Events
Who is the first Black woman to serve as a US Supreme Court Justice?
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Lonnie Johnson invented this childhood summer toy product by combining a PVC pipe, acrylic glass, and an empty plastic soda bottle.
Super Soaker
Which Harlem Renaissance poet penned the following verses?:
"The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free."
Langston Hughes
Who is the only person to have won a Pulitzer Prize in hip-hop?
Kendrick Lamar
Which feature film directed by a Black American director was the first to win an Academy Award for Best Picture?
Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins, 2016)
This organization was known for its education, community health, and Free Breakfast programs, as well as its practice of countering and challenging the excessive force & misconduct of law enforcement.
The Black Panther Party
Jerry Lawson was an electronic engineer credited as the father of what vital piece of electronic gaming?
Video Game Cartridges
“The Invisible Man” (1952) was written by which author?
Ralph Ellison
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer who is credited with singing which influential protest song of the Civil Rights Moment?
Strange Fruit
Who was the first Black American to win an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony)?
Whoopi Goldberg
Who was the first African American and Indigenous American woman to hold a pilot license?
Bessie Coleman
This Black American surgeon and medical researcher developed improved techniques for blood storage and helped to develop large-scale blood banks.
Charles Richard Drew
Which playwright’s "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959) was the first Broadway play written by a Black woman?
Lorraine Hansberry
Which contemporary female music artist is credited with 18 Grammy awards and helped co-found the non-profit organization Keep a Child Alive, which aims to support families with HIV and AIDS in Africa and India?
Alicia Keys
Who was the first African American to win an Oscar?
Hattie McDaniel (1939)
This LGBTQ+ liberation and AIDS activist, not only was one of the prominent figures of the Stonewall uprising of 1969 but also co-founded STAR House, a shelter for homeless gay and trans youth.
Marsha P. Johnson
This African American woman along with their partner invented the home security system?
Marie van Brittan Brown
Who is considered to be the first published Black author in America?
Phillis Wheatley
This record producer is credited with launching an era of music for Black musicians and artists beginning in 1959.
Berry Gordy, Founder of Motown Records.
"The slap that was heard 'round the world" was a phrase describing a scene from which Sidney Poitier film?
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Who was the first African American Nobel Peace Prize winner?
Ralph Bunche
This individual invented not only the modern traffic/stop light but also invented the early prototype for the gas mask known as a "Smoke Hood".
Garrett A. Morgan
Who was the first Black American to win a Pulitzer Prize?
Gwendolyn Brooks (1950 for Annie Allen)
Daily Double
Who is largely considered and credited as the founder of rock-n-roll music?
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Who was the first Black American to direct a film?
Oscar Michaux