Immigrants in Indiana - Haiti: Notable People

Pierre Garcon was a Football wide receiver drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 2008.  During the 2009 season, Garcon became a star with 47 receptions for 765 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Tony Yayo is a rapper with G-Unit, and the son of Haitian parents who grew up in Queens, NY. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, he told MTV, "It's confusing, man," said Tony. "It shows you how life is -- Haiti lost everything in 30 seconds." 

Jean-Michel Basquiat was a Neo-Expressionist artist in the 1980's who combined elements of graffiti and African and Caribbean culture in his paintings. He often combined his artwork with short poetic phrases about underrepresentation of minorities. His father was from Haiti. 

Maxwell is a singer-songwriter who originated the neo-soul movement in the 1990's. He's won platinum on four consecutive albums, and has won 3 Grammy's, 6 Soul Train Music Awards, 2 NAACP Image Awards, and aLifetime Achievement Award by the  Congressional Black Caucus in 2019. His mother was from Haiti.

Roxane Gay is an author and social commentator best known for her New York Times bestseller collection of essays Bad Feminist. She was a professor of English at Purdue University before she left to teach at Yale. She is the child of Haitian immigrants. 

W.E.B. Du Bois was a Haitian-American civil rights activist and author who wrote many influential works about racism in America, including The Souls of Black Folk, and Black Reconstruction in America. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, and became one of the founders of the NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Naomi Osaka is a tennis player who has been ranked no.1 by the Women's Tennis Association, and is a 4-times Grand Slam champion. She is also known as an activist, showcasing Black Lives Matters during her US Open championship run. She made Times list of the 100 most influential people in the world in both 2019 and 2020. Osaka was born in Japan to a Haitian father and Japanese mother, and has lived and trained in the US since she was three. 

Garcelle Beauvais is an actress best known for her roles in NYPD Blue and Barbershop 2. Her mother was born in Haiti, and moved her seven children to Massachusetts after divorcing their father. 

Wyclef Jean is a Haitian-American rapper who has won three Grammys and a Golden Globe Award. In 2011, he was awarded the National Order of Honour and Merit by the Haitian President. Jean was heavily involved in the efforts to raise relief funds after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, but kept much of the donations for himself.