Entertainers
This person the first African American woman to appear on Forbes’s billionaire list.
Oprah Winfrey
This former enslaved person was leading black educator of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, where he stressed the importance of manual labor to make a living.
Booker T. Washington
He was both the youngest and the first African American to win the US Masters.
Tiger Woods
This enslaved person, also known as “Moses,” is perhaps the most well known of all the Underground Railroad's "conductors." During a ten-year span, she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 enslaved people to freedom without ever losing a passenger.
Harriet Tubman
This famous person, also known as “Satchmo,” is widely recognized as a founding father of jazz – a uniquely American art form. He also sang “scat” – a style in which nonsense words are used in a song.
Louis Armstrong
This famous lady was the first African-American woman to serve in the United States Congress. In 1972, she became the first black woman to actively run for the presidency of the United States.
Shirley Chisholm
This baseball player broke the color barrier to become the first African-American to play in baseball's major leagues.
Jackie Robinson
This former enslaved person became one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement. He was recognized as a brilliant speaker and published an antislavery paper, The North Star.
Frederick Douglass
This recording artist, dancer, singer-songwriter, and musician is referred to as the “King of Pop.” He is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records.
Michael Jackson
The son of migrant laborers, he founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) and later the United Farm Workers (UFW). He led a five-year nonviolent boycott against California grape growers, protesting poor working conditions and the use of pesticides harmful to farm workers.
Cesar Chavez
This former professional basketball player and active businessman is recognized as the “greatest basketball player of all time." This man helped popularize the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
Michael Jordan
This person was the first Hispanic woman in space, and has logged nearly 1,000 hours in space since her first mission in 1993. She is the co-inventor on three patents for optical inspection systems, was the head of the Intelligent Systems Technology Branch at NASA’s Ames Research Center, and is currently the director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX
Ellen Ochoa
This person was the first Hispanic actress to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She is probably best known for her portrayal of Anita in West Side Story (1961). She is one of only 11 people to have received the four major entertainment honors—Emmy, Oscar, Tony and Grammy awards.
Rita Moreno
This scholar and political activist helped found The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He stressed the importance of a good formal education.
W.E.B. DuBois
This athlete is a retired American boxer, originally named Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. He changed his name after converting to the Nation of Islam. He won the World Heavyweight Boxing championship three times, as well as an Olympic gold medal.
Muhammad Ali
From New Mexico, he became the first Hispanic elected to the U.S. Senate. As a politician, he pushed to boost Hispanic representation so that the political system would reflect the state’s population.
Octaviano Larrazolo
This famous comedian, television actor, and producer became the first black actor to star in a dramatic role on network television in the series I Spy. This actor starred in several other television series, most notably a show bearing his own name that became one of the most durable family comedies in the history of television.
Bill Cosby
This man is best known for his role as a lawyer in the famous case that legally ended segregation in America’s schools, Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In 1967, he became the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Thurgood Marshall
This person was the first Latino in major league baseball to reach 3,000 hits. He played in two World Series, winning MVP in the 1971 games. He was also a big advocate for Hispanic and African American rights.
Roberto Clemente
He was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist. He indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history
Malcolm X