List of black Nobel laureates facts for kids
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. As of November 2022, Nobel Prizes had been awarded to 954 individuals, of whom 17 were Black recipients (1.7% of the 954 individual recipients).
Black people have received awards in three of six award categories: twelve in Peace (70.6% of the black recipients), four in Literature (23.5%), and one in Economics (5.9%). The first Black recipient, Ralph Bunche, was awarded the Peace Prize in 1950. The most recent, Abdulrazak Gurnah, was awarded his Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021.
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.
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Economics
One Black person has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Year | Image | Laureate | Country | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|
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 |
Literature
Four Black people have been given the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Year | Image | Laureate | Country | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|
1986 | Wole Soyinka | Nigeria | First Black person to win the Nobel Prize for Literature | |
1992 | Derek Walcott | Saint Lucia | ||
1993 | Toni Morrison | United States | First Black woman to win a Nobel Prize | |
2021 | Abdulrazak Gurnah | United Kingdom | Gurnah moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee following the Zanzibar Revolution |
Peace
12 Black people have been given the Nobel Peace Prize.
Year | Image | Laureate | Country | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|
1950 | Ralph Bunche | United States | First Black person to win a Nobel Prize | |
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 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
- List of Nobel laureates
- List of African Nobel laureates
- List of Latino and Hispanic Nobel laureates
- List of Christian Nobel laureates
- List of Muslim Nobel laureates
- List of Jewish Nobel laureates