Events
Inventions
Literature
Music
Movies
100
She is the first Black woman to serve as a US Supreme Court Justice.
Ketanji Brown Jackson
100
Lonnie Johnson invented this childhood summer toy product by combining a PVC pipe, acrylic glass, and an empty plastic soda bottle.
Super Soaker
100
"The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free."
Are verses from this influential poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
Langston Hughes
100
This musician is the only person to have won a Pulitzer Prize in hip-hop.
Kendrick Lamar
100
This feature film directed by a Black American director was the first to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins, 2016)
200
This organization was known for its education, community health, and Free Breakfast programs, as well as its practice of countering and challenging the excessive force & misconduct of law enforcement.
The Black Panther Party
200
Jerry Lawson was an electronic engineer credited as the father of this vital piece of electronic gaming.
Video Game Cartridges
200
“The Invisible Man” (1952) was written by this author.
Ralph Ellison
200
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer who is credited with singing this influential protest song of the Civil Rights Moment.
Strange Fruit
200
They were the first Black American to win an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony)!
Whoopi Goldberg
300
The first African American and Indigenous American woman to hold a pilot license.
Bessie Coleman
300
This Black American surgeon and medical researcher developed improved techniques for blood storage and helped to develop large-scale blood banks.
Charles Richard Drew
300
This playwright’s "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959) was the first Broadway play written by a Black woman.
Lorraine Hansberry
300
This contemporary female music artist is credited with 18 Grammy awards and helped co-found the non-profit organization Keep a Child Alive, which aims to support families with HIV and AIDS in Africa and India.
Alicia Keys
300
This actor was the first African American to win an Oscar.
Hattie McDaniel (1939)
400
This LGBTQ+ liberation and AIDS activist, not only was one of the prominent figures of the Stonewall uprising of 1969 but also co-founded STAR House, a shelter for homeless gay and trans youth.
Marsha P. Johnson
400
This African American woman along with their partner invented the home security system.
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400
This poet is considered to be the first published Black author in the United States of America.
Phillis Wheatley
400
This record producer is credited with launching an era of music for Black musicians and artists beginning in 1959.
Berry Gordy, Founder of Motown Records.
400
"The slap that was heard 'round the world" was a phrase describing a scene from this Sidney Poitier film.
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
500
This scholar was the first African American Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Ralph Bunche
500
This individual invented not only the modern traffic/stop light but also invented the early prototype for the gas mask known as a "Smoke Hood".
Garrett A. Morgan
500
This writer was the first Black American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Gwendolyn Brooks (1950 for Annie Allen)
500
Daily Double
This individual is largely considered and credited as the founder of rock-n-roll music.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
500
This director was the first Black American to direct a film.
Oscar Micheaux
