Important Figures
She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well as the first African American and first Asian American vice president.
Kamala Harris
American talk show host, TV producer, actress, author and philanthropist.
Oprah Winfrey
Born in Clayton, Alabama, She is considered to be one of America's most influential clothing designers.
Ann Lowe
Track & Field athlete who set a world record in the long jump at the 1936 Olympic Games
Jesse Owens
Woman who won 3 Grammys, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Pulitzer nomination and 36 books.
Maya Angelou
He was the first African American person to earn a medical degree. He also started the nation's first pharmacy under Black ownership, and was the first African American to have their work published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
James McCune Smith
Bryant Gumbel
She assisted with the 1995 creation of Shockwave, essential technology that led to the development of web animation. (So we have her to thank for GIFs.)
Lisa Gelobter
In 1996 she became the first player to sign with the WNBA
Cheryl Swoopes
She is one of the most highly regarded, influential, and widely read poets of 20th-century American poetry.
Gwendolyn Brooks
She was a passionate educator and presidential advisor. In her long career of public service, she became one of the earliest black female activists that helped lay the foundation to the modern civil rights movement.
Mary McLeod Bethune
He is a renowned singer and jazz pianist who became the first Black American to host a TV show.
Nat King Cole
She created a line of haircare products for African American women, leading her to later become the first female African American self-made millionaire.
Madam C.J. Walker
He was the first black player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Emlen Tunnell
Hailed the “godmother of the women’s movement,” she used her background in education and social work to advance women’s rights.
Dorothy Height
He became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Supreme Court. Officially nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, he served as a justice until 1991.
Thurgood Marshall
In 1964 he became the first Black man to win an Oscar in his leading role in Lilies of the Field
Sidney Poitier
As an Agricultural scientist he was responsible for creating over 500 new products made from peanuts and sweet potatoes, including cooking oils, paint, and soap.
George Carver
She became the first African American woman from any country to win an Olympic Gold Medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.
Alice Coachman
She was just 6 years old when she became the first African American student to attend William Frantz Elementary in Louisiana at the height of desegregation.
Ruby Bridges
He is the creator of Black History Month and is credited with being the one of the first scholars to study and research the history of African Americans.
Carter G Woodson
She wrote and produced some of the biggest pop songs in the 1950s. In an industry dominated by white males. She wrote Elvis Presley's "Trying to get to you"
Rose Marie McCoy
This idea led to a patent (one of an eventual 60-some patents) for a vehicular refrigeration system. Not only did his idea change how we looked at seasonal foods but also the medical industry and transportation of lifesaving supplies such as blood and medicine.
Frederick McKinley Jones
In 1960, She won with the new Olympic record time of 11.3 seconds in Rome with the new record time of 11.3 seconds in in the women’s 100-meter dash in Rome, 1960.
Wilma Rudolph
She is the first African American woman who orbited into space aboard the shuttle Endeavour. She still continues to work toward helping young women of color get more involved in technology, engineering, and math careers.
Mae Jemison