Granville Tailer Woods was the first African-American to become a mechanical and electrical engineer. He was also an inventor who held more than 60 patents.

Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone was the first Black woman to become a millionaire. She owned a Black hair care empire called Poro that reported assets of $14 million in the year 19…

In 1903, Maggie Lena Walker founded St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia making her the first African American woman to charter a bank in the United States. Her ba…

Established in 1906, Black Wall Street (originally known as Greenwood Avenue) was a prominent African American community located in the Greenwood District in the city of Tulsa,…

North Carolina Mutual is one of the most influential African-American businesses in U.S. history. Founded in 1898 in Durham, NC by entrepreneur John C. Merrick, the company ini…

Engine 21 was Chicago’s first organized paid African American Firefighting Company. Established in the mid-1800's, the company only consisted of just six Black firefighters. …

In the mid-1800's, Jeremiah G. Hamilton was a well-known African American figure on Wall Street. Although his origins were lowly, possibly slave, he was reportedly the rich…

Benjamin T. Montgomery was a great inventor, who tried to patent his propeller for steamboats in 1864, but the U.S Patent Office rejected his application because he was Black.�…

For decades, there has been an ongoing controversial discussion about the origins of the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken original recipe. The controversy is whether or not the re…

Alonzo Herndon is best known as the first African-American entrepreneur from Atlanta to become a millionaire. He was born in 1858 into slavery to a Black mother and white fathe…

Marie Van Brittan Brown, born on January 7, 1922, was an African American nurse and inventor from Queens, New York City. In 1966, at the age of 44, she came up with the brillia…

Ann Lowe designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress in 1953 Fashion designing is an art form that requires both passion and dedication. In order for the field to continue evo…

Everything we use in our day-to-day life was once just an idea. It’s easy to forget the people who made these concepts a reality, but their legacies are undeniable. In celebrat…

Founded in 1881, E.E. Ward Moving & Storage is the oldest African-American owned business in the United States. What started as a stop on the Underground Railroad has flour…

Sarah Rector was born in 1902 in Taft, Oklahoma. She came from very humble beginnings, but later became the wealthiest Black girl in the country at the young age of 11. Her famil…

George Washington Carver was a scientist, an accomplished pianist, and a world renowned inventor. Many people think he invented peanut butter, but this is not true! He did, how…

Immediately following Emancipation, there were 4,047 millionaires in the United States — and six of them were African American. Between 1830 and 1927, as the last generation of…

Jack Daniel’s is a very popular whiskey and alcoholic beverage that people all around the world have been drinking for more than 150 years. But many people are not aware of whe…

Most people have no idea that Marian Croak, an African American woman, is credited with initiating and furthering the development of VOIP, also known as Voice Over Internet Proto…