Firsts
Who became the first Black athletes to play in the NFL?
Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall
Who was the President of the Underground Railroad?
Levi Coffin
Who invented the ice cream scooper?
Alfred L. Cralle
Who was the first group to protest against slavery?
The Quakers
Who was the first African American in space?
Col. Guion S. Bluford, Jr., Ph.D
Who became the first player to sign with the WNBA?
Sheryl Swoopes
Who was a spy for the French during WWII?
Josephine Baker
Who invented the ironing board?
Sarah Boone
Who survived three assassination attempts during her campaign for the 1972 Democratic nomination to the U.S. presidency?
Shirley Chisholm
Who was the first African American to receive a college degree?
Alexander Lucius Twilight
Who was the first researcher to prove that insects can hear?
Charles Henry Turner
Everyone knows the story of Rosa Parks and her brave stand — or, sit — on that Alabama bus. But Parks wasn’t the first to do so. But who was?
Claudette Colvin
Who was a leading researcher in the field of blood plasma preservation, and led a massive blood donation drive to provide the British with much-needed blood supplies during World War II?
Dr. Charles Drew
Who was the first Black person to speak in the House of Representatives as a congressman in 1871?
Jefferson Franklin Long
What is the oldest Historically Black University in the U.S.?
Cheyney University
Who became the first African American general in the U.S. Air Force in 1954?
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.
What was Sojourner Truth’s real name?
Isabella Baumfree
Who built the first permanent settlement in what would become Chicago in 1779?
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable
Who founded a Black town where African Americans could run their own businesses and government?
Allen Allensworth
Who became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard?
W.E.B. Du Bois
Who was the first African American to receive a Nobel Peace Prize?
Ralph Bunche
Who discovered the territory that would become Arizona and New Mexico?
Estevanico
Who invented the door lock?
A.W. Martin
Who disguised herself as a man to serve in the U.S. Army after the Civil War?
Cathay Williams
What was the first HBUC to formally issue degrees to its students?
Lincoln University