Yes. Historically, there have been quite a few Black/African American Supermen. Not comic book characters created by a commercial industry, but actual human beings. Furthermore, if a person researches the actual definition for the term superman, its history, then identifying Black Supermen becomes easier. The earliest mention of Black Supermen goes back to ancient African history. The notion that there has never been or never will be a black superman is a fallacy based upon lack of knowledge and faulty personal opinions.
Examples of Black/African American Supermen :
1. Paul Robeson
2.Harry Belafonte
3. Jesse Owens
4. Sidney Poiter
5. Arthur Ashe
6. Jack Johnson
7. Josephine Baker*
8. Harriet Tubman*
9. John Henry**
10. The African American artists and leaders of Oragean Modernism who created the Harlem Renaissance
Movement.
11. Muhammad Ali
12. African American inventors, who are too numerous to count, that s why there are books on this topic alone.
13. Bass Reeves, the actual Lone Ranger, First Black U.S. Marshall, who had uncanny abilities especially when
being shot at close range with guns by criminals.
***And, by the way, I haven t even scratched the surface about the Supermen of the African Diaspora.
These historical figures and numerous others have been referred to numerous times indivdually as being Black Supermen. *The women mentioned here have been referred to as Superhuman, which is the more precise translation of the German term, Ubermensch, which the famous writer Robert Shaw made popular in America as the word, Superman (not a clear translation from the German term).
**John Henry has been proven to be a historical figure; a book has been written on the discovery of records which were "lost" so the history would not be told.
When I was ten years old, I was quick to recognize that the social majority had DC Superman and African American had Muhammad Ali, DC had the Flash, African Americans had Jesse Owens. Back in the 1970s, as a child, I had a copy of the DC comic book, Muhammad Ali vs. Superman. Black Supermen have a distinct, tangible reality. They are not imaginary. This comic book issue was so popular because Ali had achieved some extraordinary deeds in and out of the boxing ring that couldn t be ignored, and DC Comic wanted in on the money making opportunity with sales.
I m a historian who has been literally studying the idea of the Superman since I was five years old. The subject is so vast that I realized that this is a life time study of knowledge in itself. I wanted to know about the concept of the Superman in African American history. I was able to recognize it when I discovered the Black Superman is another term for the older term , identified as Black Messiahs, John Henrys (plural), and Black Moses (plural) in African American/Black History.
Final answer. Yes there have been Black Supermen. There are Black Supermen today. And I strongly suspect there will be Black Supermen in the future.
Samuel D. Ewing