Athletes
Nike Air ___________________
Michael Jordan
"If I were a boy..." "Put a ring on it" "16 Carriages"
Beyonce
NASA mathematician whose orbital mechanics calculations were critical to US manned space missions.
Katherine Johnson
America's first female self-made millionaire, known for her hair-care empire.
Madame C. J. Walker
Refused to give up her seat on the bus
Rosa Parks
Eagles Quarterback
Jalen Hurts
"One Dance" "God's Plan"
Drake
Engineer and physician who became the first Black woman in space in 1992.
Mae Jemison
Famous for her daytime talk show and now Founder of Harpo Productions and OWN.
Oprah Winfrey
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Fly like a butterfly, Sting like a bee
Muhammad Ali
joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe portraying Heimdall in six films beginning with Thor, as well as the DC Extended Universe playing Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad. He voiced Chief Bogo in Zootopia and Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Idris Elba
Astronomer, surveyor, and author who predicted a solar eclipse.
Benjamin Banneker
Founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and first Black billionaire.
Robert L. Johnson
As chief of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, he led the legal fight against segregation, argued the historic 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, and ultimately became the nation's first Black Supreme Court Justice.
Thurgood Marshall
Female Track Star from Illinois, won 3 gold medals, and 6 medals all-together in the Olympics
Jackie Joyner-kersee
Female actor in Suicide Squad, Air, The Woman King, How to Get Away with Murder, The Help, Widows, Fences, Hunger Games, Beautiful Creatures, Won't Back Down, and Eat, Pray, Love
Viola Davis
Agricultural scientist who developed over 300 uses for peanuts and crop rotation methods to prevent soil depletion.
George Washington Carver
co-founded investment bank Daniels & Bell, which in 1971 became the first Black-owned investment bank on the New York Stock Exchange
Travers J. Bell
an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and 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. It occurred nine months before the similar, more widely known incident in which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat
Claudette Colvin
She had braces on her legs and could barely walk as a child, but she eventually became a track star and set world records as a sprinter.
Wilma Rudolph
The first Black person to win an Oscar.
Hattie McDaniel
Despite having no formal medical degree, he was instrumental in developing the surgical techniques used to treat "Blue Baby Syndrome" (Tetralogy of Fallot).
Vivien Thomas
In 2013, at just 31, a year after leaving his corporate job in tech, he founded Walker & Co. Brands, which includes both men’s grooming line Bevel and women’s haircare line Form. It all started with his frustration about the lack of quality products for Black men and the common concern of razor bumps. Fast-forward five years, and the company had gotten its products onto the shelves of Target nationwide and raised a reported $33 million in funding before Walker sold it to Procter & Gamble for an undisclosed amount. For the last two years, he’s continued to run the wholly owned subsidiary as its CEO—the first Black CEO in the 180-year history of P&G.
Tristan Walker
Mary White Ovington was deeply involved in two of the most important movements of the 20th century: civil rights and women's suffrage. A 1908 article about race riots drove her to rally other thought leaders and activists to start NAACP.
Mary White Ovington