With the 1773 publication of Wheatley's book Poems on Various Subjects, she "became the most famous African on the face of the earth."[47] Voltaire stated in a letter to a friend that Wheatley had proved that black people could write poetry. John Paul Jones asked a fellow officer to deliver some of his personal writings to "Phillis the African favorite of the Nine (muses) and Apollo."[47] She was honored by many of America's founding fathers, including George Washington, who wrote to her (after she wrote a poem in his honor) that "the style and manner [of your poetry] exhibit a striking proof of your great poetical Talents."[48]
Critics consider her work fundamental to the genre of African-American literature,[2] and she is honored as the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry and the first to make a living from her writing.[49]
- In 2002, the scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Phillis Wheatley as one of his 100 Greatest African Americans.[50]
- Wheatley is featured, along with Abigail Adams and Lucy Stone, in the Boston Women's Memorial, a 2003 sculpture on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts.
- In 2012, Robert Morris University named the new building for their School of Communications and Information Sciences after Phillis Wheatley.[51]
- Wheatley Hall at UMass Boston is named for Phillis Wheatley.[52]
In 1892 a Phyllis Wheatley Circle was formed in Greenville, Mississippi.[53]: 72 and in 1896 the Phyllis Wheatley Circle.[53]: 108
She is commemorated on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.[54] The Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in Washington, D.C., and the Phillis Wheatley High School in Houston, Texas, are named for her, as are the Phyllis Wheatley School in Apopka, Florida, and the historic Phillis Wheatley School in Jensen Beach, Florida, now the oldest building on the campus of American Legion Post 126 (Jensen Beach, Florida). A branch of the Richland County Library in Columbia, South Carolina, which offered the first library services to black citizens, is named for her. A branch of the Rochester Public Library system in Rochester, New York was named for her when it was built in 1971.[55] Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, New Orleans, opened in 1954 in Tremé, one of the oldest African-American neighborhoods in the US. The Phillis Wheatley Community Center opened in 1920 in Greenville, South Carolina, and in 1924 (spelled "Phyllis") in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[56][57]
On July 16, 2019, at the London site where A. Bell Booksellers published Wheatley's first book in September 1773 (8 Aldgate, now the location of the Dorsett City Hotel), the unveiling took place of a commemorative blue plaque honoring her, organized by the Nubian Jak Community Trust and Black History Walks.[58][59]
Wheatley is the subject of a project and play by British-Nigerian writer Ade Solanke entitled Phillis in London, which was showcased at the Greenwich Book Festival in June 2018.[60] A 90-minute play by Solanke titled Phillis in Boston was presented at the Old South Meeting House in November 2023.[61]
A 30-item collection of material related to Wheatley, including publications from her lifetime containing poems by her, was acquired by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2023.[62]
