Athletes
First garnered national attention as the top high school basketball player in the country. With his unique combination of size, athleticism and court vision, he became a four-time NBA MVP.
Who is LeBron James
African American inventor that invented the traffic light and the gas mask
Garret Morgan
Famous interviewer, actor, and TV show host
Oprah Winfrey
The first African American woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics.
Alice Coachman
1st african american president
Barack Obama
First black person to play in professional baseball.
Jackie Robinson
The first black woman to travel into space.
Mae Jemison
an American actress who became one of the first black women to have a substantial role in television.
Gail Fisher
American who escaped slavery and returned repeatedly to the South to help others escape.
Harriet Tubman
Civil Rights Activist. An African American leader in the civil rights movement, minister and supporter of black nationalism.
Malcolm X
He was a pro boxer. People know him as “The Great” or his old name is Muhammad Ali.
Cassius Clay
first African-American to receive a Doctor of Medical Science degree from Columbia University and developed a process of separating blood into components. By separating the components, blood could safely be frozen and stored for later use.
Charles Drew
Producer, director, writer and actor. Created provocative films that explore race relations, political issues and urban crime and violence.
Spike Lee
An American activist who was against segregation and is known for refusing to give up a seat for a white man on the bus.
Rosa Parks
Served as the pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, from 1946 until he was shot and wounded in 1979. Father of the American singer and songwriter “Queen of Soul”.
C.L. Franklin
In 2000, he retired as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. Since retiring as a player, he has a successful career as an NBA analyst.
Charles Barkley
an American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion.
George Washington Carver
An African/American actor. He is known as “one of the greatest actors in American history”. He played Darth Vadar in Star wars
James Earl Jones
one of the mathematicians for NASA who had a hand in sending Americans to space for the first time.
Kathrine Johnson
After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement.
Frederick Douglas
First african american to win the French championships in tennis
Althea Gibson
An American ophthalmologist, inventor, humanitarian, and academic. She was the inventor of laser cataract surgery.
Patricia Bath
A very famous actor best known for his very deep voice.
Morgan Freeman
Maya Angelou
An American poet, memoirist, 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.
Zora Neale Hurtson
an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo.