History Basics
Who was the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Martin Luther King Jr.
Who sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to give up her seat?
Rosa Parks.
Who is known as the “Queen of Jazz”?
Ella Fitzgerald.
Who was the first African American U.S. president?
Barack Obama.
Who was the first African American to play Major League Baseball?
Jackie Robinson.
Which U.S. president issued the Emancipation Proclamation?
Abraham Lincoln
Which abolitionist helped lead enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad?
Harriet Tubman.
Which African American author wrote “Beloved” and won a Pulitzer Prize?
Toni Morrison.
Who was the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice?
Thurgood Marshall.
Who holds the record for most Olympic gold medals by a female track and field athlete?
Florence Griffith Joyner, known as Flo-Jo.
Which amendment officially abolished slavery in the United States?
The 13th Amendment (1865).
Who delivered the famous “I Have a Dream” speech?
Martin Luther King Jr.
Who was the first African American to win an Academy Award?
Hattie McDaniel, for “Gone with the Wind.”
Who co-founded the NAACP in 1909?
W.E.B. Du Bois.
Which tennis player was the first African American man to win Wimbledon?
Arthur Ashe.
In what year was Black History Month first recognized nationally in the U.S.?
1976.
Who was the first African American woman elected to Congress?
Shirley Chisholm.
Which musician was nicknamed the “Godfather of Soul”?
James Brown.
Which African American woman became U.S. Vice President in 2021?
Kamala Harris.
Who became the first African American woman to win Olympic gold in gymnastics?
Gabby Douglas.
Who was the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license?
Bessie Coleman.
Which legendary boxer was known as “The Greatest”?
Muhammad Ali.
Who created the iconic “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often called the Black national anthem?
James Weldon Johnson.
Who was the first African American U.S. Secretary of State?
Colin Powell.
Which basketball legend is known as “His Airness”?
Michael Jordan.