Literature
This writer is widely said to be the first African American to have their work published abroad
Who is Phillis Wheatley?
During the American Revolution, these troops were attacked by a Black Loyalist from Monmouth County NJ, Colonel Tye, who led raiding parties throughout Northern New Jersey and freed two slaves
Who were the Americans?
In 1964, he was the first Black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor
Who is Sidney Poitier?
This botanist, inventor, and teacher invented over 300 uses for the peanut and developed methods to prevent soil depletion
Who is George Washington Carver?
This amendment to the Constitution banned slavery
What is the 13th amendment?
The author of "A Rage in Harlem," this African-American writer is widely known as a founding figure of Black detective fiction
Who is Chester Himes?
This important Black New Jerseyan played professional football, got a law degree, was a political activist and was blacklisted, but was best known for being one of the most important black actors and singers of the twentieth century, performing in Emperor Jones Othello, and the musical Showboat
Who is Paul Robeson?
This Harlem theatre has historically been a showcase for Black musical talent
What is the Apollo?
This astronaut became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992
Who is Mae Jemison?
inspired by MLK, this young activist became involved in organizing and civil disobedience at a young age and was one of the 13 original Freedom Riders who protested segregation on public buses and helped organize the 1963 March on Washington; he died in 2020
Who is John Lewis?
The author of "The Red Record," this leading crusader against lynching founded the first Black women's suffrage organization
Who is Ida B. Wells-Barnett?
This historian, author, journalist, and founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History created Negro History Week in 1926
Who is Carter G. Woodson?
Born in Leesville, SC, she became the first commercially successful Black female artist in the country music field and the first to play the Grand Ole Opry
Who is Linda Martell?
This largely self-educated mathematician, astronomer, compiler of almanacs, and farmer helped survey the territory of the U.S. capital, Washington, DC
Who is Benjamin Banneker?
In 1972, she became the first woman and first Black person to run for president through a major party
Who is Shirley Chisholm?
This New Jersey native, born Leroi Jones, was a founding figure of the Black Arts Movement
Who is Amiri Baraka?
Months before Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, thus initiating the Montgomery Bus Boycott, this 15-year-old refused to vacate her seat on the same line
Who is Claudette Colvin?
Her film "Daughters of the Dust" was screened at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and won the Excellence in Cinematography Award
Who is Julie Dash?
best known for their major contributions to the United States' aeronautics and space programs with the early application of digital electronic computers, this "human computer" aided in sending a man to the moon
Who is Katherine Johnson?
This individual broke political barriers in 1870 when they were elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first African-American person to enter either chamber of Congress
Who is Hiram Rhodes Revels?
This Black Nobel Prize-winning writer once said, “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing”.
Who is Toni Morrison?
This is the year New Jersey passed a gradual emancipation act to begin the path to ending slavery
What is 1804?
Born in March 1933, this American composer, arranger, conductor, record producer, singer, trumpeter, and film producer was a major figure in the music industry, working across genres, and influencing modern production techniques and promoting unexpected collaborations
Who is Quincy Jones?
This research chemist and pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants, such as cortisone, steroids and birth control pills
Who is Percy Julian?
born a "free person of color," this person staged an act of civil disobedience to challenge one of Louisiana's racial segregation laws and bring a test case to force the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation laws
Who is Homer Plessy?