Military Heroes
Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs, National Security Advisor, and the first Black Secretary of State in 2001, he was a soldier for 35 years, rising to the rank for 4-star general overseeing Operation Desert Storm.
Who was Colin Powell
First neurosurgeon to successfully separate conjoined twins attached at the back of the head in 1987. His story, Gifted Hands was made into a movie with Cuba Gooding Jr.
Who is Dr. Ben Carson
To combat her own hair loss, this woman, born in 1867, invented a line of African American hair products. She later established her own lab, marketed her products and became a millionaire.
Who was Madame CJ Walker
the Brown Bomber was the world heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949 and was the longest-reigning (single) heavyweight champion.
Who was Joe Louis
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Who is Aretha Franklin
These famous pilots flew in a segregated air corps during WWII. Among their distinctions, the 992 pilots flew 1578 combat missions, set a record for destroying five enemy aircraft in under four minutes, once shot down three German jets in a single day
Who were the Tuskegee Airmen
She was the first black surgeon general, appointed in 1993, but was forced to step down after discussing drug legalization, masturbation and contraception in schools.
Who was Dr. Joycelyn Elders.
This mechanic, born in 1877, patented several inventions, including an improved sewing machine and traffic signal, a hair-straightening product, and a respiratory device that would later provide the blueprint for WWI gas masks.
Who was Garrett Morgan
Claiming his first heavyweight title at the young age of 20, he reigned as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990.
Who is Mike Tyson
Saving All My Love For You
Who is Whitney Houston
This 1989 Oscar-winning movie about the 54th Mass Infantry Regiment highlighted their existence as Union Soldiers during the Civil War, recruited by abolitionists and free blacks, and consisting of black men from across the US, North and South, often fighting in front lines with heavy losses
What was "Glory"
He was the first doctor to ever use blood plasma to store blood for transfusion, organized the first large-scale blood bank in the U.S. during World War II.
Who was Dr. Charles Drew
Schooled in engineering and electricity, this inventor, born in 1856 and, known as "Black Edison," registered nearly 60 patents in his lifetime, including a telephone transmitter, a trolley wheel and the multiplex telegraph
Who was Granville T. Woods
Nicknamed the "Galveston Giant", at the height of the Jim Crow era, he became the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion (1908–1915).
Who was Jack Johnson
Single Ladies
Who is Beyonce
The first peacetime all-black regiments in the regular U.S. Army, formed in 1866, they fought in the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War and served as Park Rangers in Sierra Nevada, Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings canyon National Parks.
Who were the Buffalo Soldiers
Born in 1942, she is the black doctor to complete a residency in opthalmology and the first black female doctor to receive a medical patent by inventing the Laserphaco Probe for cataract treatment in 1986
Who is Dr. Patricia Bath
This Glidden PhD chemist, born in 1899, was a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs such as cortisone, steroids and birth control pills, later leaving Glidden to found his own lab.
Who was Percy Julian
Competing from 1977 to 1997, after winning an Olympic gold medal in 1976, he won world titles in five different weight divisions during his boxing career.
Who was Sugar Ray Leonard
Mack the Knife
Who is Ella Fitzgerald
Promised their freedom if they fought for England, these men and their families were relocated to Nova Scotia when the British lost the Revolutionary War.
Who were the Black Loyalists
One of the first physicians to perform a successful open-heart surgery, he founded the first interracial and Black-owned hospital in 1891.
Who was Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.
This Bell Labs physicist, born in 1931, developed the electret transducer technology later used in 90 percent of contemporary microphones.
Who was James West
This boxer held a 91-fight unbeaten streak from 1943 to 1951, the third-longest in the history of professional boxing.
Who was Sugar Ray Robinson
Strange Fruit
Billie Holiday