Transportation
This mechanical engineer & inventor created a lubrication cup that dispensed oil evenly throughout an engine’s parts, lengthening the time trains could run without stopping for maintenance
Elijah McCoy
This inventor developed the method of crop rotation to replenish soil nutrients to increase productivity.
George Washington Carver
Who was the first African American Coach in the National Basketball Association and won the NBA Championship?
Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) (1968)
The first sculptor of African American and Native American (Mississauga) descent to achieve international recognition.
Edmonia Lewis
The first Black man to receive a medical degree
James McCune Smith (1813-1865)
In 1923, this accomplished inventor came up with the idea to include a warning light in traffic signals to prepare drivers for the signal switching to stop.
Garrett Morgan
This black innovator organized black farmers under the Eastern Columbus Credit Union allowing black farmers & ranchers to buy in bulk to cut costs.
John W. Mitchell
First African American gymnast to win the women’s artistic individual all-around at the World Artistic Gymnastic Championships in 2013?
Simone Biles
The first accredited Black architect in the United States. MIT's first Black graduate and America's first licensed Black architect, Class of 1892. He grew up in Wilmington, NC, and was the first Black American admitted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received his degree in Architecture.
Robert R. Taylor
The father of the modern blood bank, he invented a blood plasma preservation process in 1939 to store and ship life-saving blood plasma during World War II.
Charles Richard Drew
Nine months before Rosa Parks, on March 2, 1955 at 15yrs old, she refused to move on a segregated bus and later became the star witness in the landmark federal Browder v Gayle case to end segregation on public transportation in America.
Claudette Colvin
In 1935, he created a refrigeration system to prevent food from spoiling in long-haul trucks and rail cars, and in WWII, adapted it to store blood and medicines for field hospitals and refrigeration for field kitchens.
Frederick McKinley Jones
Who was the first African-American President of an NFL Team?
Jason Wright – Washington Commanders (2020)
The “Rosa Parks of architecture,” was a trailblazer for black women in architecture. She was not only the first black woman to be licensed as an architect in New York, but was also the first in California.
Norma Merrick Sklarek
She is recognized as the first Black professional nurse in the United States.
Mary Eliza Mahoney
In 1921, this "Queen" received her international pilot license in France because no flight school in America would train a colored woman
Bessie "Queen Bess" Coleman
Second African-American to be issued a US Patent for food growing efficiency with the creation of the seed planter for corn.
Henry Blair
First African American to Win over 2000 MLB Games?
Dusty Baker (2022)
The first African American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1937.
William Edmonson
The first Black woman neurosurgeon in the U.S.
Alexa Canady
She actively participated in 53 space shuttle launches during her 9 year tenure at Kennedy Space Center, then became the 3rd African American woman in space, logging over 308 hours on her mission
Joan Higginbotham
This innovator founded the National Black Farmers Association to battle discrimination from the USDA.
John W. Boyd
First African-American woman to hold the #1 Rank in Tennis?
Venus Williams
In 1924, she was the first student to receive a degree from the Art Department at Howard University in Washington, DC.
Alma Thomas
He founded the first black-owned hospital in America, and performed the world's first successful heart surgery, in 1893
Daniel Hale Williams