Who's Who in Colored America was a biographical reference series published between 1927 and 1950 documenting notable African Americans. The series was founded by editor Joseph J. Boris and was later edited and published by Thomas Yenser.
History The series was established in 1927 under editor Joseph J. Boris, The reference work covered African American professionals across fields such as education, business, law, medicine, literature, and the arts.
Prior to publication, The New York Times reported that the project was intended to have nationwide scope and was supported by an editorial board that included W. E. B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, Mary McLeod Bethune, Jessie Fauset, Charles S. Johnson, Kelly Miller, and other prominent African Americans. The article also described associated efforts to establish a "Negro Hall of Fame" and to identify influential African Americans for inclusion in the publication.
Thomas Yenser later became editor and publisher of the series and oversaw several subsequent editions. While early volumes had been developed with the support of a prominent editorial board, Yenser assumed responsibility for the publication's ongoing editorial and publishing operations. He ran the publishing operations out of his home at 2317 Newkirk Avenue in Brooklyn. Before managing the series, Yenser worked as a newspaper compositor in New York City. To compile biographical data, Yenser and his son traveled more than 30,000 miles across the United States. The directory documented the civic, professional, and religious achievements of notable African Americans. By the 1941–1944 edition, the publication had grown into a 700-page volume containing over 3,500 biographical sketches. Yenser also expanded the directory's coverage during World War II to document African Americans serving in the United States Armed Forces."Publisher Of Who's Who Seeks Oddities", New Journal and Guide, July 25, 1936, p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.Thomas Yenser, ed. (1944). Who's Who in Colored America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Persons of African Descent in America: 1941-to-1944 (6th ed.). Brooklyn, NY: Thomas Yenser. Retrieved 2026-07-27 – via Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / New York Public Library. Published during the Jim Crow era, Who's Who in Colored America documented African American professionals, educators, artists, clergy, and public figures. Yenser financed the publication and maintained editorial and publishing control through the sixth edition in 1944.
Following Yenser's death in 1949, . The edition drew upon research materials compiled during Yenser's tenure as editor and publisher. Shortly after its release, the publishers faced immediate legal pressure from the A.N. Marquis Company, the owners of Who's Who in America. Marquis threatened legal action, demanding that Christian E. Burkel & Associates cease using the phrase "Who's Who" in the title of their directory. No subsequent volumes or additional editions of the biographical reference series were ever published.
Reception A 1927 review in The New York Times described the volume as a new "Who's Who" modeled on established biographical reference works and noted that it contained more than 2,000 biographical sketches selected on the basis of achievement. The review highlighted representation from fields including business, law, medicine, education, religion, literature, and the arts.
Content and layout The directories included detailed biographical profiles and photographic portraits of contemporary African American leaders, including figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes. Yenser designed the books to serve as an exact reference tool for educators and students.
Physical copies of Who's Who in Colored America are held in the collections of the Library of Congress and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Early editorial materials, data sheets, and correspondence related to compiling the 1941–1944 volumes are preserved in the Beatrice Murphy Campbell Papers at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C. The volumes are utilized in modern academic projects, such as University of Michigan student archives and studies on 20th-century rural reformers.
The individual volumes typically contained several hundred pages of alphabetically indexed entries, including comprehensive cross-references by profession and geographic location to facilitate historical and genealogical research.
References