John Lewis Waller was an impressive legal mind and politician. Born to enslaved parents in Missouri, he and his parents were freed by Union forces during the Civil War. Waller was able to obtain an education for himself, including teaching himself law. Waller moved to Kansas and made a career as a lawyer and a local politician in the Republican Party. After campaigning for Benjamin Harrison, the new president appointed Waller as a diplomat to the East African island kingdom of Madagascar, where Waller negotiated a concession of land to be given to the U.S. by the island’s king.

However, France was already beginning its process of colonizing the island, and they saw the presence of Waller and American interests as a threat. In 1894, the French therefore arrested and convicted Waller on charges of spying on behalf of the local population, sentencing him to 20 years in a French prison. Waller was freed after the new U.S. President, Grover Cleveland, appealed for his release. The incident became known as the Waller Affair.

Most people remember Frederick Douglass as a voice for Black freedom. After escaping slavery, Douglass became one of the leading voices for abolishing slavery in the U.S. and one of the most famous people in the country. He even showed up uninvited to the White House to tell off Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, becoming one of Lincoln’s advisers in the process. Later in life, Douglass was appointed by Harrison as ambassador to the newly independent nation of Haiti. In theory, the appointment made sense. Haiti had become an independent country after conducting the only successful large-scale slave revolt in history. Sending the person who had opposed slavery in the U.S. to represent American interests in Haiti seemed natural.

However, Douglass’ mission to Haiti was disastrous and has generally gone down as a low point in his career. This reputation is somewhat undeserved. Douglass did not achieve American interests in Haiti in large part because he recognized that these goals were not in the interests of Haiti itself. During Douglass’ time there, the U.S. was attempting to push a deal for increased trade between the two countries, but it expected Haiti to accept unfair terms, including paying American companies to come do business in Haiti. Douglass refused to push the unfair financial arrangement, upsetting white officials in the U.S. government who wanted the deal. Later, when the U.S. tried to force Haiti to lease one of its ports to the Americans, Douglass again refused to play along. He eventually resigned and was blamed in the American press for the failed negotiations, but his efforts delayed the imperial intentions of the U.S. from being implemented in Haiti.

Ralph Bunche was often ahead of his time. He excelled at UCLA and Harvard University, becoming the first Black person to earn a Ph.D. in political science from the latter. As an academic at Howard University in the 1920s and ’30s, Bunche engaged in the type of pro-Black activism that would later be employed by Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. In the 1940s, Bunche’s work with the U.S. State Department led to him helping to design the United Nations after World War II.

Bunche was deployed by the UN to help deal with the war that broke out between the newly formed state of Israel and several of its Arab neighbors. With war raging between these countries, Bunche was appointed to assist the chief UN mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, to conduct negotiations between the warring parties. When Bernadotte was assassinated in 1948, Bunche became the chief negotiator in the crisis. It was his tireless work that got the sides to agree to a ceasefire and end the conflict. For his efforts, Bunche received numerous awards and accolades. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950, becoming the first Black person to receive a Nobel Prize and one of only a few who have ever received the prize in any category.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson has cemented his legacy as a civil rights icon, from his work alongside Martin Luther King. Jr. to his leadership of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition to his campaigns for president of the United States. But alongside these social and political accomplishments, Jackson gained a reputation in the 1980s and ’90s for another set of activities: securing the release of prisoners and captives from several countries that were less than friendly to the United States.

On multiple occasions, Jackson traveled to countries where American or other Western citizens were being held as captives or prisoners. Without formal diplomatic credentials, Jackson leveraged his reputation and connections as a minister, politician, nonprofit leader and journalist — he once had a talk show in development — to gain access to heads of state and top leaders to negotiate the release of numerous individuals. His track record was impressive, and included the release of captive soldiers or prisoners from Cuba, Syria, Iraq and Serbia. Though he was later granted an official position as a special U.S. envoy to Africa in 1997, these earlier missions all occurred without U.S. government approval and were sometimes opposed by the White House. This phenomenon even inspired comedian Chris Rock to joke about Jackson’s effectiveness. “Remember when Jesse got those hostages?” Rock asked in his 1999 Bigger and Blacker special. “He went over to Iraq, told Saddam, ‘You really want to piss America off?  Give the hostages to me.’”

Colin Powell’s legacy is tricky, as the international crises he helped create have overshadowed the ones he helped solve. Powell, who died last year from COVID-19, had a long and storied career in the military and politics. He will, unfortunately, be remembered by many for the role he played in justifying the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. As secretary of state, Powell helped make the case for the invasion on the national and world stage, most memorably by giving a highly watched presentation to the United Nations about Iraqi programs to build weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs, that could be used against Americans.

The WMD charge turned out to be completely false, adding to accusations that Powell and other members of the George W. Bush administration lied to the American public and the world to justify an invasion that ended up being extremely costly, not only in terms of money but in terms of the American and especially the Iraqi lives that were lost through years of violence and bloodshed. The 2003 invasion still has repercussions today. Many are pointing to that war to accuse the U.S. of hypocrisy in its current condemnation of Russia, and Russian propaganda has latched onto fake stories of Ukrainian bioweapons programs as a way of justifying the current war.

Powell himself later expressed deep regret at painting a narrative that he claims he believed at the time but later learned to be false. This “blot” on his record, as he called it, obscures many of the accomplishments he achieved during his term as secretary of state, which included gaining billions of dollars in U.S. funding to battle HIV/AIDS and poverty in Africa; labeling the then-ongoing conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region a “genocide” and helping to mediate the separate north-south civil war in Sudan, which led to the eventual independence of South Sudan.

Beyond his specific accomplishments, Powell’s legacy, as well as those of the other people on this list, has set the stage for a new generation of Black diplomats and political leaders like Harris and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. As they and others tackle major international crises like the current war in Ukraine, they can build upon the legacy of the Black leaders and peacemakers who came before them.