Famous Inventors
True or False: The SUPER SOAKER water pistol was invented by a Black person
TRUE! The SUPER SOAKER water pistol was invented by a NASA rocket scientist named Lonnie Johnson!
This man was known for speaking in front of 250,000 people in Washington, DC. He refused to fight against the people that hated him and who even put him in jail for no reason. He said to his country, "I have a dream!"
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
This woman was known to people by her nickname, "Moses". Even though she escaped slavery and was free, she returned to the south 13 more times, risking her life, to help other enslaved people escape. She helped 70 enslaved people escape to freedom this way. During the civil war, she was a spy and helped free 750 enslaved people. She was the first woman to lead an armed assault in the civil war.
Harriet Tubman
Little Nas X wrote this song about a horse. He teamed up with Billy Ray Cyrus for a duet of the song, and that release won the Grammy Award for "Best Duo Performance". What song is this?
Old Town Road
This man was the first Black president of the United States of America.
Barak Obama
This famous Black inventor devised 300 products from peanuts and sweet potatoes.
George Washington Carver was a agronomist in the early 20th century who did farming research. His main interest was finding ways to make farmland healthier so that farmers could produce more food. He invented a lot of things from peanuts, however, he did not invent peanut butter.
This woman launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 by bravely refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man.
Rosa Parks
This Black man was born enslaved and escaped to freedom. He became one of the most well-known Black scholars and abolitionists. Among many things, he was an early supporter of women's suffrage, even before Black men had this right. Name the man and define the term "suffrage".
Frederick Douglass, the right to vote
She is one of the highest-selling artists of all time and has hits that inlcude: "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", "Formation", "If I were a Boy", and "Run the World (Girls)".
Beyonce
Nelson Mandela protested apartheid and was put in prison for 28 years. Apartheid was the systemically racist government practiced in this man's country. After he was released from prison, he worked to end apartheid and eventually became president of this country. Which country is this?
South Africa
Gerald Lawson is a Black inventor that wanted to have a way that home video games could switch from one game to another. What did he invent?
a. an underwear slingshot
b. a three-person bicycle
c. a video game system with changeable game cartridges
This brave little girl was in kindergarten and was the first Black girl in her school. White people were so angry that she was there that U.S. Marshalls escorted her to and from school everyday to keep her safe.
Ruby Bridges
He was the first Black justice on the Supreme Court, which is the most powerful court in the entire country. Before he was a judge, we was a lawyer who won the case called Brown v. the Board of Ed. that ended school segregation. Who was he?
Thurgood Marshall.
During this influential woman's tenure in office, she was a strong advocate of kids eating well and exercising, LGBT rights, and supporting military familes. SHe was also the first Black first lady of the White House.
Michelle Obama
Garret Morgan was a Black inventor who came up with a way to protect your lungs from dangerous chemicals in the air. What did he invent?
a. ice cream maker
b. the gas mask
c. dresses for dogs
This man was born enslaved. After being freed, he became educated in college. He started a famous Black college called Tuskegee University. He was an early advocate of Black people learning academics AND trades so that they could bring skills back to their rural homes and teach others. There is a former segregated school in Port Richey that bears his name.
Booker T. Washington.
This man's name was Henry "Box" Brown. Why was he nicknamed "Box"?
He was an enslaved man who escaped slavery by mailing himself in a wooden crate from Virginia to Pennsylvania!
She was the first Black woman elected to Congress, and the first woman of any race to run for President of the United States. Her presidential run was in 1972.
a. Beyonce Knowles
b. Michelle Obama
c. Shirley Chisholm
James West is a Black man that invented the microphones that are used in telephones and baby monitors. What are microphones?
a. super soaker squirt guns
b. telephones that only crickets can use
c. pieces of equipment that are used to detect sounds, such as voices, and record or broadcast them
The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Commitee (SNCC, pronounced SNICK) was a group of students that protested in the South against racism on buses and at lunch-counters. They also worked very hard to get people to vote. What is the most important thing about the way this group did its work?
No matter what anyone did to them, they refused to react with violence. They only participated in peaceful demonstrations even though they were often beaten, gased and had dogs unleashed on them, among other things.
Bobby Seale co-founded a group dedicated to defending the citizens of Oakland against police brutality. This group also gave free breakfasts to poor children. This group was called:
a. The Brown Lion Club
b. the Black Panther Party
c. The Spotted Leopard Club
Two out of these three people had presidential campaign runs in 2019, are U.S. senators, and are Black.
a. Bernie Sanders
b. Kamala Harris
c. Cory Booker