Art
Who was the first black woman to write a Broadway play (1959) which was made into a movie (1961), “A Raisin in the Sun”?
Lorraine Hansberry
SHE was the one and only female Buffalo Soldier, posing as a man named William Cathay to enlist in the 38th infantry in 1866. She served for two years before a doctor discovered that she was a woman, leading to her discharge.
Cathay Williams
American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The United States Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
Rosa Parks
American civil aviator, who was the first woman of African
Bessie Coleman
On December 8, 1999, a jury of 12 reached a unanimous verdict that HE was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy involving US government agencies.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Who was the first African American movie director nominated for an Academy Award?
John Singleton
American lawyer, serving as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991. He was the Court's 96th justice and its first African American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education.
Thurgood Marshall
American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
Shirley Chisholm
First African American to be elected governor in the United States; he served four years as the governor of Virginia (1990-1994).
Lawrence Douglas Wilder
Group of African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) who fought in World War 2 (1941-1945). Officially, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces.
Tuskegee Airmen
Who is the first African American painter to gain international acclaim?
Henry Ossawa Tanner
Eighteen Africans have been awarded this prize. They have come from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Algeria.
Nobel Prize
First African American solo anchor of a weekday network nightly newscast, NBC Nightly News
Lester Holt
In 1786, THIS LAW was established in Louisiana, which required Black women to cover their hair in public. The law decreed that women of African descent, slave or free, should cover their hair and heads with a knotted headdress “to maintain class distinctions”.
Tignon Law
These two crops had profound effect on the slave trade
Sugar and Cotton
This poem utilizes four of the world's largest and most historically prominent rivers as a metaphor to present a view, almost a timeline in miniature, of the African American experience throughout history.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Black American slave who led the only effective, sustained slave rebellion (August 1831) in U.S. history
Nat Turner
She was the first African American woman to win the Miss USA title
Carole Ann-Marie Gist
She began her federal career in 1967 as an Apprentice Shipfitter at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) in 1971 where she then became the first woman Shipfitter. She later was elected to the Virginia General Assembly in November 1991 and continues to serve the citizens of Virginia's 18th Senatorial District.
L. Louise Lucas
She served as the 18th president of Brown University, the first African American president of an Ivy League institution.
Ruth Simmons
Influential author of African American literature and anthropologist, who portrayed racial struggles in the early 20th century American South, and published research on Haitian voodoo. Of her four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays, her most popular is the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Zora Neale Hurston
Attorney Constance Baker started her civil rights career with this organization
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
First African American woman appointed to the federal judiciary, serving as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Constance Motley
She was the first African American woman to be appointed National Security Advisor by President George W. Bush
Condoleezza Rice
Starting in early 1969, the leaders of the Black United Students at Kent State University in Ohio suggested that the celebration should be extended from just one week to the whole month of February. In 1976, Black History Month was officially recognized by the federal government, led by this President.
Gerald Ford