After completing the STS-8 mission aboard the Challenger, this engineer and astronaut became the first black man in space.
What is Guion Bluford?
100
He broke the color barrier in baseball and became the first African American to play in the major leagues.
What is Jackie Robinson?
100
Founded by Barry Gordy in 1959, this company became one of the most successful black-owned companies in the nation, and cultivated the careers of music greats such as Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.
What is Motown Records?
100
She was the first African American woman to serve as United States Secretary of State, and the first African American and the first woman to serve as the President’s National Security Advisor.
What is Condoleezza Rice?
100
Arguably the most successful former Miss America winner in the field of entertainment, and the first African American to do so.
What is Vanessa Williams?
200
He invented the “SuperSoaker” in 1989.
What is Lonnie Johnson?
200
Also a social activist and philanthropist, he was the first boxer to win the world heavyweight championship three times.
What is Muhammad Ali?
200
This genre is described as “one of the nation’s true folk music, a pure product of culture, an artistic expression born out of the need for both audience and performer to dissipate stress, foster hope, and renew the spirit in the face of ongoing oppression”
What is Gospel Music?
200
In 1967, he became the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
What is Thurgood Marshall?
200
This event lasted five days and left 43 dead and 467 injured; it is reputed to have deepened the divide between whites and blacks in Detroit, instigate a frantic spike in “white flight” out of the city, and created extremist groups within each racial group.
What is the 1967 riots?
300
He invented electronic control devices for guided missiles, IBM computers, and the control unit for pacemakers.
What is Otis Boykin?
300
This Olympic track star won three gold medals and two silver medals, and still holds world records in 100-meter and 200-meter races, which were set in 1988. (Will also accept nickname)
What is Florence “Flo-Jo” Griffith-Joyner?
300
This theatre rose to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance, during which time it was reputed to only hire black entertainers; of these were James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.
What is The Apollo Theater?
300
In 1998, he became the first African American general in the United States Army.
What is Benjamin Oliver Davis?
300
This writer and sociologist was co-founder of the NAACP, and was one of the most famous social activists during the Harlem Renaissance.
What is W.E.B. Du Bois?
400
In 1993, she became both the first African-American and the first woman to serve as Surgeon General, and is famous for her controversial views on masturbation, stating “[Masturbation] is a part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught”.
What is Joycelyn Elders?
400
Following her careers in college and professional basketball, she became the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters in 1985.
What is Lynette Woodard?
400
A Chicago Native, this musician was the winner of the 2013 Stellar Awards Song of the Year.
What is Pastor Charles Jenkins?
400
In 1993, this Illinois native became (and still is, to date) the first African American woman elected to the United States Senate.
What is Carol Braun?
400
This official publication of the National Urban League employed Harlem Renaissance writers and editors, published poems and short stories by African Americans, and promoted African American literature.
What is Opportunity Magazine?
500
He is credited with performing the first open heart surgery on July 9, 1853.
What is Daniel Williams?
500
He broke the color barrier in golf when he became the first African American to play in the PGA tour.
What is Charlie Sifford?
500
Although classically trained at Juilliard, this singer sometimes had to pass for Asian to get jobs on Broadway. Her most famous role was Bloody Mary, the island woman who trades with the American sailors in Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific. It earned her the first Tony awarded to an African American.
What is Juanita Hall?
500
This foreign policy advisor became the first African American woman to serve as an ambassador to the United Nations.
What is Susan Rice?
500
In 2001, became the first African American president of an Ivy league college at Brown University