Sports
Received Presidential Medal of Freedom honor. American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "the Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.
Muhammed Ali
She was the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. senator, argue before the Supreme Court, and be appointed to the federal judiciary.
Constance Baker Motley
She was the first black teacher to teach openly in a school for former slaves. She was born as a slave on a plantation in Georgia, and later lived with her grandmother, who was influential in her education.
Susie King Taylor
American nurse and innovator. In 1966, she invented a video home security system[1] along with her husband Albert Brown, an electronics technician.[2] In the same year, they applied for a patent for their innovative security system, which was granted in 1969
Marie Van Brittan Brown
A brave leader during the Underground Railroad movement, she escaped from slavery and spent 11 years guiding other enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad as a “conductor.” Tubman was also a spy, scout, nurse, and soldier during the Civil War for the Union Army.
Harriet Tubman
Defeated racism with athletic excellence. He was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. He specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history.
Jesse Owens
She was the first Black female judge in the United States. She was also the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School. During her life and career, ________ advocated for racially integrated child services to ensure that public childcare agencies did not discriminate by race.
Jane Bolin
The author of more than 20 books, she was highly regarded even during her lifetime and had the distinction of being the first Black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize. She was also the first Black woman to hold the role of Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now referred to as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, and served as the Illinois poet laureate for 32 years.
Gwendolyn Brooks
On April 26, 1892, she obtained United States patent number 473,563 for her improvements to the ironing board.
Sarah Boone
The first black woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. After attending the prestigious Massachusetts private school West-Newton English and Classical School, she worked as a nurse for eight years and applied to medical school in 1860 at the New England Female Medical College (which later merged with Boston University).
Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler
In winning the American Tennis Association’s first tournament, she became the first African-American woman to win a major sports title. __________ is also notable in Black history for being one of the founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the oldest African-American sorority in American history.
Lucy Diggs Slowe
He was the first licensed and practicing Black attorney in the United States in the 1840’s. After walking over 50 miles to the exam site, he passed the Massachusetts Bar Exam on May 5, 1845.
Macon Bolling Allen
African American abolitionist, orator, newspaper publisher, and author who is famous for his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of _______ ______, an American Slave, Written by Himself. He became the first Black U.S. marshal and was the most photographed American man of the 19th century.
Frederick Douglass
First African-American woman to receive a patent for a web-based software invention, LinkLine, an Equal Employment Opportunity case management and tracking software.
Janet Bashen
American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus...before Rosa Parks
Claudette Colvin
On October 31, 1950 ____________ became the first African American to play in an NBA game.
Earl Lloyd
She made legal history in 1828 becoming the first Black woman to win a legal victory against a white man to secure a family member's freedom
Sojourner Truth
In 1895, he became the first Black person to earn a PhD (in history, rather than philosophy) from Harvard.
W.E.B. Du Bois
A scholar whose dedication to celebrating the historic contributions of Black people led to the establishment of Black History Month, marked every February since 1976
Carter G. Woodson
An American Christian minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. "I have a dream..."
Martin Luther King Jr.
American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. He also broke the color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
Jackie Robinson
Born July 2, 1908, Baltimore, Maryland, and died January 24, 1993, Bethesda). He was a lawyer, civil rights activist, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1967–91), the Court’s first African American member.
Thurgood Marshall
American civil rights activist. She was the first African American child to attend formerly whites-only William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on November 14, 1960.
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall
The first African American woman to become a self-made millionaire after creating a line of hair products geared toward Black hair. She created the first, ________ ________ Wonderful Hair Grower, in 1905.
Madam C.J. Walker
American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees
Maya Angelou