First African American Pilot

Activist

Journalist, Entrepreneur, Host, Actress

Keckley (1818) was born enslaved, she purchased her freedom for herself and her son for $1200, was a seamstress and confidant of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, and published her memoirs.

The first African American women to join a major ballet company.

Known as The Six Triple 8...

Motivated by her childhood love for Star Wars and Star Trek, Dr. Brown (1969-2008) became an Astrophysicist in the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. She was also the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan's Department of Astronomy.

Civil Rights

Gilmore (1920-1990) was a midwife, cook, founder of The Club from Nowhere, and an unsung heroine of the Civil Rights Movement.

Tate (1905-1996) was an intrepid adventurer, educator, author, polyglot, and international diplomacy expert. She was the first Black woman from the United States to attend Oxford University, earning her B.Litt. degree in 1935. She later became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in government and international relations from Harvard's Radcliffe College in 1941. She joined Howard University's history department in 1942, where she served as professor until 1977. Her scholarly work included five books on diplomatic history, extensive research across Asia, the Pacific, and Africa, and service as an advisor to then General Eisenhower on disarmament in the late 1940s. Tate's legacy also includes significant philanthropic contributions, notably a $1 million donation to establish the Merze Tate Student Education Endowment Fund as well as endowments for two Medallion Scholarships at Western Michigan University.

Dr. Wheeler and her husband opened a hospital.

Data Scientist and Inventor

Fisher (1924-1995) challenged the legal basis of segregated classes at the graduate level in the United States in Sipuel v Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma (1948).

Physician

Author

“My voice is what I think life is, my voice is beauty, my voice is America, my voice is my blackness, my voice is love, my voice is God.” Extraordinary spinto soprano and Prima Donna, Price (1927) is ...

Educator, Suffragist and Administrator

Attorney

Starring Tisha Campbell

NAACP was organized when the 60 signed The Call.

Bass is known as the first African American woman to own and operate a newspaper (The California Eagle) in the United States.

Cardwell (1894-1962) was a Musician, Educator, and founder of the extraordinary National Negro Opera Company (Pittsburg, 1941), and the Cardwell School of Music.

Cinematographer, Director, Writer

Lowery (1925-2013) was a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

South African Apartheid Protest

Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford (1931-2019), “Toni” Morrison was a Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize - winning novelist, editor, and professor. Her most notable works include “The Bluest Eye” (1970), “Song of Solomon” (1977), and “Beloved” (1987), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.

Activist and Community Organizer

Legendary Jazz singer.

Social worker and Educator.

Jordan (1936-1996) was a lawyer, State Senator, Congresswoman, enthralling orator, educator, and civil rights leader. During President Nixon's televised impeachment hearing, Jordan delivered a powerful 15-minute opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee. Her speech has been hailed as one of the most influential in 20th-century American history, playing a "decisive" role in "swaying public opinion in favor of impeachment".

Singer and Activist