans didn’t go as expected, she still managed to win a bronze as part of the 4×100 freestyle relay team. Like tennis phenomenon Naomi Osaka, Manuel has become an outspoken advocate for self-care and prioritizing mental health. No longer the underdog, the 25-year-old redefines success as persevering and standing in her truth.

38. Roshawnna Novellus

Founder and CEO of EnrichHER

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Black women are the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs, but few reach their full potential because they’ve received only 0.0006 percent of tech venture capital investment from 2009 to 2017. This is one of many reasons Roshawnna Novellus is so passionate about supporting founders like herself. She raised over $600,000 for her education and harnessed that same financial finesse when she launched EnrichHer in 2017. The financial technology platform caters to companies led by women and founders of color, whom Novellus refers to as the “New Majority” of business leaders and innovators, especially in Atlanta. In 2019, Novellus launched the EnrichHer Accelerator to fast-track over 48 companies led by women and founders of color with business development and the Funder Matching Program. “I intend for EnrichHER to deploy billions of dollars to well-qualified business owners who have customers, cash flow and just need money to grow,” Novellus told WABE. During the pandemic, she supported New Majority founders with $5,000 business grants when they needed it most. Novellus leads by example and with compassion, encouraging more investors to put their money where their heart is.

39. Errin Haines

Editor-at-large, The 19th*

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Errin Haines wants to shake up how we talk about race, gender and politics. As editor-at-large for The 19th*—an independent, nonprofit newsroom that focuses on gender and politics—Haines is helping reshape the media narratives around Black women and their political power. (The 19th* takes its name from the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote; the asterisks in the company logo acknowledge that the right mostly applied to white women.) The Atlanta native and MSNBC contributor, who was the national reporter of race and culture for the Associated Press before joining The 19* in January 2020, has been essential to the site’s meteoric ascent by scoring major scoops—like Kamala Harris’ first interview after she was named Joe Biden’s running mate. Even before the death of George Floyd and the global protests that followed, Haines was writing stories about Breonna Taylor, helping bring national attention to her case while exploring whether Taylor’s death didn’t receive wider attention because she was a woman—a Black woman at that. When the coronavirus brought the campaign trail to a halt, Haines—with support from the Pulitzer Center—pivoted to documenting the lives of Philadelphia women of color during the pandemic in Portraits of a Pandemic. The project earned Haines the 2020 Vernon Jarrett Medal for Journalistic Excellence, which honors journalists reporting on issues that significantly impact Black lives. We can expect to see more from Haines in the future: Earlier this year, she scored a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster. The first, tentatively titled Twice As Good—which will chronicle the role of Black women in politics—will be published in early 2022.

40. Andra Day

Singer, actress

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It’s not everyday that a young, up-and-coming singer gets a call from a legendary idol. But that’s exactly what happened to Andra Day, who got a call from idol Stevie Wonder after his then-wife saw a video of Day singing in a strip mall. Wonder would go on to become Day’s mentor and help the soulful singer earn two Grammy nominations. Day was inspired and fascinated by Billie Holiday since she discovered the iconic singer at 12 years old. She even modeled her stage name after the “Strange Fruit” singer’s nickname, Lady Day. However, when Day was first approached to star in Lee Daniels’ biopic, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” she was terrified to fill the shoes of Diana Ross and Audra McDonald, who previously played the role, for her acting debut. “I was dead scared. I’m not an actor, and I felt totally out of my depth. I’m such a fan of hers, and the last thing I wanted to do is mess up the story of this woman I love. What convinced me was the idea that the movie would tell the truth of her story, which is that she was a great godmother of civil rights,” she confessed to Shape. The San Diego native’s dynamic performance reclaimed the power, humanity and impact of Billie Holiday for a new generation. Day won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama and was nominated for an Academy Award. Next up, Day will dazzle us next with an upcoming album and her own screenplay.

41. Morgan Jerkins

Author, senior culture editor for The Undefeated

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Literary luminary Morgan Jerkins was lauded as a voice of a generation before her first book, “This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America,” hit bookshelves and the New York Times bestseller list in 2018. The collection of personal essays masterfully laid bare her reckoning with her formative years as a young Black woman growing up in South New Jersey, attending Princeton and living abroad. Jerkins’ 2020 followup, “Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots,” ventured farther and deeper into Jerkins’ past, tracing her family tree through the Great Migration and over 300 years of American history. The book ended the year on Time magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2020. Her 2021 debut novel, “Caul Baby,” began as a 2015 short story inspired by a love for Black American folklore and Harlem’s rich cultural legacy. Before joining ESPN’s The Undefeated as the new senior culture editor this year, Jerkins was an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s nonfiction MFA program and senior editor at Zora magazine. She is currently working on her next novel and regularly contributes to publications like Elle and Harper’s Bazaar.

42. Raven Saunders

U.S. track and field athlete

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During the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games, the world fell in love with Raven Saunders, the shot put-throwing machine from Charleston, S.C. After the 25-year-old left it all on the field to win a silver medal, she made a simple but powerful gesture with her arms crossed to form an “X” over her head even though the International Olympic Committee’s relaxed guidelines still banned protests on the medals stand. Saunders told the Associated Press that the sign is “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.” Saunders, with her celebratory twerking, green and purple hair, and comic book-inspired masks, was not going to be silenced. As an openly gay Black woman with a past of depression and suicide, she dedicated the medal to the intersection of everyone struggling in the world. “Shout out to all my Black people, shout out to all my LBGTQ community, shout out to everybody dealing with mental health,” Saunders told the AP. “Because at the end of the day, we understand that it’s bigger than us, and it’s bigger than the powers that be.”

43. Zerlina Maxwell

Television host, political analyst

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Zerlina Maxwell has something to say—and paired with a particularly prescient lens on American politics, she has rightfully earned her status as a political expert. A veteran of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns, the attorney and political analyst is no stranger to the nuances, intersections and increasing divisions among those on the left, prompting her to write 2020’s “The End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide.” Since the acclaimed book’s publication last July—and earning a spot in The Root 100 Class of 2020—the MSNBC pundit and co-host of Sirius XM’s Signal Boost scored another major platform when she launched her eponymous news program, “Zerlina,” on Peacock last October. And like her many mediums, in which she demystifies current events, policy making and feminism, Maxwell believes there are myriad ways to become politically engaged, as she told The Root. “You can run for office. You can volunteer on a campaign. You can elect people, or elect activists,” she said, “and you can change and shape the world around you.”

44. Nehemiah Frank

Founder and editor-in-chief of the Black Wall Street Times

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A century ago a white mob ravaged 35 square blocks of Greenwood, a Black neighborhood in Tulsa known as Black Wall Street for its economic success. Nehemiah Frank founded the Black Wall Street Times to ensure that we neither forget the history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Although Frank descends from the thousands of survivors who barely escaped with their lives, he had never heard about the massacre until he was in college. While still teaching in 2017, Frank launched the online newspaper to cover news and social justice issues relevant to Black Tulsa and the rest of Oklahoma. This year’s centennial remembrance of the Race Massacre brought national attention to Black Wall Street’s history, but Frank is focused on creating a future where Black Tulsans will thrive again. His homegrown advocacy and journalism lead the charge for economic justice from local government, fighting the ongoing inequality, and resisting gentrification from renewed interest. “We’re not even asking for a handout or a cash payment,” the TEDxTalk speaker told MarketWatch. “We’re asking for people who are the descendants of those who committed the massacre in this city to hold the city itself accountable for the losses that we incurred during the massacre.”

45. Dalilah Muhammad

U.S. track and field athlete

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In the world of track and field, everyone loves the sprinter. Being deemed the fastest person alive is all about getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible. But running hurdles takes not only speed but stamina, balance and grace—and in the world of hurdling, Dalilah Muhammad is one of the best. The Queens, N.Y., native won a gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles at her Olympic debut in Rio in 2016. In July 2019, she would break the 16-year world record at the U.S. outdoor championship. Months later, she would break her own world record at the world track and field championships, where she held off a young upstart named Syndey McLaughlin. Their rivalry would become one of the highlights of the Tokyo Olympics. As Muhammad told the Los Angeles Times: “I’m definitely being chased.” While training for Tokyo Olympics, Muhammad would be sidelined by a hamstring injury, COVID and an eye condition that caused her to lose vision in her left eye. But she would fight through the adversity to win silver in the 400m hurdles (McLaughlin—who, at 22, is too young for this list—won gold). Muhammad would also win gold as part of the 4x400m relay team, which helped fellow 2021 The Root 100 honoree Allyson Felix become the most decorated American track and field athlete of all time. Though the struggle was real, Muhammad made the best of her moment, telling Refinery29, “I was just trying to have a positive attitude throughout it all. But it taught me to stay focused. Deal with what you’re dealing with in a moment, but know that you’ll heal from it.”

46. Tiara Thomas

Singer, songwriter

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Tiara Thomas catapulted to fame as the co-writer, co-producer and singer on Wale’s 2013 hit single, “Bad.” The song that began in her Ball State dorm as an acoustic riff inspired by Trillville’s “Some Cut” went triple platinum, peaking at Not. 21 on the Hot 100 and No. 5 on both the Hot R&B and Rhythmic charts. The self-taught guitarist transcends labels and genres, citing Lauryn Hill, Kirk Franklin, Elton John, and Tupac as her inspirations. “I make a lot of sexy R&B music,” Thomas shared, “but my style is to mix genres. Something that sounds urban but with a touch of pop; not straight-up R&B. It’s definitely a wider range than that.” In 2017, she opened for her fellow singer/songwriter/musician H.E.R. for the Lights On Tour. The pair would go on to make music magic together with “I Can’t Breathe,” written in response to the death of George Floyd. The hit would win Song of the Year at this year’s Grammy Awards. Weeks later, Thomas and H.E.R. would strike gold again with an Oscar for “Judas and the Black Messiah’s” “Fight For You.” Now, Thomas is ready to bless the world with her own solo debut album this year.

47. Jewel Burks Solomon

Head of Google for Startups, co-founder and managing partner of Collab Capital

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Jewel Burks Solomon is revolutionizing the way underrepresented entrepreneurs find the funding and resources to thrive. Born into a family of entrepreneurs, Solomon developed a passion for business, innovation and hard work at home. The Howard alum worked as an Entrepreneur In Residence from 2014 to 2016 at Google, where she also helped other marginalized entrepreneurs leverage the tech firm’s resources to grow their businesses. In 2020, Google named Solomon to the newly created role of Head of Google for Startups to continue this work. Solomon oversees the $5 million Black Founders Fund to provide mentorship, resources, and funding to 76 founders as part of Google’s $175 million racial equity efforts. She founded Collab Capital in 2018 with fellow 2021 The Root 100 honorees Justin Dawkins and Barry Givens to address the specific ways Black founders are disadvantaged financially, socially and geographically in the tech ecosystem. The trio started with $2 million in capital and set a goal of raising $50 million. In May, Collab announced it had achieved its goal, with the backing of heavy hitters like Apple, Google and Goldman Sach. “We’re excited to be able to support founders anywhere in the United States, but we’re really focused on cities that have a high concentration of Black innovators and a lower concentration of capital,” she told TechCrunch.

48. Ellie Diop

Business coach, founder of Ellie Talks Money

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Before the world entered a crisis because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ellie Diop was in one of her own. In 2019, the mother of two had been laid off from her sales director job, was going through a divorce and pregnant with twins. “I recognized that the only place I could go was up. It was already bad. It couldn’t get much worse than it was, and that gave me a little inkling of hope, and I just took it and ran with it,” Diop told Atlanta Black Star. All she needed was a $1,200 stimulus check, and the new mother of four made her own second chance. Thanks to a background in finance and experience leading a sales team of 70, Diop had valuable insights to help entrepreneurs build a strong business foundation. Diop was discouraged when she didn’t see any single-mom coaches after several weeks of researching the industry, so she saw a significant opportunity to cater to that underserved group. Two ring lights, a Canva membership, and a domain name later, Ellie Talks Money was born. She built her website and leveraged Instagram to market her coaching products to millennials who were increasingly turning to entrepreneurship. She frequently went live on Instagram to connect with people and offer free business tips. That social media audience quickly grew from 300 to 100,000 in six months. In 18 months, Ellie Talks Money reached $3 million in revenue by helping entrepreneurs like herself.

49. Brielle Ferguson

Neuroscientist, co-founder and programs director of Blacks In Neuro

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Finding unprecedented solutions to complex problems just comes with the territory for neuroscientist Brielle Ferguson. She studies the circuits in the brain responsible for cognition and paying attention. Her research has already made significant developments towards understanding and treating conditions like schizophrenia and autism by pinpointing a specific neuron in the brain. The Stanford postdoctoral fellow was thriving professionally but still seeking community in her field when she answered the call of Ph.D. candidate Angeline Dukes. Inspired by support networks springing up in response to viral racist incidents like with Chris Cooper, who was threatened with police for simply bird watching while Black, in July of 2020, Dukes asked Twitter when they’re doing a #BlackInNeuro week. (It is officially July 27-Aug. 2.) That same month, she and Ferguson co-founded a movement of the same name with 22 other co-organizers. The social media project provides resources, networks, and a platform to recognize Black people in neuro-related fields worldwide. It has since become a non-profit with Ferguson in charge of programming. Diverse scientists make new discoveries at higher rates than their peers, but with Black students representing only 5 percent of Ph.D.s earned each year, they are more likely to struggle in isolation. The organization’s educational events are open and available to the public, and its platform allows 300-plus members to connect and collaborate. Ferguson’s work both inside and outside the lab is changing the future of her industry.

50. Lakeysha Hallmon

Founder and CEO of the Village Market

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Inspired by the self-determination of entrepreneurship in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Black Wall Street, Lakeysha Hallmon founded Village Market to be an ecosystem that supports Black businesses through cooperative economics. Since 2016, the Village Market has driven over $5 million directly to Black-owned businesses. After 15 years of experience in education, Hallmon knew elevating Black businesses would require revenue as much as resources, mentorship, and professional development. To maintain the integrity and control of her Black-owned vision, she launched the organization without any investor money. The Village’s community-driven mission and track record of helping sales skyrocket have attracted businesses in 38 states and four countries. “Support is a verb” is both a guiding principle for Hallmon’s work and a fundraising partner launched to support the Village Market community. In 2020, Hallmon pivoted online with a State of Black series on Instagram Live and the Village Retail, a collective retail space with 30 rotating spots for Black-owned businesses. She continues to educate and empower entrepreneurs with her latest project, the ELEVATE small business incubator, which focuses on wellness and mental healthcare for Black business owners and entrepreneurs.

51. Damien Fair

Behavioral neuroscientist, co-director of the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain

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The MacArthur Foundation Fellowship recognized Damien Fair for unlocking the mysteries of brain development with his creative use of MRIs. Working with stroke patients in the neurology department at Yale New Haven Hospital inspired Fair to get a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis. He came to the University of Minnesota in 2020 to be the Redleaf Endowed Director of the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain. Fair uses mathematical models and his unique brain mapping of resting MRIs to track the biological mechanisms behind diagnoses like autism and ADHD. The institute is slated to open in the fall of 2021, focusing on early diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cognitive conditions from infancy through adolescence. Fair also advances medicine by challenging the ways marginalized colleagues and communities are systematically excluded from STEM. He started at home by pledging to invest his $625,000 MacArthur grant into his wife’s work. Dr. Rahel Nardos is a urogynecologist specializing in postpartum care and surgical reconstruction after childbirth. His creative and comprehensive study of brain development from birth and intergenerational factors seeks to advance medical treatment as much as how our social structures can best serve those who need them most.

52. Xavier Henderson

Co-founder and director of strategy for For Oak Cliff

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Inequality runs deep in Oak Cliff, a Dallas community where Black people liberated from slavery settled post-Civil War, and the KKK built a meeting hall a few decades later. It’s now one of the unhealthiest areas in Dallas and has the highest incarceration rate in Texas, but Xavier Henderson is building a brighter future with For Oak Cliff. He and Taylor Toynes, both Oak Cliff natives and alumni of the University of North Texas and Teach From America, started a Back to School Festival in 2015 to provide resources to neighborhood students. In 2020, they co-founded the For Oak Cliff nonprofit to address the systemic issues in their community. With Henderson as director of strategy, the organization launched programs for physical and mental health, college counseling, a community garden, and education for all ages. Recently, For Oak Cliff gave out 1.3 million pounds of food during the pandemic and expanded to a 10-acre campus. Although his work has earned recognition by 2020 Echoing Green Fellowship and 2021 Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Social Impact List, Henderson defers to the people of Oak Cliff to direct their efforts. “We involve the whole community in the choices we make and the strategies for how we enact our initiatives,” he said. “How many efforts are being led by beneficiaries? There’s power here, and it doesn’t just stop with us. It enables so many more people from our neighborhood to get involved.”

53. Jordan Casteel

Painter, art professor

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Jordan Casteel has spent much of her young career painting vivid, near life-sized portraits of Black people—the street vendors, subway riders and residents of Harlem, where Casteel currently resides—the ordinary, everyday citizens who are rarely seen on museum walls. “A lot of the subjects that I have chosen maybe have had moments where they haven’t felt seen. Knowing that they get to feel seen long-term, that’s one of the greatest honors of my life,” she said. For the Rutgers University art professor, advocating for the marginalized and unseen is a family tradition; her grandmother, Margaret Buckner Young, was a noted educator and children’s book author; her grandfather, Whitney Moore Young Jr., was president of the Urban League in the ’60s (Casteel is named after Vernon Jordan, a close family friend who led the Urban League after her grandfather.) The trajectory of her career has been meteoric: Three months after graduating from Yale School of Art, Casteel had her breakout moment with her first solo exhibit, “Visible Man“—a nod to Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man”—at a New York City gallery in 2014. The exhibit featured Black men in the nude, casually posed in intimate settings, offering a powerful counter-narrative to the violent and hypersexualized versions of Black men in the media. That show caught the eye of Thelma Golden, legendary director of Studio Museum in Harlem, who offered Casteel one of the museum’s highly coveted residencies. Several solo shows followed, culminating in her first major museum show in New York City, “Jordan Casteel: Within Reach,” featuring nearly 40 paintings spanning her career that opened in February 2020 just before the pandemic shut everything down (a virtual tour featuring Casteel as a guide was a saving grace). In the past year, her work has appeared on the covers of Vogue and Time magazines, and in September, Casteel was named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow for “capturing everyday encounters with people and places in works that invite recognition of our shared humanity.”

54. Kerby Jean-Raymond

Founder of Pyer Moss, global creative director at Reebok

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Since his breakthrough presentation of Pyer Moss’ Spring 2016 highlighted the Black Lives Matter Movement and police brutality, Kerby Jean-Raymond has been at the forefront of a new era in fashion. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native continued to break more barriers last year when he became Reebok’s global creative director and won top awards back-to-back from the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Harlem’s Fashion Row. In 2021, Jean-Raymond became the first Black American designer to present at the Paris Haute Couture Week. He used the historic opportunity to honor Black inventors and their creations, like the cell phone, air conditioner, lampshade, and traffic light. Even the venue for his Paris debut was a nod to Black trailblazers: the home of Madame C.J. Walker, the first Black female self-made millionaire. His bold vision for the show, called “WAT U IZ,” reclaimed Black creators’ space in the collective consciousness and fashion industry, where Black culture has long been appropriated with little acknowledgement to the brilliant Black people behind it. With Reebok, Jean-Raymond is embracing the freedom to move fashion forward with socially conscious narratives. “Can our mindsets collectively evolve to serve the future? Are we inclusive enough? Are we bold enough? Are we challenging tradition enough? Are we ready to unlearn? It’s going to be difficult,” he told Harper’s Bazaar. “I’m ready, though.”

55. Ashley Nicole Black

Writer, actress, comedian

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Many of comedy’s most exciting writers’ rooms have one thing in common: Ashley Nicole Black. If eight Emmy nominations and one win for writing on “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” weren’t impressive enough already, Black was competing against herself at last month’s Emmy Awards for her work on “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and “The Amber Ruffin Show.” The former is the first show to have an all-Black women writers’ room, and the latter is the only network late-night talk show hosted by a Black woman. Black also recently joined the writing team for the critically acclaimed and hilariously heartfelt Apple TV+ series, Ted Lasso. Between acting classes, a bachelor’s in theater arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a master’s in performance studies from Northwestern, Black dedicated her life to performing. Despite her immense talent, credentials and education, Black was discouraged by the constant lack of opportunities for plus-size Black actresses. When Black discovered a new gift for writing and performing comedy in a Second City improv class, she left her Ph.D. program at Northwestern to bet on herself as a star. It paid off almost immediately with an opportunity to write and be a correspondent for Full Frontal. Black has repeatedly proven herself a powerhouse and told the Chicago Tribune she’s ready for more. “I really want my own show that I write and star in. And all of those voices that have been ignored, I just want to be a part of bringing them to the screen.”

56. Gwen Berry

U.S. Olympic track and field athlete

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Two years ago, hammer thrower Gwen Berry was harshly criticized after raising her fist during the U.S. national anthem during the Pan Am Games in Peru. Her actions led to swift repercussions—she was placed on probation for a year by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and lost 75 percent of her sponsorships. Instead of backing down, Berry—with the help of a sponsorship from Color of Change—continued using her worldwide platform to advocate for justice while representing the United States at the Tokyo Olympics. Berry even drew heat during the Olympic trials for turning her back on the American flag during the playing of the national anthem. “I feel like I’ve earned the right to wear this uniform,” she said while in Tokyo. “I’ll represent the oppressed people. That’s been my message for the last three years.” While her fiercest detractors can’t seem to comprehend it, Berry’s willingness to speak on behalf of marginalized communities and to bring attention to the ways America needs to grow is one of the most patriotic things anyone can do.

57. Reginald Dwayne Betts

Poet, lawyer

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Reginald Dwayne Betts could have been another statistic. At 16, Betts—an honor student who never had a run-in with police—was sentenced to nine years for a carjacking, “the stupidest crime you can commit,” he told the New Yorker. While incarcerated, Betts developed a love of poetry after reading the “Black Poets” anthology. When he was released in 2005, he went back to school, first to community college, then earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and a Master of Fine Arts from Warren Wilson before graduating from Yale Law School. He passed the Connecticut bar exam in 2017, but examiners questioned his character because of his prison stint and rejected his application to practice law in the state; powerful allies spoke up on his behalf, and he was finally granted his license. During that time, Betts would publish two collections of poetry and a memoir while working for the New Have public defender’s office. He would also earn a spot on our list in 2018 after he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for poetry. In 2019, Betts released his third collection of poetry, “Felon,” which author Mitchell S. Jackson called “the keenest of testaments to what it’s like to have lived behind the walls.” That same year, he collaborated with visual artist and filmmaker Titus Kaphar on an exhibit at New York City’s MoMA PS1 called “Redaction,” which used redacted public documents to expose how the cash-bail system preys on the poor and marginalized. Recently, he launched Freedom Reads, an organization that donates books and develops reading clubs for juvenile facilities and prisons. His insightful poetry and advocacy on behalf of the incarcerated helped Betts earn a 2021 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

58. Nikema Williams

U.S. representative, Georgia’s 5th Congressional District

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A leader who saw inequality firsthand growing up in rural Alabama went on to climb Georgia’s political ladder, make headlines for civil disobedience and turn the tide of American politics. This incredible success story describes both the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis and his successor, Nikema Williams. When the civil rights icon passed away in 2020, Williams was chosen to replace him on the November ballot. Williams is a freedom fighter in her own right whose “good trouble” got her arrested as a state senator for protesting the results of Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial race between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp, who oversaw his own election and has a history of engaging in voter suppression. Williams continued preparing for war as the first Black female chair of the Georgia Democrats in 2019. After almost two decades of groundwork to make every vote count, she won Congressman Lewis’ seat, turned Georgia blue for Biden, and helped win the two seats that flipped the US Senate to Democrat control. In Washington, Williams continues to fight for the marginalized by spearheading an end to the 13th Amendment loophole. “I must continue to fight because I know that I am up against a system that was not created for me or by people that look like me, and I am operating within a system that wasn’t designed for me,” she told Essence. “I’m going to continue to speak up for those that for far too long have been overlooked and unheard in our political process.”

59. Rachel Robasciotti

Founder and CEO of Robasciotti &amp; Philipson and Adasina Social Capital

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Rachel Robasciotti is a pioneer of social justice investing and has led by example since she founded her progressive investment firm, Robasciotti & Philipson, at the age of 25. She broke barriers as a young Black queer woman in the predominantly white, male, and heteronormative world of finance, but didn’t settle for simply being the face of diversity. Robasciotti left promising career paths at MetLife Securities and Prudential Financial to start her own shop with the freedom to prioritize values-based investments. Robasciotti’s social justice investing strategy grew into another investment firm under her leadership in 2020: Adasina Social Capital. Inspired by Robasciotti’s West African roots, “Adasina” is a Yoruba word that means “she opens the way.” The financial activism firm lives up to its name by mobilizing investors to put their financial power behind campaigns focused on economic, racial, gender, and climate change justice. Last year, she told the world which companies she refused to invest in because of their involvement in prisons, surveillance, immigrant detention, for-profit colleges, bail, and occupied territories. Robasciotti’s leadership is defunding oppressive systems and steering billions of dollars into creating a more just and ethical future.

60. Iya Dammons

Founder and executive director of Baltimore Safe Haven

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No one gets left behind on Iya Dammons’ watch. As a Black transgender woman who faced homelessness, drug addiction, violence, and survival sex work, Dammons knows how little support is available for Baltimore’s most vulnerable. She founded Baltimore Safe Haven to improve the quality of life for LGBTQ people in Baltimore. What started as mobile outreach from a van in 2018 expanded to offer everything Dammons wished she had in the past: a permanent address, workforce development, help with name changes, clothing, showers, and a safe space. While former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was actively dismantling the few housing protections transgender people had, Dammons opened the doors to a Baltimore Safe Haven’s shelter. Baltimore Safe Haven recently expanded to provide housing for LGBTQ seniors with Legacy House. When the world shut down due to COVID-19, Dammons stepped up even more. “We were in the streets masked up trying to help our people who didn’t have a place to stay. We were boots on the ground when there was no one out there, and it was still deadly,” she told the Washington Blade. “We gave money support. We gave out hotel rooms along with other organizations. We gave out hair and hair cuts. We served our population because who was going to be there for us? Everyone closed their doors when it was either them or us.” It’s the work of people like Dammons, whose brilliant leadership and tireless efforts prove that Black Trans Lives Matter.

61. Moses Ingram

Actress

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Moses Ingram’s “overnight success” story started with years of training and studying at Baltimore School for the Arts, Baltimore City Community College, and Yale School of Drama. She was fresh out of drama school in 2019 when she landed the role of Jolene in “The Queen’s Gambit,” which broke records as Netflix’s most-watched limited series. Ingram’s dynamic range in playing Jolene from a young teen to adulthood left audiences wanting more and put her in the running for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series. She’ll appear next on the big screen with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in Joel Coen’s adaptation of “Macbeth.” Ingram is also joining the Star Wars universe for the Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off on Disney+. If that wasn’t enough on her plate, she was recently cast in Michael Bay’s upcoming action thriller, “Ambulance” and will play Robyn Crawford in the Whitney Houston biopic, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” The actress told Elle that she looks forward to the challenge and opportunities to bring a broad spectrum of characters to life. “The scope is endless. I just hope to continue to see more stories that aren’t built around being a person of color, but more like you walk into a room and just are who you are. That’s sexy to me!”

62. Omar Jimenez

Journalist, Correspondent for CNN

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Omar Jimenez is used to taking risks to report from the heart of a developing story. In 2020, he became part of the story while reporting from Minneapolis after George Floyd’s murder. The Medill School of Journalism alum was right on the scene amidst burning buildings, a raging pandemic, and aggressive police turning massive protests into violent clashes. Despite presenting press credentials and pleading with the Minnesota State Patrol, Jimenez, producer Bill Kirkos and camera operator Leonel Mendez were arrested on live television. Jimenez remained professional in the face of hostile police while reporting on a deadly instance of police brutality. “I tried to always frame what happened to me within the larger story of George Floyd and why we were there in the first place,” Jimenez told the Chicago Tribune. “What happened to me was a microcosm of the larger story we were covering. At its core, it’s an interaction between a member of the community and the police and how it can go terribly wrong.” His diligent reporting for over a year helped CNN win an Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the death of George Floyd.

63. Kandace Montgomery

Co-founder and director of Black Visions Collective

After George Floyd’s death, a national spotlight shined on Minneapolis activists like Kandace Montgomery. Montgomery gained the national spotlight when she made Minneapolis May Jacob Frey do the walk of shame for refusing to support defunding the police, but she’d already spent years uplifting the Black community and working to dismantle systems of violence through Black Visions Collective, a Black-led, trans- and queer-centered nonprofit she founded in 2017 with Miski Noor and Oluchi Omeoga. Outrage over Floyd’s unjust killing inspired support from celebs like Lizzo and $30 million in donations. They also granted over $1 million to 19 partner organizations with the shared mission of creating a police-free future. “Defund the police” has been dismissed as a trendy catchphrase, but Black Visions relentlessly fought to make it a reality through protests and policy changes. In June 2020, they convinced the Minneapolis City Council to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, remove police from the city charter requirements, and create a new community safety model. Pro-police bureaucrats were able to stall a 2020 ballot measure to defund MPD, but voters got a chance in November to vote on a “first-of-its-kind” amendment to limit the size and scope of the police force’s power. “A world without police means that everybody has what they need to survive and what they need to live healthy lives, Montgomery told the Intercept. “It means we have the money that we need for education, health care, housing, workers’ rights. It is a total transformation away from a racist and violent system into one that truly fosters our safety and well-being.”

64. Fabrice Guerrier

Founder of Syllble, sci-fi and fantasy writer

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Science-fiction author Fabrice Guerrier uses the internet to create a social, political and intellectual explosion similar to the Harlem Renaissance. Believing creativity and collaboration are the keys to saving humanity, he founded Syllble for creators to exchange ideas from across the world in 2017. The virtual production house has hundreds of members globally and published the first-ever fiction novel co-written by authors from four global regions: Latin America, North America, the Middle East and Europe. The Syllble collective offers writers editorial support, access to publishing pipelines, community feedback, and a growing Brain Trust of mentors and experts. His podcast, “The Fabrice Guerrier Show,” is dedicated to harnessing this moment’s creative and technological potential to reinvent society for the better. In 2019, TEDxFSU brought Guerrier back to Florida State University, where he graduated with a B.S. in International Affairs and Leadership Studies certificate. His talk, “Gone Are the Days of the Lone Genius,” asserts the creativity and innovation that will drive the next industrial and technological revolution is humanity’s ultimate group project. The Haitian-American writer advanced this concept in 2021 through a partnership with the U.S. State Department’s Innovation Station: Creative Industry Lab.

65. Barry Givens

Co-founder and managing partner of Collab Capital

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Barry Givens was still an engineering student at Georgia Tech when his serial entrepreneur journey began with a custom sneaker company, Slushie Kicks. In 2013, Givens launched Monsieur, a startup that streamlined bartending with a tech twist at the Techcrunch Disrupt Battlefield. He won the Technology Association of GA Business Launch competition, successfully raised $4 million and revolutionized drink mixing at venues like major sports arenas and cinema chains before exiting the company in 2017. As a co-founder and managing partner of the Collab Capital investment fund, Givens provides a supportive network, mentorship, and funding to overcome the challenges that historically prevent other Black startups from thriving. Givens and Collab co-founders Jewel Burks Solomon and Justin Dawkins (who are both honorees on this year’s list) agreed that challenges disproportionately affecting Black founders required an unapologetically Black solution. “Going through this journey, even if you look at funds who have Black managing partners or funds that focus on diversity or marginalized people, Black founders still tend to be marginalized within the marginalized,” Givens told Afrotech. After reaching its goal of raising $50 million in capital earlier this year, Collab is more than ready for the challenge. While pledging solidarity to Black communities became popular for major tech companies after last year’s racial reckoning, Givens and Collab are focused on the impactful longevity for Black entrepreneurs.

66. Nicole Tinson

Founder and CEO of HBCU 20×20

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The contrast between attending Dillard University and Yale University inspired Nicole Tinson to create HBCU 20×20, a platform connecting Historically Black Colleges and Universities students and alumni to professional networks, internships and job opportunities. Her diversity and inclusion company has successfully placed more than 1,200 Black professionals at over 200 major companies like Accenture, Netflix, Estee Lauder, and AT&T. Tinson shut down corporate excuses about the difficulties of finding qualified and diverse talent. As a leader, she doesn’t just bet on Black talent; she prioritizes Black people’s well-being in these halls of power. At the end of 2020, she walked away from a partnership with Google because of how the company treated and fired diversity recruiter April Christina Curley. Tinson’s trailblazing work of diversifying corporate America earned her spots on HBCU Buzz’s Top 30 Under 30 list, Dillard University’s 40 Under 40 list, and Forbes’ lists for 30 Under 30.

67. Zerina Akers

Celebrity stylist, founder of Black Owned Everything

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One of the most vibrant and visible artists in the fashion world is Zerina Akers. Sewing lessons from her Panamanian grandmother sparked a passion for fashion that took her from being a W Magazine intern to having Beyonce as her first client. The Maryland native is the brilliant mind behind Queen Bey’s most iconic fashion statements in the past seven years, particularly the cultural and artistic feasts of “Lemonade” and “Black Is King.” She evolved from stylist to costume designer to create and coordinate dozens of looks, hundreds of custom garments, thousands of accessories, and countless cultural references for last year’s visual album. In August, Akers won an Emmy for Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Program for what Vogue described as the “Afrocentric fashion moment we’ve been waiting for” with “Black Is King.” As a firm believer in lifting as she climbs, she tapped into an immensely talented pool of Black designers from across the world for the sprawling project. Shining a spotlight on independent Black creators was as important as starting a global conversation centered on love for Blackness and the diaspora. Between the momentum of the film and renewed interest in all things Black-owned, Akers was inspired to start Black Owned Everything “for when the trend is over.” When she’s not collaborating with brands like Macy’s and Zales, she’s working to evolve her curated marketplace into a cultural hub that celebrates Black innovation and entrepreneurs.

68. Brehanna Daniels

NASCAR pit crew member

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Being able to change a set of tires during a NASCAR pit stop takes a certain amount of skill, precision and speed that, quite frankly, not many of us have. Brehanna Daniels, the first Black woman to work on a NASCAR pit crew, can do it in under 13 seconds. NASCAR—a sports league that isn’t known for creating a welcoming environment for Black fans (it only just banned the Confederate battle flag at its events last year and only after its lone Black top-tier driver, Bubba Wallace, made it an issue)—wasn’t even top of Daniels’ mind as a place for opportunity in 2016 when she was a senior point guard at Virginia’s Norfolk State University until recruiters from NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program showed up. Given the choice between attending pit crew tryouts and taping a baseball game for a campus internship, Daniels chose NASCAR and hasn’t looked in her rearview since. After making her professional debut in 2017, Daniels has continued to blaze a trail in a sport that is predominately male and white. Along with the rise of Wallace, who partnered with his Airness, Michael Jordan—NASCAR’s first Black principal owner in nearly 50 years—Daniels is helping drive home the point that Black people have a place in NASCAR.

69. Christopher Bradshaw

Founder and executive director of Dreaming Out Loud

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Christopher Bradshaw went from helping his Uncle Walt grow and give away vegetables as a child in his hometown of Morristown, Tenn., to founding Dreaming Out Loud. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit creates economic opportunities and equitable community-based food systems for low-income communities. What started as a youth development program in 2008 expanded to address underlying systemic financial and food access disparities. In the nation’s capital, where Bradshaw attended Howard University, more than 75 percent of the city’s food deserts are predominantly Black Wards 6, 7, and 8. DOL started a two-acre farm, community gardens, and farmers’ markets to provide fresh, healthy food to those areas. Their ecosystem includes DREAM (DOL’s Ready for Entrepreneurship Accelerator Model) program for startups, AyaUplift workforce development, and the Black Farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) produce subscription, which saw enrollment increase from 150 to 1,200 during the pandemic. Since 2017, Bradshaw has advocated for racial, economic, and food justice by serving on the DC Food Policy Council. He was recognized by Food Tank’s 20 Leaders Under 40 Who Are Shaping the Future of Our Food System, the Opportunity Finance Network’s Justice Grant, and Eating Well’s list of American Food Heroes. He also received Georgetown University’s John Thompson Jr. Legacy of a Dream Award in 2021.

70. Justin Dawkins

Co-founder and managing partner of Collab Capital, co-founder of Goddie Nation

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“To some, entrepreneur-turned-investors are simply changing sides of the capitalism table,” tech entrepreneur Justin Dawkins wrote. “However, what if entrepreneurs stayed on the ‘problem-solving’ side of the table? What if entrepreneurs saw a problem in the capital market and decided to do what they do best; build a product that solves it?” That’s exactly what he did in 2018 with Jewel Burks Solomon and Barry Givens (who are both honored on this list) when they founded Collab Capital, an investment firm by Black founders and for Black founders. “We are setting out to shrink the wealth gap by helping Black founded businesses overcome the funding and network challenges that often stifle their growth,” he continued. This year, Collab finished raising $50 million in venture capital with partners like Apple, Goldman Sachs, Google, and PayPal. Before Collab, Dawkins led and launched several Atlanta-based technology consulting and digital marketing companies, including his own and social analytics startup SoClick and Inflex Digital Studios. The Georgia State graduate focused on leveling the playing field in tech as Atlanta’s first Google digital coach and co-founder of Goodie Nation, a nonprofit that addressed the relationship gap for underrepresented innovators without access to wealthy and well-connected strategic networks.

71. Jalen McKee-Rodriguez

San Antonio, Texas, city councilman

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Texas is known for its contentious and aggressively conservative politics, but a new generation of leaders like Jalen McKee-Rodriguez is spearheading progressive change. While he was a high school math teacher, the 2016 election of Donald Trump sparked an interest in politics. He started working on local campaigns as communications director for San Antonio Councilwoman Jada Andrews-Sullivan. After becoming disillusioned and quitting in 2019 over alleged anti-gay harassment and discrimination from colleagues, McKee-Rodriguez decided to run against Andrews-Sullivan and 10 others for her City Council seat. The 26-year-old ran on a progressive platform focused on accessible housing, community safety, education, and accountability to his district. He made it to a runoff with incumbent Andrews-Sullivan and beat his former boss by a landslide, making him the first openly gay Black man elected in Texas. McKee-Rodriguez hit the ground running as promised with proposals to consult criminologists on crime prevention, address neglected infrastructure and create a media-based afterschool program. The forward-thinking councilman told Spectrum News 1, “What I always say is that as a teacher, I got to prepare my students for the world as it exists now. And now that I’m a councilman, now that I’m elected, I can prepare the world for my students.”

72. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter

Singer, actor, entrepreneur, philanthropist

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In 2020, Beyonce changed the game (again) with the release of “Black Is King.” In addition to earning stylist and costume designer Zerina Akers an Emmy and a spot on this year’s The Root 100, Beyonce’s larger-than-life love letter to Blackness and the Black diaspora continues to be a game-changer. In 2021, the visual album received six Grammy nominations and won twice for Best R&B Performance for “Black Parade” and Best Music Video for “Brown Skin Girl,” which is also Blue Ivy’s first Grammy win. That night, Bey would win twice more for appearing on the remix to fellow 2021 The Root 100 honoree Megan Thee Stallion’s hot girl quarantine anthem, “Savage.” With her Best Rap Song win, Beyonce’s 28th award broke Alison Krauss’s record for the female artist with the most wins in the history of the Grammys. After expanding IVY PARK, launching a new scholarship fund and confirming new music on the way, Beyonce shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Long live the Queen!

73. Janicza Bravo

Director, producer, writer

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Janicza Bravo didn’t just arrive as a filmmaker; we simply needed the right invitation into her universe. The sprawling odyssey of A’Ziah “Zola” King’s infamous Twitter thread called to Bravo from the moment it landed in her group chat. “I felt we were very similar the day I read those tweets. And that’s why I felt I had to protect it,” Bravo told Vulture. “I felt and heard myself in her writing, and I wanted to be able to usher it into being and care for it in the way I’d want to be tended to.” Bravo worked hard to protect the power and autonomy of the real and fictional Black women at the core of the story throughout the process, even pushing to secure A’Ziah King’s blessing and executive producer credit for the film. Earlier versions of the script by two white men felt so exploitative to the film’s star Taylour Paige, she passed on the role before Bravo came on board to co-write a new version with Jeremy O. Harris. With a degree in theater and design from NYU, Bravo meticulously harnesses every gesture and inch of the frame. The Brooklyn native transitioned to directing films in 2011 with shorts featured in Sundance, SXSW, AFI and Tribeca film festivals. She also directed episodes of prestige TV series like “Dear White People,” “Mrs. America,” “Them” and “In Treatment.” Bravo’s next project is another long-awaited adaptation of Octavia Butler’s “Kindred.”

74. Shaka King

Director, writer, producer

Born in Brooklyn and trained at New York University’s film school, Shaka King was figuratively and literally a student of Spike Lee. King wrote and directed for prestige series like Hulu’s “Shrill” and HBO’s “High Maintenance” and “Random Acts of Flyness” while working on his most ambitious project to date: “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Studio support was scarce even with financier Charles D. King (no relation) and Ryan Coogler signed on to produce the first feature-length depiction of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya). A tense crime thriller anchored by the FBI informant (played by Lakeith Stanfield) who betrayed Hampton was an unexpected followup to King’s debut film, a stoner comedy called “Newlyweeds”. With the backing of Warner Bros. and the blessing of Fred Hampton’s surviving family, Akua Njeri and Fred Hampton Jr., King delivered one of the biggest films of the year. In addition to introducing Hampton’s legacy to a new generation, the film earned accolades. King was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture, the first time in Oscars history an all-Black producing team. The “Judas and the Black Messiah” team will reunite for an untitled feature about an American insurrection that King will direct, co-write, and co-produce.

75. Percell Dugger

Co-founder, president of Fit For Us, GOODWRK founder

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Percell Dugger knows firsthand how powerfully transformative it is to have a healthy connection between mind and body. A highlight of his childhood was running around and climbing trees in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he was born and raised. When he struggled with depression and unemployment after a near-fatal car accident, exercise was a therapeutic outlet that inspired him to start a career in fitness. Inspired by the Audre Lorde quote, “Caring for self is an act of political warfare,” he’s on a mission to end Black health inequality. Dugger told Authority Magazine, “My goal with fitness was being able to provide healthy solutions for people in my community. That quote resonates with me so much because of the glaring health inequalities and disparities that exist for Black people in America.” When he isn’t training celebrities like NBA players or Winston Duke (Black Panther, Us), Dugger meets people where they are with affordable community-based fitness programs through GOODWRK. When 2020 put a spotlight on economic, racial, and health disparities in the U.S., Dugger turned a group chat with frustrated fellow Black wellness and fitness professionals into a collective to tackle systemic health inequality: FitForUs.Their team wrote an open letter to the fitness industry in Self Magazine to addressing everything from client microaggressions to the hypocritical statements of racial solidarity from fitness companies with racist policies and practices. FitForUs partnered with Color of Change to launch The Sanity Plan, a self-care program with resources to counter the stress of the pandemic. They tackle systemic issues like food insecurity while meeting urgent needs with a therapy relief fund for Black women without mental health resources.

76. Geoffrey Starks

FCC Commissioner

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As FCC Commissioner since 2019, Geoffrey Starks pushed for universal broadband access, subsidized computers and devices, and campaigns to keep vulnerable communities informed about the benefits of programs like Lifeline. Born and raised in Kansas City, Stark understands how communications barriers persist in rural America. The pandemic made it more evident than ever how many Black, Latinx, Indigenous, low-income, and rural communities were left behind economically and socially without vital internet access. Once schools, offices, libraries, and restaurants closed, millions lost their only access to the virtual world, and he’s committed to changing that. Starks also pushed for a $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit program. While he wants to ensure everyone has equitable internet access, he is also vigilant about protecting consumers from intrusive and predatory companies compromising or selling their data. Starks is at the forefront of national security policy to protect the communications networks of large corporations, institutions, and government agencies that are increasingly vulnerable to breaches.

77. Camille Stewart

Global head of product security strategy, Google

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You know Google. You likely use it every day. But did you know that one of Google’s top cyber security experts is a Black woman? That may be surprising but Camille Stewart is working to normalize Black people working in the cyber industry. She joined Google after stints with Deloitte and as an adviser for the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration. Through her nonprofit initiative #ShareTheMicInCyber, which she co-founded with Lauren Zabierek, Stewart is working to promote diversity in the cybersecurity field. To help with this, #ShareTheMicInCyber offers scholarships to cover the cost of training and certification for Black people in the cyber field. “Cybersecurity is rooted in people; you are seeking to protect people and you are seeking to figure out what the malicious people are trying to do,” she told Bloomberg Law. “Representing people in all backgrounds, all lived experiences, all ethnicities and races only enhances your ability to understand the malicious actor and to understand the user that you seek to protect.”

78. Daroneshia Duncan-Boyd

Executive director of Trans United

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When Republican lawmakers did everything they could to try and pass legislation that would harm the LGBTQ+ community, Trans United executive director Daroneshia Duncan-Boyd didn’t sit by idly. She took to the streets by organizing protests and acting as a voice for the voiceless, while educating the rest of us about the realities trans women of color face in this country daily. Described as an “unapologetic, brilliant black transwoman” with a passion for her community, Duncan-Boyd founded the advocacy organization Transgender Advocate Knowledgeable Empowering (TAKE) to help trans women of color access necessary social and economic services—including during the pandemic. Taking on the challenge of advocating for trans rights down in the Southern states–where high levels of violence against trans women are routinely reported–is a tough job. But as she told the Birmingham News, “If we keep running away from the South, the folks will keep winning, but if we stay in the South, they will eventually lose.”

79. Day Bracey

Co-founder of Barrel &amp; Flow Festival

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To Day Bracey, the purpose of his popular craft beer festival, Barrel & Flow, isn’t to sell beer. He told Pittsburgh’s NPR affiliate WESA that the main goal of the event is actually to provide Black business owners a way to network and benefit from the exposure they may have never had before. Barrel & Flow was originally founded as Fresh Fest in 2018, becoming America’s first Black-operated beer festival. Its popularity grew to the point that USA Today listed it among its top-10 ranked beer festivals as voted by readers. This year not only marked the festival’s return to an in-person event after the pandemic forced it online, but it was also the debut of its new name. Bracey told WESA that as the festival has grown, he has started to notice ways in which the craft brewing scene has become more inclusive in the Pittsburgh area–whether it be more Black people getting jobs at breweries or selling beer at their own events. While Black people still only make up a small percentage of craft brewery owners, events like Barrel & Flow are just one way to help change that.

80. Jazerai Allen-Lord

Founder of True to Size

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If you copped a pair of the Club C sneakers that Reebok released last year as part of the company’s “It’s A Man’s World” campaign, you have Jazerai Allen-Lord to thank for her fresh take on a classic shoe. As one of the few Black women making their mark on sneakerhead culture, Allen-Lord has become a vocal champion for transforming the community into a more inclusive space for creativity to flourish. Through her company, True to Size, Allen-Lord has worked with shoe companies like New Balance and Reebok to strategize and tell stories that help inspire marginalized communities and honor the legacies of those who have come before us. In an interview with Coveteur, Allen-Lord said that she doesn’t want her work and other attempts to prioritize the contributions of women in the sneaker industry to be seen as “disruptive.” Instead, she wants to see more people listening to what women have been saying about their experiences and going from there. “People are going to judge you regardless of who you show up as, so you might as well be yourself,” she said. “If we aren’t showing up and showing out for us, who else will?”

81. Monika Schleier-Smith

Experimental physicist

Website

Scientists work to find the answers to questions that may be far beyond our understanding. Monika Schleier-Smith’s work in physics has been key in shedding light on the complicated nature of particle quantum systems. A graduate of Harvard University who received a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Schieier-Smith earned her place among the 2020 class of MacArthur Foundation fellows thanks in part to her research that focused on studying quantum entanglement within atoms. Her research has led Schleier-Smith and the team working at her Stanford University-based lab to dig deeper into long-term experiments on space-time and simulating what happens to atoms within black holes, among other projects. Schleier-Smith told Quanta Magazine: “We’re still at the stage of getting more and more control, characterizing the quantum states that we have. But … I would love to get to that point where we don’t know what will happen,” she said. “And maybe we measure the correlations in the system, and we learn that there’s a geometric description, some holographic description that we didn’t know was there. That would be cool.”

82. Jalina Porter

Principal deputy spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State

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In 2015, when she pulled double-duty as a Capitol Hill staffer and a professional dancer for the Washington Wizards, Jalina Porter told The Hill that her interest in public service partially stemmed from the desire to keep the world connected and help make it a better place. Years later, in May 2021, Porter became the first Black woman to serve as principal deputy spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, continuing her drive to make the world a better place. In addition to her duties with the State Department, Porter is an active leader of various organizations, including the National Peace Corps Association, the Council on Foreign Relations and The Links, Inc., an international service organization. Her passion for helping others was a key reason why the Peace Corps bestowed her with the Franklin H. Williams Award, which honors “ethnically diverse returned Peace Corps volunteers” dedicated to a life of community service. Porter is an inspiration, both for her career achievements and for her unwavering commitment to improving the lives of others.

83. Jahkeen Washington

Fitness coach, co-founder of JTW Fit

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It’s been said that gyms are starting to become a thing of the past, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic forced gyms all around the country to close up shop. Jahkeen Washington is proof that if you’re waiting to improve your physical fitness, you don’t need a membership or a fancy home setup. You just need your own body and the drive to do it. Washington and his friend, Thomas Boatswain, teamed up in 2019 to open JTW Fit, a gym that provides affordable fitness lessons for anyone that wants them. When the pandemic forced the gym’s physical Harlem location to close out of precaution, the classes moved to virtual and outdoor settings and continued its mission. Washington’s dedication to improving the fitness of others in a way that’s both impactful and easy to access is just part of the reason he won Men’s Health magazine’s Next Top Trainer competition in 2020. “We’re going to continue to build on that so we can promote affordable, inclusive fitness in our community,” he told the magazine earlier this year.

84. Kimberly Wilson

Founder of HUED

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When Kimberly Wilson was unable to receive the care she needed to treat her uterine fibroids in New York City, she created HUED, an app that makes it easier for users to find healthcare providers of color. Since it was founded in 2018, HUED has attracted financial support from backers like Serena Williams and Northwestern Mutual, and has since developed lessons to help train healthcare professionals on critical race theory and other anti-racist tenets to further improve their care. WIlson told Shape that she wants people to understand that HUED is “trying to put trust back into the healthcare system.” It’s a noble mission, and will undoubtedly save many lives in the process.

85. Imani Rupert-Gordon

Executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights

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When Imani Rupert-Gordon was named director fo the National Center for Lesbian Rights back in 2019, one of her key goals for the organization was to put racial and economic justice at the forefront of the movement’s future. Intersectionality was and remains important to Rupert-Gordon, who is the first Black woman to lead the NCLR—an organization that was founded over 40 years ago. Under her leadership, the organization mobilized after the killing of George Floyd and hosted a town hall to address how LGBTQ organizations can fight disproportionate police violence against Black people. She was a vocal supporter of the Equality Act, citing that federal protections would improve the well-being of LGBTQ people of color. To Rupert-Gordon, fighting for LGBTQ representation in spaces that have gone far too long without it is her top priority. But, as she told the Advocate, until poverty, racial bias and other instances of society’s ills are eradicated, her work won’t truly be done.

86. Aicha Davis

Member of the Texas State Board of Education

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While Republican lawmakers in Texas and elsewhere around the country were clutching their pearls at the mere thought of the phrase “critical race theory” being uttered in schools, Dallas-based education advocate Aicha Davis was busy working to ensure her state’s schools are inclusive to all. Davis, a member of the state’s board of education, was a key figure behind getting a statewide course in African American studies approved as an elective for high school students in 2020. This year, she was a vocal champion for CROWN Act legislation to be adopted in the Lone Star State, which if enacted would prohibit natural hair descimination in schools and the workplace. The bill ultimately died in Texas’ House of Representatives back in May, but its proponents say they’re not done fighting for their cause. It’s that kind of determination that makes people like Davis valuable voices for people who may not have had their voices heard before.

87. Meghan Markle

Duchess of Sussex, activist

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In March, the world sat riveted as Meghan Markle and Prince Harry revealed to Oprah the realities of life behind the walls at Buckingham Palace. Instead of a fairy tale, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex exposed how the racism of the Royals and the British media nearly drove Meghan to ending her life. Her open discussion with Oprah about the depression and suicidal thoughts she experienced during her pregnancy was seen by health experts as a positive step toward normalizing these conversations in everyday life. Now, she and Prince Harry are using their considerable influence to continue to advocate for mental health, including the release of a documentary series on mental health and wellness with Oprah on Apple TV+. While Markle may not have gotten the fairytale life she imagined, she is working to ensure that anyone facing mental health issues lives happily ever after.

88. Tiffany Crutcher

Executive director of the Terence Crutcher Foundation

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Sept. 16 marked the fifth year since Terence Crutcher, an unarmed Black man, was shot and killed by a Tulsa police officer. Since then, his twin sister Tiffany Crutcher has worked tirelessly to prevent other families from experiencing a similar loss. She founded a nonprofit foundation that bears his name, which encourages communities to fight police violence while also pushing lawmakers at state and federal levels to legislate lasting and meaningful policing reform. A descendant of a 1921 Tulsa Massacre survivor, Crutcher has also carried a torch for other survivors and descendants to receive reparations as the country is only just beginning to reckon with the racist actions that marked that ugly day 100 years ago. Crutcher sees the connections between her brother’s death and what her family endured, telling The Root, “As we started to encroach on the 100th anniversary of the massacre, I saw the parallels of the past and the present,” she said. “The racial terror violence that my great-grandmother had to endure and flee in fear of her life is the same racial terror and state-sanctioned violence that Terence had to endure.”

89. Maia Chaka

NFL official

Instagram

By day, Maia Chaka is a health and physical education teacher at a Virginia Beach public school. By night, she dons her black-and-white striped shirt and steps onto the field of various NFL stadiums as the first Black woman to join the league’s officiating staff. Chaka always felt comfortable on the football field, even while growing up in Rochester, N.Y. “I think that’s why they picked me,” Chaka said of the boys in her neighborhood. “If they did try to exclude me, I would bully my way on the field. But they never made me feel lesser than. I was always one of the better athletes and the boys welcomed that.” In 2011, Chaka began working as a college football official for the Pac-12 Conference and Conference USA before joining the NFL’s Officiating Development Program in 2014. Her appointment as an NFL official was announced in March, during Women’s History Month. Chaka told her hometown newspaper that she didn’t have any nerves about making her big league debut. “If I fail, I might let some people down, but I can’t let that play in my mind because I’m so focused on what I need to do to make sure I’m successful.”

90. Everett Sands

CEO of Lendistry

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Everett Sands says that his grandfather is the reason he works so hard to create wealth within Black communities. Lendistry, his company, is the leading Black-led financial institution in America. Because of his grandfather’s experiences owning a business that was hampered by bad financial advice, Sands said he’s motivated to work as hard as he can to invest in business owners in every way that he can. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, Lendistry moved swiftly and became the administrator of over $2.5 billion in funds to distribute to small and minority-owned businesses in California. Lendistry was then tapped by the Small Business Administration to distribute $28.6 billion in the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RFF); Sand’s company also struck a partnership deal with Amazon to provide lending services to small-business sellers.

91. Dee Tuck

Chief technology officer for ARRAY

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In May, director, writer and producer-extraordinaire Ava DuVernay tweeted a Wired article that profiled Dee Tuck, who was hired by her company ARRAY back in November. DuVernay shouted Tuck’s praises for creating an inclusive hiring database called the ARRAY crew that the major Hollywood decision-makers can use to bring more people of color into the workforce. The database that Tuck coded has provided a solution to the problem that executives pretend is too hard to solve when diversifying their workplaces. No longer can they claim that they don’t know where to find Black creatives or women to fill open positions. They’re all right there in ARRAY’s database, thanks to Tuck. Her work is a testament to innovation and leadership at work and also a result of what happens when Black women are given the chance to flex their skills in fields that are associated with majority-white faces: They get things done.

92. Riana Elyse Anderson

Psychologist

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On her website, Dr. Riana Elyse Anderson proudly declares that she was “born in, raised for and returned to Detroit.” While her hometown remains a central part in her identity and her work in the psychological field—she works as an assistant professor for the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health—her desire to help heal Black families bears an impact that stretches far beyond the Wolverine State. Anderson’s research spans various topics, including how to speak to children about race and a breakdown of ways that improved access to mental health care resources can help equip Black communities confront racism and discrimination. She also developed the EMBRace program, which helps families improve their racial socialization skills, in addition to fostering more opportunities for parents and children to bond with each other. Anderson believes it’s important for families to have these conversations, and she’s right. “It is mandatory that we have conversations with our families about our past, present, and future in the US,” she wrote. “I zone out during flight attendant safety instructions, but if something is impacting my psychological and physiological well-being on a daily basis, best believe I am attentive.”

93. Kayla Parker

Executive director of Organize Tennessee

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We’ve all heard about how the work of Black women in Georgia were instrumental in flipping the state blue for the first time in nearly 30 years. Kayla Parker was one of those activists who spent countless hours out on the battleground. Using her experience in Georgia and from working on campaigns for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy McGrath, who challenged Mitch McConnell for his seat in Kentucky, Parker is back in her home state of Tennessee to put that expertise to work in the Volunteer State, which has routinely ranked among the states with the worst voter turnout in the country. In February, she stepped into the role of executive director of Organize Tennessee, a nonpartisan group dedicated to improving voter participation. There’s a long road ahead for Parker and her organization, but as she told The Hill: “I’m loud and I’m going to continue to be loud, but in a way that’s productive,” she said. “I’m not just going to be hollering to be hollering, but if it’s going to help voters be able to vote easier and be able to help nonprofits register voters easier, then I’m going to yell it from the rooftops because Tennessee deserves to know.”

94. Chris Montana

Owner, CEO of Du Nord Craft Spirits

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Chris Montana, like many business owners, endured a series of challenges in 2020. The warehouse for his microdistillery, Du Nord Craft Spirits—located near Minneapolis’ Third Precinct—was looted and damaged by fire in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. Two days after Floyd’s death, Montana handed out water and hand sanitizer to protesters as a show of support and to slow the spread of a growing pandemic. Restrictions put in place to prevent COVID-19 from spreading caused business at Du Nord—one of the few Black-owned distilleries in America—to slow down. But it didn’t stop Montana from both rebuilding and sharing what he had with the Minneapolis community. Even more impressive was Montana’s dedication to uplifting his neighbors when they needed it the most. Not too long after the warehouse fire, he went to work by raising money through a recovery fund, which aimed to help other businesses owned by people of color affected by riots. Montana turned his warehouse into a food bank and co-founded the Du Nord Foundation, whose mission is to help rebuild and restore economic prosperity to his community. What started as a flash-solution to a food desert created in the wake of the civil unrest has lived on to help families through a pandemic that has continued to hamper them economically. Montana’s dedication to his community is one of factors that led Delta Airlines to start serving Du Nord’s Foundation Vodka on its domestic flights in October with plans to roll out more spirits from the company in 2022.

95. Elizabeth Davis

Product manager, Facebook

Website

If you used Facebook’s fundraising feature either to set up a fund for your own business, for someone else’s or even just to contribute to another ongoing fund, you have Elizabeth Davis to thank for that. The Stanford graduate leads a team that develops new tools for the social media giant’s fundraising platform. The business fundraising feature was unveiled last year near the start of the pandemic and has raised millions of dollars for businesses going through economic hardship. She also developed fundraisers to provide relief for people affected by the Australian bushfires and one that raised over $12 million for racial justice organizations as Juneteenth approached. The work that Elizabeth Davis is doing shows that social media platforms can be a force for good.

96. Vanessa Rochelle Lewis

Founding director of Reclaim U.G.L.Y:​​ Uplift, Glorify, and Love Yourself

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When Vanessa Rochelle Lewis was 15, a backhanded compliment from an algebra teacher triggered a moment of clarity that would define her life’s work: “Wow, Vanessa, you may not look like Beyonce, but you sure can write a moving poem,” her teacher said. “By telling me that I did not look like her while affirming my ability to write a compelling poem, he was making it clear that I did not fit into society’s understanding of beauty, and therefore I also did not fit into his,” Lewis wrote. “No longer was I a teenage girl, proud of my poem. I was now a teenage girl conscious of the fact that my math teacher did not find me attractive and did not think the world would find me attractive either.” Years later, Lewis—who describes herself as “a Queer, Fat, Black, Femme performer, facilitator, educator, writer, activist, healer, joyful weirdo, and Faerie Princess Mermaid Gangsta for The Revolution”—founded Reclaim U.G.L.Y:​​ Uplift, Glorify, and Love Yourself, an organization that campaigns against “uglification” and works to promote more inclusive spaces for marginalized communities. In 2019, when an L.A. party promoter created a meme mocking Lewis’ appearance, the South Los Angeles native responded by launching the first annual UGLY conference. Reclaim UGLY carried on its mission when the pandemic hit in 20202 by hosting Solidarity Healing September, an online, monthlong, racial justice heal-in/teach-in, and Black Healing October, free, monthlong, online healing workshops for Black people by Black people. Last month, Lewis, a former writer and co-managing editor for feminist magazines Everyday Feminism & Black Girl Dangerous, released her book, “Reclaiming UGLY! Uplift, Glorify, and Love Yourself—and Create a World Where Others Can as Well.”

97. Laura Kupe

Senior Adviser to the deputy U.S. secretary of defense

Website, Twitter

Breaking barriers is what Laura Kupe does. As an attorney, public speaker and an expert in national security and foreign policy, Kupe has spent years working to pave the way for more inclusive representation in largely white-dominated spaces while also working to keep our nation safe. Kupe credits her upbringing in Luxembourg with her Congolese parents in helping her learn about the interconnectedness of the world, including the global ills that needed to be addressed. As she got older, Kupe used her experiences and her passion for social justice to speak out on issues, while also advocating for people of color to have a voice in matters of policy that shape America’s actions both stateside and globally. Earlier this year, she joined the U.S. Department of Defense as a senior adviser to the deputy secretary of defense, where she will no doubt continue to be a beacon of inspiration for those seeking access to the rarefied space of national security.

98. Chazz Sims

Co-founder of Wise Systems

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Logistical work is mostly a behind-the-scenes enterprise. Those outside of the industry might not be aware of how much goes into making sure your package arrives on time, or quickly adjusting when traffic or equipment-related issues create obstacles for grocery store food shipments. As a co-founder of logistics company Wise Systems, Chazz Sims knows this all too well. The software created by Wise Systems uses artificial intelligence to help companies operate at peak efficiency when making deliveries, while also working to give the environment a break by reducing mileage and the carbon footprint. Forbes named Sims to its 30 Under 30 list in 2021 because of Wise’s impact during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing necessary assistance for companies like Anheuser-Busch and Lyft to keep running in the face of economic adversity.

99. Davonne Reaves

Hotelier, founder of the Vonne Group

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Davonne Reaves didn’t let the fact that Black entrepreneurs, especially women, made up a miniscule share of hotel owners in the United States stop her from achieving her goals. In 2020, Reaves and her business partner, Jessica Myers, brokered an $8.3 million deal with Hilton–making them the youngest Black women to ever co-own a hotel under a major chain. With an interest in changing the landscape of Black hotel owners for the better, Reaves founded the Vonne Group in 2017 to provide guidance and investing advice to future Black hotel owners. In 2021, the Vonne Group launched the 221 Initiative, which aims to create 221 Black hotel owners and investors by providing the necessary resources they’ll need to thrive. She told NextAdvisor: “I hope my story will inspire people to not only think big, but also think about hotel investing and ownership as a possibility.”

100. Joanna Smith

CEO of AllHere Education

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Adapting to change is a key part of survival in both everyday life and in the business world. Joanna Smith knows this. It’s why her company, AllHere Education, was able to grow and expand as the COVID-19 pandemic put restraints on just about everything you can think of. AllHere works with schools to find solutions for chronic truancy—an issue that has plagued schools for years and was aggravated when the pandemic forced schools to move online. Smith and AllHere stepped up to the challenge by developing an AI-powered chatbot system that works with parents and teachers to reduce truancy, as well as providing resources to healthcare and academic assistance for students. According to Forbes, Smith’s ability to adapt not only increased AllHere’s client base to 2,000 schools in 15 states, but it also earned her a spot on the magazine’s 2021 30 Under 30 list for education.