Health & Science
Meet the First Black Woman to Win a Nobel Peace Prize
Wangari Muta Maathai, also known as "Tree Woman", was an activist and eco…
Public Service
Macon B. Allen Was the First African American to Become a Lawyer
Macon Bolling Allen was born free in 1816, and worked as a school teacher after learn…
Music & Arts
Billboard Magazine Used to Refer to R&B Songs as “Race Records”
In the beginning of the record industry's history, music was primarily marketed…
Sports & Entertainment
Meet the First African American to Become a Chess Grandmaster
Maurice Ashley is the first African American ever to be awarded the world title of …
Sports & Entertainment
Meet NASCAR’s First African American Driver and Winner
Wendell Scott was born with racing in his blood. His father worked as a mechanic an…
Writing & Publishing
After Writing "12 Years a Slave," Author Solomon Northrup Disappeared and Was Never Seen Again
Solomon Northup was an African American writer best known as the author of the 1853…
Sports & Entertainment
Meet the First Ever African American Head Coach in NFL History
In 1920, Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard became one of the first two Afr…
Civil Rights
Who Was Jim Crow? Was He a Real Person?
The name Jim Crow is used to refer to a set of local and state laws that once advoc…
Education & Politics
Rutgers University Appoints It's First Ever Black President in 253 Years
Jonathan Holloway, who formally served as the dean of Yale College, has been appoin…
Business & Inventions
First Black-Owned Company to Go Public on the Stock Market
Johnson Products, which manufactured a popular line of hair care and cosmetic produ…
History & Exploration
Mexico Once Had a Black President — But He Was Executed!
Vicente Guerrero is the first and only Black person to have become President of Mex…
Business & Inventions
Meet the Inventor of the First Gas Mask and the Three-Position Traffic Light
Garrett Augustus Morgan was born in 1877 in an almost all-Black community outside o…
