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100
In 1988, this African American was one of 12 recipients of the National Medal of Arts, awarded by President Reagan. He was an outstanding photojournalist for Life magazine in the 1950s and 1960s. The son of a Kansas tenant farmer, he worked as a railroad-car waiter in the 1930s. His life was changed when he picked up a magazine left by a passenger and in that magazine he saw photographs of the harsh conditions brought about by the Great Depression. Many of these photos were taken by Dorthea Lange and other Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers. He bought a camera and through hard work became a FSA photographer in 1942. Later, in Washington D.C., when he was refused service at a clothing store, theater, and restaurant because of his color, it angered him so that he looked for and later took a photograph that captured what he saw as the “limits” that race dictated everyday. The photo was a portrait of a black cleaning woman in front of an American flag. He called it American Gothic and it became the first of his many famous photographs. In the 1970s, he moved to Hollywood and produced several films, including Shaft and Super Cops. He and three other African Americans purchased Essence, the magazine for African American women. He was also the author of several books, including The Learning Tree (1966) that was made into a movie that he directed and wrote the music, and Born Black (1971). In 1972, he received the Spingarn Medal. Name him.
Who is Gordon Parks?
100
This African American grew up in a public housing project in Baltimore’s Cherry Hill neighborhood and went on to become a clergyman and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral. He later became chief of the Navy’s Chaplain Corps. He retired from the U.S. Military after 27 years to take a new position. On June 17, 2003, he became the first African American chaplain of the U.S. Senate. Name him.
Who is Barry C. Black?
100
In July 2003, this African American baseball player was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is one of only four major league players with more than 500 home runs and 3,000 hits (Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Rafael Palmero are the others). He hit his 500th home run in 1996 at Camden Yards as a Baltimore Orioles with whom he started his illustrious career. During his career, he played more games at first base than any other player in major league baseball history. Name him.
Who is Eddie Murray?
100
This African American founded Black Entertainment Television (BET) and made it a multi-billion dollar enterprise. When he sold BET to Viacom, he became the first African American billionaire. In 2003, he broke into the most exclusive all-white club in America when he purchased the National Basketball Association’s new expansion team in Charlotte for $300 million. The team played its first game in the 2004-2005 season. Name this franchise owner.
Who is Robert Johnson?
100
In 1837, he became the first African American to earn a medical degree and practice as a medical doctor. He received his early education in New York City, but went to Scotland where he earned a bachelor’s, master’s and a medical degree at the University of Glasgow. Name him.
Who is James McCune Smith?
200
This world renowned opera soprano started singing in church choirs at the age of four.She won a full scholarship to Howard University. To finance her graduate studies, she entered the 1968 International Music Competition of the German Broadcasting Corporation in Munich, Germany, and took first prize. She gained widespread recognition throughout Germany. The then went to Italy and back to the United States for a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 1972. Thereafter, she performed throughout the Western World, including at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. On January 21, 1985, she sang at the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan. She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, Woman of the Arts Award, Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award, and the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama in 2009. She is the recipient of more than 32 major awards. Name this opera singer.
Who is Jessye Norman?
200
In August 1975, he became the first African American to become a four-star general in U.S. military history. He assumed the command of the North American Air Defense (NORAD). This U.S. Air Force pilot had his flight training at Tuskegee. During his career, he flew 101 combat missions in Korea and 78 in Vietnam. He was the recipient of many medals and awards, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal. He retired from the Air Force on February 1, 1978. Name him.
Who Daniel "Chappie" James.
200
For many years, black quarterbacks were uncommon in the professional football leagues. If they had been successful quarterbacks in their high schools and colleges, they were likely switched to a running back position when they made it to professional football. According to the Professional Football Hall of Fame, this African American was the first quarterback to play in the National Football League. He played in a game with the 1953 Chicago Bears. Name him.
Who is Willie Thrower?
200
This African American is a native New Yorker who grew up in a lower East Side housing project. By 50 years of age, she had climbed the business corporation ladder at Xerox, beginning as a summer engineering intern in 1980 and rising to become president of the printing giant in 2002. She helped make Xerox into the world's largest maker of high-speed color printers. She became the company's top official, Chief Executive Officer, in 2009. She is first black woman to head a Fortune 500 company, the 500 top ranked large companies in the country. Name her.
Who is Ursula Burns?
200
What African American become the first of his race to graduate from an American medical school? He received his medical degree from Rush Medical College in Chicago. Name him.
Who is David John Peck?
300
He learned to play the piano at the age of six. He later dropped out of school in his teens to pursue a musical career and, by 1919, was considered one of New York’s top pianists. In 1922, he recorded "Birmingham Blues" and "Muscle Shoals Blues". He wrote many hit songs, including "Ain’t Misbehavin’," Honeysuckle Rose," "Blue Turning Gray Over You," and "The Jitterbug Waltz." By the end of the decade, he had written approximately 400 songs. He later appeared in the movie Stormy Weather in 1943 with Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, and Cab Calloway and his band. Name him.
Who is Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller?
300
This African American pilot served in Vietnam, flying 144 combat missions. After Vietnam, he became the first African American astronaut in space when he flew aboard the space shuttle, Challenger. Name him.
Who is Guion S. Bluford, Jr.
300
In 1954, this baseball outfielder won the major league batting title and was also voted the National League’s Most Valuable Player. He won the MVP Award a second time 10 years later. He spent most of his career with the New York (San Francisco) Giants where he was known for his basket-style catch of fly balls. Today, he ranks fourth in home runs behind Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, and Babe Ruth. Name him.
Who is Willie Mays?
300
This African American was the son of a white Pennsylvania businessman and a black servant. He inherited his father’s lumberyard, and along with a free black partner made the business prosper. He believed that "freedom was an inherent right." He actively participated in the Underground Railroad, donating $1,000 a year to aid fugitives passing through Pennsylvania to freedom. Name him.
Who is William Whipper?
300
In 1876, the Freedmen’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church established the first all-black medical school in the United States. Three other African-American medical schools: Howard University Medical School, Shaw Medical School, and the Medical Department of the University of West Tennessee were established later. What is the name of the first all-black medical school and where is it located?
What is Meharry; Nashville, Tennessee?
400
This black artist of the Harlem Renaissance is perhaps best known for his four murals at the Schomburg Center for Black Culture in New York City. The murals illustrate James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones and much of Alain Locke's The New Negro. He grew up in Kansas and studied art in the United States and Paris. He earned his Master’s Degree from Columbia University. His drawings appeared in many publications, including the Crisis and Opportunity. He received many commissions to create his powerful paintings as wall murals, including one for the Cravath Library at Fisk University. He said, “I refuse to compromise and see blacks as anything less than a proud and majestic people.” This artist also founded Fisk University’s Art Department and taught there until his retirement in 1966. Name him.
Who is Aaron Douglas?
400
By the end of the Civil War, as many as thirteen black soldiers were cited for bravery in a battle that took place in Virginia on September 29, 1864. Each was honored with the prestigious Medal of Honor for personal acts of bravery considered "beyond the call of duty." Many black soldiers were decorated because they took command after their white officers had been killed or wounded. Name the battle.
What is Battle at Chaffin's Farm.
400
In 1961, this African American football player was the first of his race to win the prestigious Heisman Trophy--an award given to the best athlete in college football. He was a superb halfback that led Syracuse University to its only national championship in football in 1959. He paved the way for many others in college football. He followed the great Syracuse running back Jim Brown who broke almost every rushing record when he was there, but this player still holds the Syracuse career record for highest average per carry at 6.63 yards and gained 2,386 rushing yards, better than Brown’s 2,091 yards. Although he was the No. 1 pick in the 1962 NFL draft and signed for a record deal as a rookie at the time, he never played a game or suited up to play because he was diagnosed with leukemia and died on July 18, 1963. He was 23 years old when he died. A film made about this person’s life entitled, The Elmira Express was released in 2008. Name the football player.
Who is Ernie Davis?
400
This African American arrived in San Francisco with her husband during the 1849 Gold Rush. She opened a boarding house, managed estates and made loans. During the 1850s, she actively helped rescue blacks being illegally held in surrounding rural areas. She also worked to pass state laws that gave blacks the right to testify in court and to ride on San Francisco’s streetcars. Name her.
Who is Mary Ellen Pleasant?
400
She was the first African American woman to receive her Registered Nurse (R.N) degree from a nursing program in the United States--the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1879. Name her.
Who is Mary E. Mahoney?
500
This African American was a gifted child and attended Tuskegee Institute at age 13.He later attended the Horner Institute of Fine Arts in Kansas City, Missouri and earned a Master’s Degree from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. In 1931, he returned to Tuskegee to create the School of Music and became the conductor of the Tuskegee Choir. The choir became so successful that it later performed at the grand opening of Radio City Music Hall in New York and for Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. He composed a number of symphonies that captured American folk music and spirituals. Name him.
Who is William Levi Dawson?
500
In 1982, he was the first African American to reach four-star status in the United States Army and the second to achieve that rank in the Armed Forces. Name him.
Who is Roscoe Robinson, Jr.
500
He was the first African American baseball player in the American League. Just 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in modern league baseball, this player joined the Cleveland Indians. In his 13 year career, he became the League’s second black manager, following another Robinson, Frank. This player would not give in to racism and hate and always conducted himself in a manner that opened the game to many black players to come later. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. He died in 2003. Name him.
Who is Larry Doby?
500
Slave trading remained a major industry in the United States even after 1808 when the U.S. Congress banned the import of slaves. The need for cheap labor shifted from the Chesapeake region to the Deep South, reflecting the expanding amount of land being devoted to cotton production. Between 1790 and 1859, two states experienced the sale of more than a million enslaved blacks to planters in the South. While it contributed to increased cotton production in the nation and particularly in the Deep South, it broke many enslaved black families apart. To prevent this, members of some families did horrible things, including suicide and running away, to keep from being “sold south” or “sold down south.” Name the two states.
What is Virginia and Maryland.
500
He worked as a field hand to earn money to attend Harvard University. In 1915, he graduated from Harvard Medical School with honors and fourth in his class. Barred from an internship at hospitals around Boston, he did his internship at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. He later enlisted in the U.S. Army and while serving, this physician introduced a new and successful method of vaccinating for smallpox. He received the NAACP Spingarn Medal in 1940 for his fight for racial equality and his contributions to medical science. Name this exceptional and gifted physician.
Who id Louis Tomkins Wright?
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