~ Zora Neale Hurston ~   Writer and Anthropologist. One of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance,    Zora Neale Hurston has been recognized as one of the premiere writers of her day.    Her legacy is now recognized at the Zora Neale Hurston Festival held every year in Eatonville, Florida - her birthplace. 

 ~ Grace Ann Bumbry ~    Opera singer. featured her in Bayreuth, Germany's Wagner Festival. The first black to sing there.    A mezzo-soprano who also successfully sang the soprano repertoire,
   Grace Bumbry recorded on four labels and sang in concerts world wide.

~ Esther Rolle ~
  Actress. She is best known for her role as Florida on the long running CBS television series, Good Times.
  Recently seen in Rosewood.

~ Hon. Yvonne Miller ~
   Congresswoman. 5th District Cities of Chesapeake (part) and Norfolk (part) Member of Congress since 1988.

~ Sarah Lois Vaughan ~
    Jazz Singer - On October 1942, she entered and won the 'Amateur Night' contest held at
  New York's famed Apollo Theatre. She was launched on a career where she sang with such
  greats as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Mile Davis, Art Blakey and Budd Johnson - legendary founders of the modernist Be-Bop' era. Once she had gone solo - as she was to stay for the rest of her career - she began to establish herself as a force in her own right.

~Dione Warwick ~
   Singer,  Among her other hits are the #1 "Then Came You" (with The Spinners) and the
   Grammy-winning "That's What Friends Are For" (with Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Elton John), She earned seven Top 40 singles in the Eighties alone, Overall, she's garnered one platinum, five gold albums (including 1985's Friends) and five Grammy Awards.

~Minnie Ripperton ~
  Singer.  Her 70s soul classic "Loving You", was entitled "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain
  That Rules from the Center of the Ultraworld" (1989). The record was eventually a hit, but its greater significance lies in its claim to being the first ever ambient house record.

~Sheryl Underwood ~
   Comedian. Considered one of the boldest women in comedy she has appeared in shows such as
  Russell Simmons Def Comedy Jam, BET's comicview, and the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars. She also donates 5% of all  her road earnings to her beloved sorority.

~ Hon. Julia Carson~
    Congresswomen. representative of the tenth district of Indiana.