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Widely respected for their work in history and biography are: Lerone Bennet, Ernest Dunbar, John Hope Franklin, Alex Haley, Vincent Harding, Benjamin Mays, Benjamin Quarles, Lawrence Reddick, J. Saunders Redding, Doris Saunders, and Charles Wesley.

The sculptors and painters include: Romare Bearden, Floyd Coleman, Ernest Crichlow, Inge Hardison, Vertis Hayes, Jacob Lawrence, Lucille Roberts and Charles White. 

Recognized for their contributions to acting, directing, producing, and writing plays and films are: Ossie Davis, Lonnie Elder, Robert Hooks, Frederick O'Neal, Gordon Parks, Sidney Poitier and Lloyd Richards.

Julian Adderley, Alvin Ailey, Harry Belafonte, Duke Ellington, Henry Lewis, Donald McKayle, Arthur Mitchell, Paul Robeson and Nina Simone are widely respected for their distinctive contribution to the performing arts through their music and dance, while Etta Moten Barnett and Elma Lewis have turned their talent in the performing arts to establishing cultural centers for the development of younger artists. 

Curators and bibliographers Jean Hutson and Dorothy Porter continue to provide a vital resource to social scientists Oliver Cromwell Cox, John A. Davis, St. Clair Drake, Charles Hamilton, Vivian Henderson, Adelaide Hill, Martin Kilson, C. Eric Lincoln, Alvin Poussaint, Carl Rowan and Chuck Stone.

Those members know primarily for their creative writing are: Margaret Walker Alexander, Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Arna Bontemps, John Clarke, Chester Himes, John Killens, Paule Marshall, and John Williams.

The Black Academy of Arts and Letters conducted a highly successful First Annual Meeting in September, 1970, which included workshops in six areas of arts and letters, and an Awards Banquet at which nine persons were honored. An exciting side result of the Awards Banquet was the removal of a visa restriction by the Department of State on Mrs. Shirley Graham duBois, which enabled her to attend the awards ceremonies. Dr. W.E.B. duBois was enrolled in the Black Academy's Hall of Fame along with Henry O. Tanner, artist, and Carter G. Woodson, historian.

The other persons honored were: Lena Horne, actress and singer, C. L. R. James, author, for their longstanding and continued contributions to arts and letters. Diana Sands, actress, and Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) playwright, for their contemporary 

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