Cultural Contributions
Politics & Leadership
Famous Figures
Sports
Inventors
100
Who is known as the “Queen of Jazz”?
Ella Fitzgerald.
100
In what year was Black History Month first recognized nationally in the U.S.?
1976.
100
Who's arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
Rosa Parks.
100
Who was the first African American to play Major League Baseball?
Jackie Robinson.
100
Who invented the modern gas mask in 1914 and later patented an improved traffic signal in 1923?
Garrett Morgan.
200
Which American author wrote “Beloved” and won a Pulitzer Prize?
Toni Morrison.
200
Who co-founded the NAACP in 1909?
W.E.B. Du Bois.
200
Which abolitionist helped lead enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad?
Harriet Tubman.
200
Who holds the record for most Olympic gold medals by a female track and field athlete?
Florence Griffith Joyner, known as Flo-Jo (with a total of seven golds among her 11 medals overall)
200
This agricultural scientist developed over 300 products from peanuts, including dyes and plastics, to combat soil depletion in the South.
George Washington Carver.
300
Who was the first black woman to play a lead role on a television drama in the US?
Ethel Waters in "The Ethel Waters Show"
300
Who was the first black U.S. Secretary of State?
Colin Powell.
300
Who delivered the famous “I Have a Dream” speech?
Martin Luther King Jr.
300
Which tennis player was the first African American man to win Wimbledon?
Arthur Ashe.
300
Which inventor co-created the first home security system in 1966, laying the groundwork for modern surveillance technology?
Marie Van Brittan Brown (with her husband Albert Brown).
400
Which musician was nicknamed the “Godfather of Soul”?
James Brown.
400
Who was the first black U.S. president?
Barack Obama.
400
Who was the first black woman elected to Congress (1968)?
Shirley Chisholm.
400
Which basketball legend is known as “His Airness”?
Michael Jordan.
400
What NASA engineer invented the Super Soaker water gun, one of the top-selling toys of all time?
Lonnie G. Johnson.
500
Who created the iconic “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often called the Black national anthem?
James Weldon Johnson.
500
Who was the first black U.S. Supreme Court Justice?
Thurgood Marshall.
500
Which legendary boxer was known as “The Greatest”?
Muhammad Ali.
500
Who became the first black American woman to win Olympic gold in gymnastics?
Gabby Douglas.
500
This inventor improved the electric lightbulb by creating a durable carbon filament, working closely with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison.
Lewis Latimer.
