Education
After her boarding school for black girls merged with an all-male school in 1929, Mary McLeod Bethune became part of the namesake for this HBCU.
What is Bethune-Cookman University?
A key organizer for the March on Washington (1963) and posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Bayard Rustin faced discrimination on multiple levels for his intersectionality between these two identities.
What is black and gay?
Born into slavery, George Washington Carver became a foremost botanist, inventor and teacher. He invented over 300 uses for the [this legume] and developed methods to prevent soil depletion. He was made a member British Royal Society of Arts — a rare honor for an American – and advised prominent leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and President Teddy Roosevelt on agriculture and nutrition.
What is the peanut?
Robert and Sheila Johnson became the first Black billionaires in America in 2000 when Viacom bought this television network - which they founded for all the latest celebrity, music, fashion, entertainment and African-American news - for $2.9 billion.
What is Black Entertainment Television (BET)?
In 1904, Charles Follis signed on with the Shelby Athletic Club in Ohio to become the first Black professional player of this sport.
What is football?
A brilliant student, Jane Bolin graduated from Wellesley College in 1928, despite experiencing racism and isolation from her classmates. She went on to be the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, and at age 31 she became the first Black woman in the country to be sworn into this profession.
What is a judge?
Mildred Loving, who had recently married a white man, wrote a letter to attorney general Robert Kennedy, who connected her with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The Lovings’ case eventually landed with the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled that laws barring this were unconstitutional.
What is interracial marriage?
In spite of her fear of heights, in 1992, Mae Jemison garnished this "soaring" achievement by become the first Black woman to do this.
What is to go to space?
Robert Sengstacke Abbott was the founder of this Chicago paper, in 1905, reporting on issues important to the Black community, including riots and lynchings, and encouraged African Americans living under the Jim Crow laws of the South to make their way north.
What is the Chicago Defender?
Impregnated twice though the violence of rape and having given birth to children who were taken away, at 14, Moms Mabley joined the African American Vaudeville Circuit and went on to become the first woman featured on stage at the prestigious Apollo Theater and was invited back so many times she appeared more than any other performer. This was her act.
What is comedy?
In 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler become the first Black American woman to earn this degree.
During World War I, Georgia Ann Robinson became a police officer - one of the first Black American women to do so - for this city (notoriously plagued with police-black relations) due to a shortage of men.
What is Los Angeles?
Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson were the inspiration behind this film.
What is Hidden Figures?
One of the first Black female millionaire, Madam C.J. Walker built her business on a product line focusing on this.
What is African American hair?
Alice Coachman became the first Black woman in the world to achieve this athletic feat in 1948. King George VI personally presented her with her winning medal, but her hometown (Albany, GA) parade was segregated and the mayor refused to shake her hand.
What is win an Olympic gold medal?
He was born into slavery and rose to become a leading African American intellectual of the 19 century, founding Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (Now Tuskegee University) in 1881 and the National Negro Business League two decades later.
Who is Booker T. Washington?
When this northern US state adopted its state constitution, Elizabeth Freeman (born Mum Bett) was enslaved, but she filed a legal challenge, citing the constitution’s promise of liberty—and won her freedom in court.
What is Massachusetts?
As declared by the Georgetown Weekly Ledger in 1791 about the establishment of DC, the team "is attended by [this man], an Ethiopian, whose abilities, as a surveyor, and an astronomer, clearly prove that Mr. Jefferson’s concluding that race of men were void of mental endowments, was without foundation.”
Who is Benjamin Banneker?
Another early black female millionaire, Mary Ellen Pleasant moved to California during the Gold Rush and found employment as a domestic worker, where she was generally disregarded and treated by her employers as if she were invisible. She used this to her advantage, listening in on their conversations and gathering tips on this topic. She eventually bought several boarding houses and laundry businesses.
What are investments? (real estate, stocks, etc.)
This grammy-winning recording artist also starred in movies and was nominated for an Academy Award for Pinky in 1942.
In 1950, she then became the first Black American to lead a television program, and she was the first Black actor to win an Emmy Award.
Who is Ethel Waters?
The first Black American to earn a PhD from Harvard, he wrote about "double-consciousness" in his essays "The Souls of Black Folk" and challenged other great Black intellectuals Booker T Washington and Frederick Douglass on topics like rights and segregation.
Who is W.E.B Du Bois?
He was part of nearly every Supreme Court case concerning civil rights during his era, including the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education, and he became known as “the man who killed Jim Crow.”
Who is Charles Hamilton Houston?
This black draftsman worked on several of his own inventions, including an air conditioner. He eventually helped patent the telephone for Bell and worked with Edison on the light bulb.
Who is Lewis Latimer?
She was named CEO of the Xerox Corporation in 2007, making her the first African American woman to hold such a position in Fortune 500 company.
Who is Ursula Burns?
Gwendolyn Brooks, whose prose shined a light on the Civil Rights Movement and the poor economic conditions forced on many Black Americans, was the first Black writer to be awarded this prestigious award.
What is the Pulitzer Prize?