Historical Events
What Supreme Court decision decreed that public schools should be integrated?
Brown v. Board of Education
Who is one of the world's best-selling recording artists, having sold 118 million records worldwide?
Beyonce Knowles
Who was the main leader of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950's and 1960's and won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for leading nonviolent civil rights demonstrations?
Martin Luther King Jr.
Who was the first African American Supreme Court Justice?
Thurgood Marshall
When did the first five African-American undergraduates enter Duke?
1963
Which Supreme Court case stated that segregation was legal and constitutional as long as "facilities were equal"?
Plessy v. Ferguson
Who is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, named after the 19th century abolitionist and politician Cassius Marcellus Clay?
Muhammad Ali
Who was known as the Nation of Islam's most effective minister until he broke from the group in 1964 and formed his own group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity?
Malcolm X
Who was the first African American to serve as the United States Secretary of State?
Colin Powell
What is the largest and oldest African American-owned life insurance company in the nation?
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company
Which President officially recognized Black History Month?
President Gerald Ford
Who is the most decorated gymnast of all time?
Simone Biles
Who was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington and later advised the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party?
Bayard Rustin
Which author became the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature?
Toni Morrison
When was the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture established?
1983
When did Martin Luther King Jr. give his “I Have A Dream Speech”?
August 28, 1963 (during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom)
Who is the most decorated Black artist in Emmys history?
RuPaul
Who helped to found the Gay Liberation Front in 1969 and co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) in 1970 to provide resources, support, and housing for gay, trans, and gender non-conforming people in New York?
Marsha P. Johnson
Who became the first Black woman self-made millionaire philanthropist after creating a hair product?
Madam C.J. Walker
What was the first fully self-sufficient all Black community with over 200 businesses (later divided by NC Highway 147)?
Hayti
Who was the first girl detained for refusing to not sit at the back of the bus?
Claudette Colvin
What was the first black show on Disney Channel?
The Proud Family
Who was head of National Council of Negro Women for 40 years and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal for her work for social equality?
Dorothy Height
Who was the first openly transgender Black woman ever elected to public office (Minneapolis City Council) in the U.S?
Andrea Jenkins
Who was the first woman — queer woman, at that — to be ordained as an Episcopal priest, and the first Black person to earn a JSD from Yale Law School?
Dr. Pauli Murray