List of black Nobel laureates

The Nobel Prize is an annual, international prize first awarded in 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. An associated prize in Economics has been awarded since 1969.[1] As of 2019 Nobel Prizes had been awarded to 916 individuals,[2] of whom 16 were Black recipients.

Black people have received awards in three of six award categories: twelve in Peace, three in Literature, and one in Economics. The first Black recipient, American Ralph Bunche, was awarded the Peace Prize in 1950. The most recent, Abiy Ahmed, was awarded his Peace Prize in 2019.

Two Black laureates – Barack Obama and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – were presidents of their countries (the United States and Liberia respectively) when they were awarded the prize, while Ahmed was Prime Minister of Ethiopia when he was announced as winner.

Economics

One Black person have been given the Nobel Prize in Economics.

YearImageLaureateCountryComment
1979 W. Arthur Lewis  Saint Lucia First and (so far) only black person to win a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences; first West Indian to win a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences[3]

Literature

Three Black people have been given the Nobel Prize in Literature.

YearImageLaureateCountryComment
1986 Wole Soyinka  Nigeria First Black person to win the Nobel Prize for Literature[4]
1992 Derek Walcott[5]  Saint Lucia
1993 Toni Morrison  United States First Black woman to win a Nobel Prize[6]

Peace

12 Black people have been given the Nobel Peace Prize.

YearImageLaureateCountryComment
1950 Ralph Bunche  United States First Black person to win a Nobel Prize[7]
1960 Albert John Luthuli  South Africa First Black African to win a Nobel Prize
1964 Martin Luther King, Jr  United States Youngest African American to win a Nobel Prize
1984 Desmond Tutu  South Africa
1993 Nelson Mandela  South Africa
2001 Kofi Annan  Ghana
2004 Wangari Maathai  Kenya First Black African woman to win a Nobel Prize and first and only environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize
2009 Barack Obama  United States
2011 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf  Liberia
2011 Leymah Gbowee  Liberia
2018 Denis Mukwege  Democratic Republic of the Congo
2019 Abiy Ahmed  Ethiopia

See also

References
  1. "Nobel Prize" (2007), in Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed 14 November 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online:
    An additional award, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden and was first awarded in 1969
  2. "All Nobel Laureates". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  3. "Unsung Heroes". Time. 2007-12-01. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
  4. "Wole Soyinka Biography". Nobelprize.org.
  5. http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/poetry/walcott_derek.html#bio/biblio
  6. Grimes, William (1983-10-08). "Toni Morrison Is '93 Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
  7. Ralph Bunche, PBS.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.