Unsung Trailblazers in Black History
This surgeon performed one of the first successful open-heart surgeries in 1893
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
This inventor created the three-light traffic signal in 1923
This entrepreneur became one of the first Black female millionaires through her haircare products.
Madam C.J. Walker
This Harlem Renaissance photographer documented Black life in the early 1900s.
James Van Der Zee
Shirley Chisolm became the first Black woman elected to congress in what year
1968
Dr. Charles Drew developed methods to create life saving blood plasma storage techniques during which major war
World War II
In 1892 Sarah Boone improved what design on a popular household item that we still use today
She founded St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903, becoming the first Black woman bank president
Maggie Lena Walker
This journalist led an anti-lynching campaign in the late 1800s.
Ida B. Wells
This Massachusetts representative became the first Black U.S. Senator serving from 1967-1979
Edward Brooke
In 1981 this scientist invented the technology behind the Super Soaker before it became a famous toy.
Lonnie Johnson
In 1966, Marie Van Brittan Brown created what type of system that many of us still use today
The home security system
Earl G. Graves Sr. founded what magazine in 1970
Black Enterprise
Composer J. Rosamond Johnson blended classical music with spirituals in the early 1900s to write this song
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Tom Bradley became the first Black mayor of what major California city in 1973
Los Angeles
This NASA mathematician calculated launch windows for early space missions
Katherine Johnson
C.R. Patterson founded one of the first Black-owned automobile companies in what year
1914
This woman founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935
Mary McLeod Bethune
In 2015 this dancer became the first Black principal ballerina for the American Ballet Theatre
Misty Copeland
This woman became the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Dr. Louis T. Wright developed treatment for what eye disease at a Chicago hospital in 1899?
Cataracts
This man patented improvements to the elevator that made high-rise buildings safer
Alexander Miles
This Wall Street financier in the early 1900s became known as the “Black Rockefeller.”
Philip A. Payton Jr.
This author wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937
Zora Neale Hurston
L. Douglas Wilder became the first Black governor of what U.S. state in 1990
Virginia