Historic Figures
Who was elected President of the United States in 2008?
Barrack Obama
Who is ranked as the second best-selling female artist of the 21st century with record sales of over 37 million dollars?
Beyonce Knowles
The "hero" of Aston Carter.
Our BSA: Symphony Higgins
Black History Month was first called what?
Negro History Week.
Who was the first professional black baseball player?
Jackie Robinson
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks is best known for refusing to move to the back of a bus after the driver demanded she give her seat to a white passenger. While not the first person to refuse to obey the segregation laws in the United States, Rosa Parks was labeled as the “Mother of the Freedom Movement” following her bold disobedience and subsequent arrest.
Which city is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of Hip Hop?
The Bronx, New York City
Founder of Motown record label, which is the highest earning African American business for decades.
Berry Gordy
Why was February chosen as the month to celebrate Black History?
February was chosen to coincide with Frederick Douglass’s and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays
Who was the first African American to serve as the United States Secretary of State?
Colin Powell
Who was considered the formative figure in the modern fight for civil rights in relation to the NAACP?
Dr. Martin Luther King
This Renaissance man has a gift for producing, composing, arranging and performing!
His work has influenced artists like Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra and his keen ear and talents have made him the all-time most nominated Grammy artist in history.
Quincy Jones!
Who was the youngest inaugural poet in U.S history
Amanda Gorman
She became the sixth and youngest poet at age twenty two, to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration.
Which amendment of the constitution protects the rights of African Americans?
13th Amendment
Who was the first African American female millionaire?
Madame CJ. Walker
Who was an American preacher who dedicated her life to fighting for for civil and human rights?
Sojourner Truth
This musician is hailed as the creator of “Afrobeat,” and used his music as a platform to call for political and social progression.
Fela Kuti
She employed a lively fusion of African and American beats as the framework for messages that encouraged pride, self-reliance, and a rejection of colonialist values.
First Black woman to travel into Space.
Mae Carol Jemison
Served in NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and orbited the Earth for nearly eight days.
Who was the first person to stand up against social injustice by refusing to give up her seat on a bus?
Claudette Colvin.
On March 2, 1955, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was riding home on a city bus after a long day at school. A white passenger boarded, and the bus driver ordered Claudette to give up her seat. Claudette refused. As she later told Newsweek "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other. I was glued to my seat."
Who was the first African American Supreme Court Justice?
Thurgood Marshall
What author outlines his life as a slave and his subsequent escape, which proved instrumental to the abolitionist movement and the ultimate goal of ending slavery?
Frederick Douglas
Whose 1939 Easter Sunday concert at the Lincoln Memorial broke racial barriers and was seen as an important moment in the struggle for civil rights?
Marian Anderson!
In 1939, she was denied the opportunity to perform at Constitution Hall due to a policy enforced by the Daughters of the American Revolution, who owned the venue. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt withdrew from the organization and in protest, helped organize the Easter Sunday Concert attended by 75,000 people.
The two track and field stars who raised a black gloved fist during the playing of the National Anthem during the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos
Interracial marriage in the United States was banned in 1664 and not overturned until when?
1967
Who was the first African American invited to dine at the White House?
Booker T. Washington