The TIME Magazine 100 List is an annual roster of people dubbed the year’s most influential people, and in a year that has been anything but ordinary, the 2020 tally reflects the same.
The 17th annual list features its share of notable Black Americans.
The Weeknd, actress Gabrielle Union and her husband Dwyane Wade, as well as rapper Megan Thee Stallion and Black Lives Matter founders Patrice Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi are all included.
As usual, the TIME 100 has paired up people on the list with prominent guest contributors to write about them. For this issue, some pairings include Denzel Washington writing about Michael B. Jordan while Oprah Winfrey is writing about her friend, Tyler Perry.
WNBA player and activist Maya Moore — who is featured on the list, too — writes about Naomi Osaka and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley pens a powerful piece about Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Al Sharpton writes about author Ibram X. Kendi; Mary J. Blige explores Jennifer Hudson, and rapper-actor Common captures the iconic Angela Davis. Others in the arts, sports, business, medicine and the military were honored as well.
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In a statement, TIME CEO and editor in chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that the list “looks far different than any of us could have predicted just six months ago.”
It is “a mirror of the world and those who shape it,” he writes. The list includes famous people, but also “lesser-known individuals who seized the moment to save lives, build a movement, lift the spirit, and repair the world.”
Felsenthal said that while the list is focused on the living, this year’s list is also influenced by the impact of “individuals such as Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, whose killings galvanized a reckoning around police brutality and systemic racism.”
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The TIME100 List will be featured in eight covers. Megan Thee Stallion and The Weeknd will each have their own. Union and Wade will share a cover as will Cullors, Garza and Tometi.
Also getting a lone cover is Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. Coronavirus Task Force, who was written about by Jimmy Kimmel.
“Dr. Fauci doesn’t sugarcoat his words and refuses to be pressured by politicians,” Kimmel wrote. “He delivers the truth, as difficult as it may be to hear, earnestly and with one goal: to save lives.”
The covers and list honorees were announced in an ABC News special Tuesday night.
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