Trailblazers
She refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in 1955.
Who is Rosa Parks?
The movement to end legal separation by race in public life.
What is the Civil Rights Movement?
A literary, artistic, and cultural movement centered in Harlem in the 1920s.
What is the Harlem Renaissance?
This inventor improved the traffic signal and received a patent in 1923.
Who is Garrett Morgan?
He broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947.
Who is Jackie Robinson?
He gave the “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington in 1963.
Who is Martin Luther King Jr.?
This 1954 Supreme Court case ruled school segregation unconstitutional.
What is Brown v. Board of Education?
“The Mother of Black Cinema” who directed Daughters of the Dust.
Who is Julie Dash?
This term describes protecting an invention or design legally.
What is a patent?
She is widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, with 23 Grand Slam singles titles.
Who is Serena Williams?
She was the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress (1968).
Who is Shirley Chisholm?
This act (1964) outlawed discrimination in public places and employment.
What is the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
She was the first Black woman to win a Grammy and an Oscar, and sang “Killing Me Softly.”
Who is Roberta Flack?
This NASA mathematician’s work helped send astronauts into orbit; her story appears in Hidden Figures.
Who is Katherine Johnson?
He became the first Black heavyweight boxing champion in 1908.
Who is Jack Johnson?
She became the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court (confirmed in 2022).
Who is Ketanji Brown Jackson?
This act (1965) aimed to protect access to voting for all citizens.
What is the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
This artist’s album Lemonade is widely discussed for themes of identity, resilience, and Black womanhood.
Who is Beyoncé?
He became the first Black person to earn a PhD from MIT (physics) and later served as a university president.
Who is Robert R. Taylor?
He was the first Black head coach to win a Super Bowl (2007).
Who is Tony Dungy?
She escaped slavery and led people to freedom through the Underground Railroad.
Who is Harriet Tubman?
This term describes unfair treatment based on race that can show up in policies, institutions, or systems.
What is systemic racism (or institutional racism)?
He wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a powerful autobiography.
Who is Frederick Douglass?
This engineer helped develop key components of the personal computer and holds multiple patents at IBM.
Who is Dr. Mark Dean?
He became the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl (1988 season).
Who is Doug Williams?