Firsts
Donning #42, this Brooklyn Dodgers slugger was the first African-American to win baseball's Most Valuable Player award.
Jackie Robinson
This is the first black Greek fraternity for college students
Alpha Phi Alpha
This Harlem theatre is a showcase for African- American talent
The Apollo
The American civil rights lawyer was the first African American Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall
Along with hair straightener, safety hood, and a sewing machine design, this innovator created the 3-way traffic light
Garrett A. Morgan
This Hawaiian born, Chicago native is the first African-American president
Barack Obama
Booker T. Washington was the founder and president of this educational institution
Tuskegee Institute
The smash hit This is America by this artist was the first rap song to win a Grammy Award for Song and Record of the Year.
Childish Gambino
This amendment to the constitution banned slavery.
13th Amendment
African Americans used this travel guide between 1936 to 1966 for traveling tips around America, including a list of "sunset" cities.
Green Book
This African-American performed the world's first open heart surgery
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
This woman started an HBCU in Florida higher with $1.50 cash
Mary McCleod Bethune
Step up Stedman. This woman was the first black woman to own a TV studio?
Oprah Winfrey
This New York senator became the first Black woman elected to Congress and candidate for president
Shirley Chisholm
Although suffering from seizures, this African-American Woman who helped hundreds of slave escape to freedom
Harriet Tubman
To infinity and beyond, this person was the first African-American to travel in space.
Guion Stewart Bluford
On December 6, 2024, she received investiture as the first African-American female president of Strayer University
Dr. Toni Farmer-Thompson
This Brooklyn-born, African-American artist became a cultural icon of the 1980s art scene with his work, which combined graffiti and Abstract Expressionism
Jean-Michel Basquiat
In 1967, these unions were legalized in the U.S.
Interracial marriages
This notable scientist, astronomer, and inventor was commissioned to help layout Washington, D.C.
Benjamin Banneker
It's fabulous but not Gone with the Wind Fabulous. This African-American was the first chosen as Miss America
Vanessa Williams
Maybe a Dreadlock Rasta. Maybe not. These black soldiers primarily fought Native Americans in the West after the Civil War.
Buffalo Soldiers
This African-American male was once ranked as the number one tennis player in the world
Arthur Ashe
This case resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that no black-free or slave could be a US citizen.
Dred Scott Case
In the planned Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 this civil rights activist was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger
Rosa Parks