Arts & Entertainment
This man is considered one of the first rappers and the first major hip-hop DJs.
DJ Kool Herc
A woman abolitionist and social activist known for her conducting on the underground railroad.
Harriet Tubman
The first African-American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era.
Jackie Robinson
An American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton (peanuts) and methods to prevent soil depletion. A prolific professor at the Tuskegee Institute
George Washington Carver
The first black president of the United States.
Barak Obama
A prolific musician who defied genres and was known for his work in funk, R&B, rock, and pop. He was also a virtuoso on guitar, keyboards, and drums. Known for his song/musical "Purple Rain."
Prince
The most important leader of the movement for African American civil rights in the 19th century.
Frederick Douglass
Nicknamed His Airness, this famous basketball player is known for his leaping ability which made him world famous and also helped popularize the NBA.
Michael Jordan
The first African American woman in space on the Endeavour space shuttle (1992).
Mae Jemison
The first black Supreme Court Justice.
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
This woman had a broad career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood's first female black director, but became most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet.
Maya Angelou
The first African American child to attend formerly whites-only William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana on November 14, 1960
Ruby Bridges
Some of this famous heavy weight boxer's greatest matches include the “Fight of the Century” against Joe Frazier in 1971, and the “Rumble in the Jungle” against George Foreman in 1974.
Muhammad Ali
A mathematician whose work at NASA was depicted in the Hidden Figures movie. Johnson calculated the flight path for Alan Shepard (the first American in space) and later checked critical flight path calculations for Apollo 13.
Katherine Johnson
The first black governor of Maryland.
Wes Moore
He is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author who won an Academy award for best original screenplay for "Do the Right Thing" (1989).
Spike Lee
An American activist in the civil rights movement, best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott.
Rosa Parks
The first African American to win a Grand Slam tennis title.
Althea Gibson
Is a nuclear engineer and inventor who developed the popular Super Soaker water gun. He worked on stealth technology for the U.S. Air Force and was a senior systems engineer on NASA's Galileo Project.
Lonnie G. Johnson
The first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress.
Shirley Chisholm
The first African American woman to become a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre.
Misty Copeland
An African American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary on seven voyages to the Arctic over a period of nearly 23 years.
Matthew Henson
Known as the GOAT, this tennis star's resume includes 23 Grand Slam singles titles (the record), six U.S. Opens, seven Wimbledon titles, seven Australian Opens, three French Opens, four Olympic gold medals, 23 doubles titles, and a career Golden Slam.
Serena Williams
A biochemist and the first Black woman to obtain a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States.
Dr. Marie M. Daly
An American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
Martin Luther King Jr.