The black green lantern is one of the few well known comic book characters of African descent.

Before becoming the black green lantern Stewart is an architect who was Hal Jordan's (another human Green Lantern) backup, and occasionally filled in for him as Green Lantern when Jordan was unavailable. After Jordan gave up being Green Lantern in the 1980s, the Guardians selected Stewart to replace him. Stewart filled that role for some years, during which time he married Katma Tui (a Green Lantern of the planet Korugar). After Tui's murder, Stewart became the administrator of the "Mosaic World", a patchwork of communities from multiple planets that had been brought to Oa by a lunatic Guardian. From this position, Stewart eventually ascended to Guardianhood, which he later renounced.

After a brief period of paralysis, he became the black Green Lantern once again and is currently a member of the latest version of the Justice League. Stewart was also a member of the Darkstars for some time. The black Green Lantern first appearance was in Green Lantern (Second Series) #87 (Dec. 1971/Jan. 1972)

ANIMATED SERIES

John Stewart is a member of the Justice League in the Justice League animated series. In this series, Stewart’s ring has been reduced to only perform several tasks like flying, a protective force field, creating walls, and firing energy blasts. This limitation was established as being due to Stewart's mindset, not the ring. The series' version has John Stewart as an ex-Marine, not an architect. I’m guessing that maybe he was an architect in the marines. In the series Stewart was criticized by Katma Tui for his unimaginative use of the ring, Stewart has increasingly generated complex tools (to defuse a bomb in one instance) and weapons. In a development not seen in any other version of the Green Lantern mythos, Stewart's eyes glow green as a side effect of the Ring's radiation (the glow fades when the ring runs out of power). In addition, the ring is effective against yellow; Stewart is seen fighting Sinestro in one episode and the yellow energy does not prove to be a significant problem for the Lantern.

POWERS/ABILITIES

Besides his combat abilities, he has no metahuman abilities, but holds the Power ring common to all green lanterns.

POPULARITY FACTOR

I refer to John Stewart as the black green lantern mainly because he is one of the few well known comic book superhero character of African descent. In the early years to the mid years of comic book existence it was very uncommon to see a black person in the comic books, even as a regular citizen or civilian walking on the sidewalk. A powerful “black” superhero, that was even unimaginable. It was very hard representing a black person the right way in comics or giving a black person a significant role. The comic book companies especially DC comics did a lot of talking about equality and civil rights, but never much displayed it in their comic books. Whether done intentionally or unintentionally only a white dominated world existed in the comic books. It was only in the early 1970s that comic book companies following the lead of marvel tried to create comic books with people of African descent or other ethnic groups other than whites playing leading roles.

The Green Lantern mythos is already popular in the comic book world, but having a black green lantern appeals to the American community of African descent.

If you would like to know more about this character and other green lanterns, click the link below.