Coleridge-Taylor?
With respect, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was not an African American Composer. He was born and bred in London to a father from Sierra Leone and an English mother.
For what it is worth, Coleridge-Taylor was eulogized by the essayist W.E.B. DuBois, who held him up as an example of what African-Americans could do if the limitations of racism in the United States were lifted. I can try to find the text if you like...
Some very interesting African-American composers to consider in this thread. Not least of them is the previously mentioned Duke Ellington, whose composition teacher, Will Marion Cook (first African writer on Broadway), studied with Dvorak in the 1890s.
I'd be interested to hear thoughts on Florence Price, if any of you know the name: an African-American woman whose symphonies were performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the 1930s to general acclaim, but whose music is a rarity today.