Talk:100 Greatest African Americans

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mpadilla123.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:54, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Comments to student editor of this article for class assignment
Hey Mpadilla123, Your draft looks good, and I have a few comments: Kairyth (talk) 18:50, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Citations need to be more than just links, you need to include author, date, title, and all the usual citation information. Make sure you are also using the inline citations (the ones that look like footnotes). Currently you don't have any inline citations -- which means you'll lose serious points on the final draft if you don't add those in.
 * Also be sure to include the required eight internal links to other Wikipedia articles. Try linking to the articles about the people you've chosen to write about.
 * Make sure you are using past tense verbs to talk about these historical events. For example "Jackie Robinson would become the first African-American to play in the Major League Baseball" -- better to say "Jackie Robinson WAS the first African-American… " - makes more sense

Repeated Removal of the List of Names
I can see why an author of a book would want to have the names not listed here, but a list of names is not copyrightable. The Supreme Court was pretty clear about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications_v._Rural_Telephone_Service

I'm going to add it back in unless anyone can show that Wikipedia shouldn't list names of people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ReferencePlz (talk • contribs) 18:01, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I agree that the article is much better, much more useful, with the full list of names. It is possible that one reason for not listing the names is that, if listed, they would make it very easy for racists to visit all the sites of these incredible people and vandalize them? In researching these individuals, I was surprised by how many of their personal articles on Wikipedia had been vandalized. :-(  Lapisphil (talk) 07:38, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
 * No, copyright concerns is the sole reason. Despite comment above, Feist_Publications v. Rural Telephone Service makes this list copyrightable. Garion96 (talk) 14:06, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Disclosure on form of reference
I got this information from Amazon's "Search Inside the Book" feature.--Pharos (talk) 17:18, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * http://atheism.about.com/od/bookreviews/fr/GreatestAA.htm <--- since when is this a reputable source of any sort? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.12.223.111 (talk) 21:16, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree with the proposal to remove this article. The article is essentially an advert for a book, with a link to Amazon. The article carries no other information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ncguru (talk • contribs) 22:44, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

Without one mention of a listed figure, I cannot fathom why this entry exists. The above criticisms are apt.SLY111 (talk) 17:12, 10 September 2009 (UTC)SLY111

Referencing
I removed the unreferenced tag because at this point there's nothing that needs referencing from a secondary source, the one primary source and stub tag is sufficient for the time being, until the article is expanded. -- &oelig; &trade; 01:10, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 June 2020
Please remove Bill Cosby from the list of 100 greatest African Americans. 2605:8D80:441:A18B:30E9:C91D:4A7F:377A (talk) 04:36, 23 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: We don't dictate the list.  JTP (talk • contribs) 05:24, 23 June 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 September 2020
Bill Cosby should be removed 2600:E008:6B:D818:587A:DFBC:CF8D:9ED6 (talk) 19:42, 23 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Neither Wikipedia nor our personal opinions dictate the content of a book that was published in 2002. &mdash; KuyaBriBri Talk 02:31, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

Criticism?
Shouldn't there be a section of the article describing the critical reactions to the list? There are some glaring omissions, esp. from the world of music (where we get plenty of attention): Miles Davis? Michael Jackson? Leontyne Price? B. B. King? William Grant Still? And in science (where we get hardly any credit), not going to take anything away from the personal struggles of Dr. Carver, but, as a scientist, he was most successful as a role model and a lobbyist rather than in his actual field of chemistry. J. Ernest Wilkins, on the other hand, did cutting edge physics with Enrico Fermi and Eugens Wigner, as did Elmer Imes. TL;DR, did the list get any healthy criticism, e.g. as a "feel good" project, rather than a serious attempt to bring attention to great African Americans? Pascalulu88 (talk) 21:59, 9 September 2023 (UTC)