On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls took command of a Confederate ship in Charleston Harbor and sailed his…
Langston Hughes was a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance and a pioneer of jazz poetry.
Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio, and became one of the most celebrated novelists in American history.
Medgar Evers was a World War II veteran who became the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi.
Benjamin Banneker was a free Black man from Maryland who taught himself mathematics and astronomy.
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founded Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first Black owned hospital in America with an…
Dr. Charles R. Drew developed methods for processing and storing blood plasma that saved countless lives.
Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman and first Native American woman to earn a pilot's license.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Forces.
Paul Laurence Dunbar of Dayton, Ohio, was one of the first African American writers to win national fame.
Charles Young was raised in Ripley, Ohio, and became the third Black graduate of West Point and the…
Matthew Henson was an explorer who spent nearly two decades on Arctic expeditions with Robert Peary.
John Lewis was a civil rights leader and longtime member of Congress who never stopped calling for "good…
In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
In September 1992, Mae Jemison flew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour and became the first African American woman in…
Katherine Johnson calculated the flight paths that carried America's first astronauts into space and home again.
Garrett Morgan was a Cleveland inventor whose ideas still help keep people safe.
Madam C. J. Walker built a national hair care company and became one of the first American women…
Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist who documented lynching in America when few others would.
Mary McLeod Bethune founded a school for Black girls in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1904 that grew into…
Thurgood Marshall was a civil rights lawyer who became the first African American justice of the U.S. Supreme…
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke Major League Baseball's…
Jesse Owens grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and became one of the greatest athletes in Olympic history.
George Washington Carver was an agricultural scientist who helped Southern farmers restore worn out land.