Great Achievements by African American People

Great Achievement’s by African American People
Great
Achievements
by African
American
People
Excellence in the African-
American Community
Great Achievements by African American People
Henry Epps
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Table of Contents
1 Marian Anderson
2 Arthur Ashe
23Halle Berry
4 Beyoncé
5 James Hubert Blake
6 Guion Bluford
7 Gwendolyn Brooks
8 Ralph Bunche
9 Shirley Chisholm
10 Nat King Cole
11 Benjamin Oliver Davis
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12 Fredrick Douglas
13 Rita Dove
14 Keith Ellison
15 Althea Gibson
16 Whitney Houston
17 Dr. Mae Jamison
18 Jack Johnson
19 Robert Johnson
20 Thurgood Marshall
21 Hattie McDaniel
22 James Meredith
23 Carol Mosley-Braun
24 Toni Morrison
25 Barack Obama
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Marian Anderson
First black member of the metropolitan opera company,

1955
Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993)[1] was

an African-American contralto and one of the most
celebrated singers of the twentieth century. Music critic Alan
Blyth said “Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic
beauty.”[2] Most of her singing career was spent performing
in concert and recital in major music venues and with famous
orchestras throughout the United States and Europe
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between 1925 and 1965. Although offered roles with many

important European opera companies, Anderson declined, as
she had no training in acting. She preferred to perform in
concert and recital only. She did, however, perform opera
arias within her concerts and recitals. She made many
recordings that reflected her broad performance repertoire
of everything from concert literature to lieder to opera to
traditional American songs and spirituals. [2]
Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for

black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States
during the mid-twentieth century. In 1939, the Daughters of
the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for
Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution
Hall. The incident placed Anderson into the spotlight of the
international community on a level unusual for a classical
musician. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and
her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a
critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April
9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington,
D.C. She sang before a crowd of more than 75,000 people
and a radio audience in the millions. Anderson continued to
break barriers for black artists in the United States, becoming
the first black person, American or otherwise, to perform at
the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955.
Her performance as Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in
maschera at the Met was the only time she sang an opera
role on stage.
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Anderson worked for several years as a delegate to the

United Nations Human Rights Committee and as a “goodwill
ambassadress” for the United States Department of State,
giving concerts all over the world. She participated in the civil
rights movement in the 1960s, singing at the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. The recipient of
numerous awards and honors, Anderson was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Kennedy Center
Honors in 1978, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and a
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.
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10
ARTHUR ASHE
FIRST BLACK MAN TO WIN THE WEMBELTON DEFEATING

JIMMY CONNERS
Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was
a former World No. 1 professional tennis player, born and
raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three
Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the
United States. Ashe, an African American, was the first black
player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team and
the only black man to ever win the singles title at
Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. He is also
remembered for his efforts to further social causes.
Born in Gum Spring, Virginia, to parents Arthur Ashe Sr. and

Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe, Arthur and his younger
brother, Johnnie, suffered a tragic loss when their mother
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died suddenly from heart related complications during

routine surgery. Arthur Ashe first attended Maggie L. Walker
High School, being coached by Ronald Charity, and later
coached by Robert Walter Johnson. Tired of having to travel
great distances to play Caucasian youths in segregated
Richmond, Ashe accepted an offer from a St. Louis tennis
official to move there and attend Sumner High School.[1]
Young Ashe was recognized by Sports Illustrated for his
playing.[2]
Ashe was awarded a tennis scholarship to the University of

California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1963. That same year, Ashe
became the first black player ever selected to the United
States Davis Cup team.
In 1965, Ashe won the National Collegiate Athletic

Association (NCAA) singles title and contributed to UCLA's
winning the team NCAA tennis championship. While at UCLA,
Ashe was initiated as a member of the Upsilon chapter of
Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Ashe was also a member of the
UCLA Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) and was
commissioned as a Second Lieutenant after completing camp
at Fort Lewis, Washington, in the summer of 1966.[citation
needed]
The Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, on the

campus of UCLA
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In 1968, Ashe won the United States Amateur Championships

against Davis Cup Teammate Bob Lutz, and the inaugural US
Open and aided the U.S Davis Cup team to victory. He is the
only player to have won both of these amateur and open
national championships in the same year.[3] Concerned that
tennis professionals were not receiving winnings
commensurate with the sport's growing popularity, Ashe
supported formation of the Association of Tennis
Professionals. That year would prove even more momentous
for Ashe when he was denied a visa by the South African
government, thereby keeping him out of the South African
Open. Ashe used this denial to publicize South Africa's
apartheid policies. In the media, Ashe called for South Africa
to be expelled from the professional tennis circuit.
In 1969, Ashe turned professional. In 1970, Ashe won his

second Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open.
In 1975, Ashe won Wimbledon, defeating Jimmy Connors in

the final. He also won the season ending championship WCT
Finals. Arthur played for a few more years, but after being
slowed by heart surgery.
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HALLE BERRY
FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN TO
WIN AN ACADAMY AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS IN 2011
Halle Berry ( /ˈhæli ˈbɛri/; born August 14, 1966[1]) is an

American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received
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an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award

for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge[2] and won an Academy
Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA
Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball,
becoming the first and, as of 2012, only woman of African
American descent to have won the award for Best Actress.
She is one of the most highly paid actresses in Hollywood and
a Revlon spokesmodel.[3][4] She has been involved in the
production side of several of the films in which she
performed.
Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty

contests, finishing as the 1st runner-up in the Miss USA
Pageant (1986), and coming in 6th place in the Miss World
Pageant in 1986.[2] She made her film debut with a small
role in 1991's Jungle Fever. This led to starring roles in The
Flintstones (1994), Bulworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and its
sequels, and as Bond Girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). She
also won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in
2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person—one
of the few performers to do so.[5]
Berry took part in a nearly 2000-house party cell-phone bank

campaign for Barack Obama in February 2008.[76]
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In October 2008, Berry was named Esquire magazine's

"Sexiest Woman Alive", about which she stated "I don't know
exactly what it means, but being 42 and having just had a
baby, I think I'll take it.[77][78] Men's Health ranked her at
No. 35 on their "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" list.[79]
In 2009, she was voted #23 on Empire's 100 Sexiest Film

Stars.[80]
Also in 2009, the 'rapper' Hurricane Chris released a song

entitled "Halle Berry (She's Fine)," extolling Berry's sex
appeal.
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BEYONCE
MADE HISTORY HOLDING BILLBOARDS TOP 1#
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter[2][3] (née Beyoncé Giselle

Knowles; September 4, 1981), known mononymously as
Beyoncé ( /biˈjɒnseɪ/ bee-YON-say), is an American singer,
songwriter, record producer and actress. Born and raised in
Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts
schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing
competitions as a child. Knowles rose to fame in the late
1990s as the lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child,
one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time.
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During the hiatus of Destiny's Child, Knowles released her

debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, in 2003, which
spawned two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—
"Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy"—and became one of the
most successful albums of that year, earning her a then
record-tying five Grammy Awards. Following the
disbandment of Destiny's Child in 2005, Knowles released her
second solo album, B'Day, in 2006, which spawned the top
10 singles "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable" and "Beautiful Liar". Her
third solo album I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), spawned the hit
singles "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)",
"Halo" and "Sweet Dreams". The album helped Knowles earn
six Grammys in 2010, breaking the record for most Grammy
Awards won by a female artist in one night. Knowles' fourth
solo album, 4 (2011), became her fourth consecutive number
one album on the Billboard 200 as a solo artist. This made
her the third artist in history to have her first four studio
albums debut atop the chart.
Apart from her work in music, Knowles has also ventured into
acting and designing clothes and perfumes. She made her
acting debut in the musical film Carmen: A Hip Hopera
(2001), prior to appearing in major films, including Austin
Powers in Goldmember (2002), Dreamgirls (2006), which
earned her two Golden Globe nominations, Cadillac Records
(2008) and Obsessed (2009). In 2005, Knowles and her
mother introduced their family's fashion line, House of
Deréon, and in 2010, she released her first perfume, Heat.
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She has endorsed brands including, L'Oréal, Pepsi, Tommy

Hilfiger, Nintendo and Vizio. In 2010, Knowles was ranked
first on Forbes list of the "100 Most Powerful and Influential
Musicians in the World",[4] and second on its list of the "100
Most Powerful and Influential Celebrities in the World".[5] In
2012, she was named "World's Most Beautiful Woman" by
People magazine.
Knowles' work has earned her numerous awards and

accolades, including 16 Grammy Awards, 11 MTV Video
Music Awards, four American Music Awards, a Billboard
Millennium Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame with Destiny's Child. In 2009, Billboard named her the
Top Radio Songs Artist of the 2000s decade,[6] and ranked
her as the 4th overall Artist of the Decade (and as the First
Female Artist of that period).[7] The Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA), also recognized Knowles as
the Top Certified Artist of the 2000s.[8][9] In the US, Knowles
has sold over 11.2 million albums as of May 2010,[10] and
more than 30.4 million digital singles as of January 2012.[11]
She has sold 75 million records worldwide, making her one of
the best-selling music artists of all time.[12] Knowles
appeared on VH1's 2010 list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All
Time",[13] and ranked third on their "100 Greatest Women
in Music" list in 2012.[14] In April 2008, Knowles married
American rapper Jay-Z, and gave birth to their first child, Blue
Ivy Carter, in January 2012.
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JAMES HUBERT (EUBIE) BLAKE
COMPOSED FIRST BROADWAY MUSICAL
DIRECCTED BY AN AFRO-AMERICAN
James Hubert Blake (February 7, 1887[1][2][3] – February 12,

1983) was an American composer, lyricist,
Honors and awards and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular

music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle
wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first
Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African
Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as,
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"Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find A Way",

"Memories of You", and "I'm Just Wild about Harry". The
musical Eubie! featured the works of Blake and opened on
Broadway in 1978.
1969: Eubie Blake's nomination for a Grammy Award for The

86 Years of Eubie Blake in the category of "Best Instrumental
Jazz Performance, Small Group or Soloist with Small
Group".[10]
1972: Omega Psi Phi Scroll of Honor
1974: Diploma, Rutgers University Doctor of Fine Arts[11]
1974: Diploma, Dartmouth College, Doctor of Humane

Letters
1978: Diploma, University of Maryland Doctor of Fine Arts
1979: Diploma, Morgan State University Doctor of Music
1980: Received the Johns Hopkins University's, George

Peabody Medal
1981: Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on

October 9, 1981, awarded by President Ronald Reagan.
1982: Diploma, Howard University Doctor of Music
1983: Inducted in the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
1995: The United States Postal Service issued a stamp in his

honor.
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1995: Inducted into the New York's American Theatre Hall of

Fame.[12]
1998: James Hubert Blake High School was built in Cloverly,

Maryland in his honor. Eubie Blake HS has a strong focus on
the performing arts.
2006: The album The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake (1969)

was included by the National Recording Preservation Board
in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.[13]
The board selects songs in an annual basis that are
"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
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GUION BLUFORD
FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN TO LAUNCH INTO SPACE
Dr. Guion Stewart “Guy” Bluford, Jr. (born November 22,

1942), is an engineer, retired Colonel from the United States
Air Force and a former NASA Astronaut. He participated in
four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983,
as a member of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger on
mission STS-8, Bluford became the first African American in
space, and the second person of African ancestry, after the
Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez.
Bluford attended pilot training at Williams Air Force Base,

and received his pilot wings in January 1966. He then went to
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F-4C combat crew training in Arizona and Florida and was

assigned to the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Cam Ranh
Bay, Vietnam. He flew 144 combat missions, 65 of which
were over North Vietnam.
In July 1967, he was assigned to the 3,630th Flying Training

Wing, Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, as a T-38A instructor
pilot. He served as a standardization/evaluation officer and
as an assistant flight commander. In early 1971, he attended
Squadron Officers School and returned as an executive
support officer to the Deputy Commander of Operations and
as School Secretary for the Wing.
In August 1972, he entered the Air Force Institute of

Technology residency school at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base, Ohio. Upon graduating in 1974 with his master's
degree,[2] he was assigned to the Air Force Flight Dynamics
Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, as a
staff development engineer. He served as deputy for
advanced concepts for the Aeromechanics Division and as
branch chief of the Aerodynamics and Airframe Branch in the
Laboratory. Bluford has written and presented several
scientific papers in the area of computational fluid dynamics.
He has logged over 5,200 hours of jet flight time in the T-33,
T-37, T-38, F-4C, U-2/TR-1, and F-5A/B, including 1,300 hours
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as a T-38 instructor pilot. He also has an FAA commercial

pilot license. Member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
Bluford became a NASA astronaut in August 1979. Out of

thousands of possible astronaut contestants, only 36 were
chosen, and Guion was one of them. His technical
assignments have included working with Space Station
operations, the Remote Manipulator System (RMS), Spacelab
systems and experiments, Space Shuttle systems, payload
safety issues and verifying flight software in the Shuttle
Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) and in the Flight
Systems Laboratory (FSL). Bluford was a mission specialist on
STS-8, STS-61-A, STS-39, and STS-53.[2]
Bluford's first mission was STS-8, which launched from

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 30, 1983. This was
the third flight for the Orbiter Challenger and the first
mission with a night launch and night landing. During the
mission, the STS-8 crew deployed the Indian National
Satellite (INSAT-1B); operated the Canadian-built RMS with
the Payload Flight Test Article (PFTA); operated the
Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES) with live cell
samples; conducted medical measurements to understand
biophysiological effects of space flight; and activated four
"Getaway Special" canisters. STS-8 completed 98 orbits of
the Earth in 145 hours before landing at Edwards Air Force
Base, California, on September 5, 1983.
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GWENDOLN BROOKS
FIRST BLACK WOMEN TO WIN PULITIZER PRIZE, IN 1950
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3,

2000) was an African-American poet. She was appointed
Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.[2]
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born on June 7, 1917, in

Topeka, Kansas, the first child of David Anderson Brooks and
Keziah Wims. Her mother was a former school teacher who
had chosen that field because she could not afford to attend
medical school. (Family lore held that her paternal
grandfather had escaped slavery to join Union forces during
the American Civil War.)[3] When Brooks was six weeks old,
her family moved to Chicago, Illinois during the Great
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Migration; from then on, Chicago was her hometown. She

went by the nickname "Gwendie" among her close friends.
Her home life was stable and loving, although she

encountered racial prejudice in her neighborhood and in
schools. She attended Hyde Park High School, the leading
white high school in the city, before transferring to the all-
black Wendell Phillips. Brooks eventually attended an
integrated school, Englewood High School. In 1936 she
graduated from Wilson Junior College. These four schools
gave her a perspective on racial dynamics in the city that
continued to influence her work.
Brooks published her first poem in a children's magazine at

the age of thirteen. By the time she was sixteen, she had
compiled a portfolio of around 75 published poems. At
seventeen, she started submitting her work to "Lights and
Shadows", the poetry column of the Chicago Defender, an
African-American newspaper. Her poems, many published
while she attended Wilson Junior College, ranged in style
from traditional ballads and sonnets to poems using blues
rhythms in free verse. Her characters were often drawn from
the poor of the inner city. After failing to obtain a position
with the Chicago Defender, Brooks took a series of secretarial
jobs.
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By 1941, Brooks was taking part in poetry workshops. A

particularly influential one was organized by Inez
Cunningham Stark, an affluent white woman with a strong
literary background. The group dynamic of Stark's workshop,
all of whose participants were African American, energized
Brooks. Her poetry began to be taken seriously.[4] In 1943
she received an award for poetry from the Midwestern
Writers' Conference.
Brooks' first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville (1945),

published by Harper and Row, earned instant critical acclaim.
She received her first Guggenheim Fellowship and was
included as one of the “Ten Young Women of the Year” in
Mademoiselle magazine. With her second book of poetry,
Annie Allen (1950), she became the first African American to
win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; she also was awarded
Poetry magazine’s Eunice Tietjens Prize.
After President John F. Kennedy invited Brooks to read at a

Library of Congress poetry festival in 1962, she began a
second career teaching creative writing. She taught at
Columbia College Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University,
Chicago State University, Elmhurst College, Columbia
University, Clay College of New York, and the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. In 1967 she attended a writers’
conference at Fisk University where, she said, she
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rediscovered her blackness.[5] This rediscovery is reflected in

her work In The Mecca (1968), a long poem about a mother
searching for her lost child in a Chicago apartment building.
In The Mecca was nominated for the National Book Award
for poetry.
On May 1, 1996, Brooks returned to her birthplace of

Topeka, Kansas. She was invited as the keynote speaker for
the Third Annual Kaw Valley Girl Scout Council's "Women of
Distinction Banquet and String of Pearls Auction." A
ceremony was held in her honor at a local park at 37th and
Topeka Boulevard.
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RALPH BUNCHE
FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN
TO WIN THE NOBLE PEACE PRIZE IN 1950
Ralph Bunche (/bʌntʃ/; August 7, 1903 (disputed) or

1904[1][2][3][4] – December 9, 1971) was an American
political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel
Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was
the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the
Prize. [5] He was involved in the formation and
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administration of the United Nations and in 1963, received

the Medal of Freedom from President John F. Kennedy.
Bunche chaired the Department of Political Science at

Howard University from 1928 until 1950, where he taught
generations of students. He lived in the Brookland
neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and was a member of the
American Federation of Teachers affiliate at Harvard.
"Throughout his career, Bunche has maintained strong ties

with education. He chaired the Department of Political
Science at Howard University from 1928 until 1950; taught at
Harvard University from 1950 to 1952; served as a member
of the New York City Board of Education (1958–1964), as a
member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University
(1960–1965), as a member of the Board of the Institute of
International Education, and as a trustee of Oberlin College,
Lincoln University, and New Lincoln School."[2]
Painting by Betsy Graves Reyneau
In 1936, Bunche authored a pamphlet entitled A World View

of Race. In it, Bunche wrote: "And so class will someday
supplant race in world affairs. Race war will then be merely a
side-show to the gigantic class war which will be waged in
the big tent we call the world." From 1936 to 1940, Bunche
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served as contributing editor of the journal Science and

Society: A Marxian Quarterly.[8] Beginning in the Fall of
1938, Bunche served as Gunnar Myrdal's main researcher
and writer, accompanying Myrdal as he travelled through the
south gathering information for his monumental study An
American Dilemma.[9]
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SHIRLEY CHISHOLM
FIRST BLACK WOMAN ELECTED TO THE CONGRESS IN, 1968
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January

1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author.[3]
She was a Congresswoman, representing New York's 12th
Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In
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1968, she became the first African American woman elected

to Congress.[4] On January 25, 1972, she became the first
major-party black candidate for President of the United
States and the first woman to run for the Democratic
presidential nomination (Margaret Chase Smith had
previously run for the Republican presidential
nomination).[4] She received 152 first-ballot votes at the
1972 Democratic National Convention.[4][5]
Shirley Anita St. Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York, of

immigrant parents.[1] Her father, Charles Christopher St. Hill,
was born in British Guiana[6] and arrived in the United States
via Antilla, Cuba, on April 10, 1923 aboard the S.S. Munamar
in New York City.[6] Her mother, Ruby Seale, was born in
Christ Church, Barbados, and arrived in New York City aboard
the S.S. Pocone on March 8, 1921.[7] At age three, Chisholm
was sent to Barbados to live with her maternal grandmother,
Emaline Seale, in Christ Church; where she attended the
Vauxhall Primary School. She did not return until roughly
seven years later when she arrived in New York City on May
19, 1934 aboard the S.S. Narissa.[8] In her 1970
autobiography Unbought and Unbossed, she wrote: "Years
later I would know what an important gift my parents had
given me by seeing to it that I had my early education in the
strict, traditional, British-style schools of Barbados. If I speak
and write easily now, that early education is the main
reason."
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Chisholm is an alumna of Girls High School, she earned her

BA from Brooklyn College in 1946 and later earned her MA
from Columbia University in elementary education in 1952.
She was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
From 1953 to 1959, she was director of the Hamilton-

Madison Child Care Center. From 1959 to 1964, she was an
educational consultant for the Division of Day Care.
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NAT KING COLE
FIRST BLACK ENTERTAINER TO HOST A TV SHOW IN, 1956
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15,

1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an
American musician who first came to prominence as a
leading jazz pianist. He owes most of his popular musical
fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in
big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black
Americans to host a television variety show, and has
maintained worldwide popularity since his death.
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On November 5, 1956, The Nat King Cole Show debuted on

NBC-TV. The Cole program was the first of its kind hosted by
an African-American, which created controversy at the
time.[7]
Beginning as a 15-minute pops show on Monday night, the

program was expanded to a half hour in July 1957. Despite
the efforts of NBC, as well as many of Cole's industry
colleagues—many of whom, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Harry
Belafonte, Frankie Laine, Mel Tormé, Peggy Lee, and Eartha
Kitt, worked for industry scale (or even for no pay)[7] in order
to help the show save money—The Nat King Cole Show was
ultimately done in by lack of a national sponsorship.[7]
Companies such as Rheingold Beer assumed regional
sponsorship of the show, but a national sponsor never
appeared.[7]
The last episode of "The Nat King Cole Show" aired December
17, 1957. Cole had survived for over a year, and it was he,
not NBC, who ultimately decided to pull the plug on the
show.[8] Commenting on the lack of sponsorship his show
received, Cole quipped shortly after its demise, "Madison
Avenue is afraid of the dark."[9][10]
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In January 1964, Cole made one of his final television

appearances on The Jack Benny Program. Cole was
introduced as “the best friend a song ever had," and sang
“When I Fall in Love." It was one of Cole's last performances.
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GEN. BENJAMIN OLIVER DAVIS
FIRST BLACK GENERAL IN THE U.S. ARMY
Davis was the first African-American general in the United

States Air Force. On December 9, 1998, the President
advanced him to four-star general. During World War II,
Davis was commander of the 99th and the 332nd Fighter
Group, which escorted bombers on air combat missions over
Europe. Davis himself flew sixty missions in P-39, Curtiss P-
40, P-47 and P-51 Mustang fighters. Davis followed in his
father's footsteps in breaking racial barriers, as Benjamin O.
Davis, Sr. was the first African-American general in the
United States Army.
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Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr was born in Washington, D.C. on

December 18, 1912, the second of three children born to
Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. and Elnora Dickerson Davis. His father
was a U.S. Army officer, and at the time was stationed in
Wyoming serving as a lieutenant with an all-white cavalry
unit. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. served 41 years before he was
promoted to brigadier general. Elnora Davis died from
complications after giving birth to their third child (Elnora) in
1916.
At the age of 13, in the summer of 1926, the younger Davis

went for a flight with a barnstorming pilot at Bolling Field in
Washington, D.C. The experience led to his determination to
become a pilot himself. He was the first officer to get his
wings from the Tuskegee Army Air Field on March 7, 1942.
After attending the University of Chicago, he entered the

United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in
1932. He was sponsored by Representative Oscar De Priest
(R-IL) of Chicago, at the time, the only black member of
Congress. During the entire four years of his Academy term,
Davis was shunned by his classmates, few of whom spoke to
him outside the line of duty. He never had a roommate. He
ate by himself. His classmates hoped that this would drive
him out of the Academy. The "silent treatment" had the
opposite effect. It made Davis more determined to graduate.
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Nevertheless, he earned the respect of his classmates, as

evidenced by the biographical note beneath his picture in the
1936 yearbook, the Howitzer:
"The courage, tenacity, and intelligence with which he

conquered a problem incomparably more difficult than plebe
year won for him the sincere admiration of his classmates,
and his single-minded determination to continue in his
chosen career cannot fail to inspire respect wherever fortune
may lead him."[1]
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FREDRICK DOUGLAS
FIRST BLACKMAN TO RECEIVE A
MAJOR US GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENT
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington

Bailey, c. February 1818[3] – February 20, 1895) was an
American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After
escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist
movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory[4] and
incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-
example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves did not have
the intellectual capacity to function as independent American
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citizens.[5][6] Many Northerners also found it hard to believe

that such a great orator had been a slave.[7]
Douglass wrote several autobiographies, eloquently

describing his experiences in slavery in his 1845
autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an
American Slave, which became influential in its support for
abolition. He wrote two more autobiographies, with his last,
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, published in 1881 and
covering events through and after the Civil War. After the
Civil War, Douglass remained active in the United States'
struggle to reach its potential as a "land of the free".
Douglass actively supported women's suffrage. Without his
approval he became the first African American nominated for
Vice President of the United States as the running mate of
Victoria Woodhull on the impracticable and small Equal
Rights Party ticket. Douglass held multiple public offices.
Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all people,

whether black, female, Native American, or recent
immigrant, famously quoted as saying, "I would unite with
anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." [8]
Douglass' best-known work is his first autobiography

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American
Slave, published in 1845. At the time, some skeptics
questioned whether a black man could have produced such
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an eloquent piece of literature. The book received generally

positive reviews and became an immediate bestseller. Within
three years of its publication, it had been reprinted nine
times with 11,000 copies circulating in the United States; it
was also translated into French and Dutch and published in
Europe.
Douglass published three versions of his autobiography

during his lifetime (and revised the third of these), each time
expanding on the previous one. The 1845 Narrative, which
was his biggest seller, was followed by My Bondage and My
Freedom in 1855. In 1881, after the Civil War, Douglass
published Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, which he
revised in 1892.
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RITA DOVE
FIRST BLACK WOMAN US POET LAUREATE, 1993-1995
Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952) is an American

poet and author. From 1993–1995 she served as Poet
Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She
was the first African American to be appointed since the
position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 out of the
previous "consultant in poetry" position (1937–86). Dove also
received an appointment as "special consultant in poetry" for
the Library of Congress's bicentennial year from 1999–
2000.[1] Dove is the second African American to receive the
56
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1987, and she served as the Poet
Laureate of Virginia[2] from 2004–2006.
Dove taught creative writing at Arizona State University from

1981 to 1989. She received the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry
and was named Poet Laureate of the United States[4] by the
Librarian of Congress, an office she held from 1993 to 1995.
At age 40, Dove was the youngest person to hold the position
and is the first African American to hold the position since
the title was changed to Poet Laureate (Robert Hayden had
served as the first non-white Consultant in Poetry from
1976–78, and Gwendolyn Brooks had been the last
Consultant in Poetry in 1985–86). Early in her tenure as poet
laureate, Bill Moyers featured Rita Dove in a one hour
interview on his PBS prime time program Bill Moyers
Journal.[5] Since 1989 she has been teaching at the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she holds the
chair of Commonwealth Professor of English.
Rita Dove also served as a Special Bicentennial Consultant in

Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1999/2000, along with
Louise Glück and W. S. Merwin. In 2004 then-governor Mark
Warner of Virginia appointed her to a two-year position as
Poet Laureate of Virginia.[4] In her public posts, Dove
concentrated on spreading the word about poetry and
increasing public awareness of the benefits of literature. As
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United States Poet Laureate, for example, she also brought

together writers to explore the African diaspora through the
eyes of its artists.[6]
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KEITH ELLISON
FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSLIM
ELECTED TO CONGRESS FROM MINNASOTA IN 2008
Keith Maurice Ellison (born August 4, 1963) is the U.S.

Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district,
serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic-
Farmer-Labor Party. The district centers on Minneapolis and
surrounding suburbs. He was re-elected in 2010.[1] Ellison is
a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the
112th Congress.
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He is the first Muslim[2][3] to be elected to the United States

Congress. He is also the first African American elected to the
House from Minnesota
Keith Ellison, the third of five sons, was born and raised a
Roman Catholic[5] in Detroit, Michigan by his parents Clida
(née Martinez) and Leonard Ellison, a social worker and a
psychiatrist, respectively.[3][6][7] Ellison and three of his
siblings became lawyers while the other became a doctor.
One of his brothers is also the pastor of the Baptist "Church
of the New Covenant" in Detroit.[6] Ellison's youth was
influenced by the involvement of his family in the civil rights
movement, including the work of his grandfather as a
member of the NAACP in Louisiana.[3]
Ellison (left) volunteering with Rabbi Steve Gutow (right) at

the DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C. in September,
2007[8]
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He graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High

School and Academy in 1981 where he had been active in
sports and the student senate.[6][9] At age 19, while
attending Wayne State University in Detroit, Ellison
converted from Catholicism to Islam, later giving the
following explanation: "I can't claim that I was the most
observant Catholic at the time [of my conversion]. I had
begun to really look around and ask myself about the social
circumstances of the country, issues of justice, issues of
change. When I looked at my spiritual life, and I looked at
what might inform social change, justice in society... I found
Islam." [10][11][12][13] After graduating with a B.A. in
economics in 1987, he married his high school sweetheart[5]
and moved to Minneapolis to attend the University of
Minnesota Law School. While attending law school, Ellison
wrote several articles in support of Louis Farrakhan of the
Nation of Islam. He graduated with a Juris Doctor in
1990.[14][15]
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ALETHA GIBSON
FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO WIN THE U.S. OPEN IN TENNIS,

1957-1958
Althea Gibson (August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003) was a

World No. 1 American sportswoman who became the first
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African-American woman to be a competitor on the world

tennis tour and the first to win a Grand Slam title in 1956.
She is sometimes referred to as "the Jackie Robinson of
tennis" for breaking the color barrier. Gibson was a member
of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
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WHITNEY HOUSTON
FIRST ARTIST TO HAVE SEVEN
CONSECUTIVE SINGLES HIT NUMBER ONE
Witney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11,

2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer,
and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as
the most-awarded female act of all-time.[1] Houston was one
of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170
million albums worldwide.[2][3] She released seven studio
albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which
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have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification.

Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as
well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for
"How Will I Know",[4] influenced several African American
female artists to follow in her footsteps.[5][6]
Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1

Billboard Hot 100 hits.[7] She is the second artist behind
Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-
one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album")
on the Billboard magazine year-end charts.[8] Houston's
1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling
debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The
album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and
was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500
Greatest Albums of All Time.[9] Her second studio album
Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to
debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.[9]
Houston's first acting role was as the star of the feature film
The Bodyguard (1992). The film's original soundtrack won the
1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Its lead single "I
Will Always Love You", became the best-selling single by a
female artist in music history. With the album, Houston
became the first act (solo or group, male or female) to sell
more than a million copies of an album within a single week
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period under Nielsen SoundScan system.[9] The album

makes her the top female act in the top 10 list of the best-
selling albums of all time, at number four. Houston continued
to star in movies and contribute to their soundtracks,
including the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The
Preacher's Wife (1996). The Preacher's Wife soundtrack
became the best-selling gospel album in history.[10]
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DR. MAE JEMISON
FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO LAUNCH INTO SPACE
Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American

physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first black
woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard
the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992. After
her medical education and a brief general practice, Jemison
served in the Peace Corps from 1985 to 1987. She resigned
from NASA in 1993 to form a company researching the
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application of technology to daily life. She has appeared on

television several times, including as an actor in an episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation. She is a dancer, and holds 9
honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and the
humanities.
After the flight of Sally Ride in 1983, Jemison felt the

astronaut program had opened up, so she applied.[1]
Jemison's inspiration for joining NASA was African-American
actress Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lieutenant Uhura on
Star Trek.[4] Jemison was turned down on her first
application to NASA, but in 1987 Jemison was also accepted
on her second application.[13] "I got a call saying 'Are you
still interested?' and I said 'Yeah'," says Jemison.[15]
Her work with NASA before her shuttle launch included

launch support activities at the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida and verification of Shuttle computer software in the
Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL).[16][17][18] "I
did things like help to support the launch of vehicles at
Kennedy Space Center," said Jemison.[15] "I was in the first
class of astronauts selected after the Challenger accident
back in 1986, ... [I] actually worked the launch of the first
flight after the Challenger accident.[15]
Jemison flew her only space mission from September 12 to

20, 1992 as a Mission Specialist on STS-47. "The first thing I
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saw from space was Chicago, my hometown," said Jemison.

"I was working on the middeck where there aren't many
windows, and as we passed over Chicago, the commander
called me up to the flight deck. It was such a significant
moment because since I was a little girl I had always assumed
I would go into space," Jemison added.[10]
Because of her love of dance and as a salute to creativity,[1]

Jemison took a poster from the Alvin Ailey American Dance
Company along with her on the flight.[19] "Many people do
not see a connection between science and dance," says
Jemison.[8] "but I consider them both to be expressions of
the boundless creativity that people have to share with one
another."[8] Jemison also took several small art objects from
West African countries to symbolize that space belongs to all
nations.[1] Also on this flight, according to Bessie Coleman
biographer Doris L. Rich, Jemison also took into orbit a photo
of Coleman—Coleman was the very first Afro-American
woman to ever fly an airplane. (Coleman died after falling
from her Curtiss Biplane in 1926.)
STS-47 was a cooperative mission between the United States

and Japan that included 44 Japanese and United States life
science and materials processing experiments. Jemison
logged 190 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds in space.[13]
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JACK JOHNSON
FIRST BLACK MAN TO WIN
THE HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING CHAMPIONSIP, 1908
John Arthur ("Jack") Johnson (March 31, 1878 – June 10,

1946), nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” was an American
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boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became

the first African American world heavyweight boxing
champion (1908–1915). In a documentary about his life, Ken
Burns notes, "for more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was
the most famous and the most notorious African-American
on Earth."[1] [2]
In 1910, former undefeated heavyweight champion James J.

Jeffries came out of retirement to challenge Johnson. He had
not fought in six years and had to lose well over 100 pounds
to get back to his championship fighting weight. Initially
Jeffries had no interest in the fight being quite happy as an
alfalfa farmer. But those who wanted to see Johnson
defeated badgered Jeffries unmercifully for months, and also
offered him an unheard sum of money, reputed to be about
$120,000 and he finally acquiesced.
Jeffries remained mostly hidden from media attention until

the day of the fight, meanwhile Johnson was soaking up the
spotlight. John L. Sullivan who made boxing championships a
popular and esteemed spectacle stated that Johnson was in
such good physical shape compared to Jeffries that he could
only lose if he had a lack of skill on the day. Before the fight,
Jeffries remarked It is my intention to go right after my
opponent and knock him out as soon as possible while his
wife added I'm not interested in prizefighting but I am
interested in my husband's welfare, I do hope this will be his
last fight. Johnson's words were May the best man win.
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Racial tension was brewing leading up to the fight and to

prevent any harm to either boxer, guns were prohibited
within the arena as was the sale of alcohol or anyone under
the effects of alcohol. Behind the racial attitudes being
instigated by the media was a major investment in gambling
for the fight with 10-7 odds in favor of Jeffries.
The fight took place on July 4, 1910 in front of 20,000 people,

at a ring built just for the occasion in downtown Reno,
Nevada. Jeffries proved unable to impose his will on the
younger champion and Johnson dominated the fight. By the
15th round, after Jeffries had been knocked down twice for
the first time in his career, Jeffries corner threw in the towel
to end the fight and prevent Jeffries from having a knock out
on his record. Johnson later remarked he knew the fight was
over in the 4th round when he landed an uppercut and saw
the look on Jeffries face, stating I knew what that look meant,
the old ship was sinking..
The "Fight of the Century" earned Johnson $65,000 and

silenced the critics, who had belittled Johnson's previous
victory over Tommy Burns as "empty," claiming that Burns
was a false champion since Jeffries had retired undefeated.
John L. Sullivan commented after the fight that never had a
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fight been one-sided and that Johnson fought fairly at all

times.
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ROBERT JOHNSON
FIRST BLACK BILLIONAIRE
Robert L. Johnson (born April 8, 1946) is an American

business magnate best known for being the founder of
television network Black Entertainment Television (BET), and
is also its former chairman and chief executive officer.
Johnson is currently chairman and founder of RLJ
Development and former majority owner of the Charlotte
Bobcats, a National Basketball Association franchise along
with rapper Nelly and NBA legend and current majority
owner Michael Jordan. In 2001, Johnson became the first
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African American billionaire, and the first black person to be

listed on any of Forbes world's rich list[2] (excluding black
Canadian billionaire Michael Lee-Chin who first appeared on
the list the same year, who is of mixed black and Chinese
ancestry).
Johnson was born in Hickory, Mississippi on April 8, 1946, but

spent almost all of his childhood in Freeport, Illinois. He was
the ninth of 10 children born to Edna Johnson and Archie
Johnson. Johnson graduated from Freeport High School in
1964. He studied history at the University of Illinois and
graduated in 1968 with a bachelor's degree. While at the
University of Illinois, Johnson was a member of the Beta
chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He earned a master's
degree in International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton
University.
For 33 years from 1969-2002 he was married to Sheila

Johnson. Together they founded the entertainment network
BET which sold the company to Viacom in 2001. They have
two children: daughter Paige Johnson (b. 1986), and a son
Brett Johnson (b. 1990).[3] He was the first African American
billionaire.
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HON. THURGOOD MARSHALL
FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN APPOINTED TO SUPREME

COURT, 1963
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an

Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving
from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the
Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice.
Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer who was

best known for his high success rate in arguing before the
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Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of

Education. He argued more cases before the United States
Supreme Court than anyone else in history.[2] He served on
the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
after being appointed by President John F. Kennedy and then
served as the Solicitor General after being appointed by
President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. President Johnson
nominated him to the United States Supreme Court in 1967.
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall to

the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C.
Clark, saying that this was "the right thing to do, the right
time to do it, the right man and the right place." Marshall
was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote of
69–11 on August 30, 1967.[10] He was the 96th person to
hold the position, and the first African American. President
Johnson confidently predicted to one biographer, Doris
Kearns Goodwin, that a lot of black baby boys would be
named "Thurgood" in honor of this choice.[11]
Marshall served on the Court for the next twenty-four years,

compiling a liberal record that included strong support for
Constitutional protection of individual rights, especially the
rights of criminal suspects against the government. His most
frequent ally on the Court (the pair rarely voted at odds) was
Justice William Brennan, who consistently joined him in
supporting abortion rights and opposing the death penalty.
Brennan and Marshall concluded in Furman v. Georgia that
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the death penalty was, in all circumstances, unconstitutional,

and never accepted the legitimacy of Gregg v. Georgia, which
ruled four years later that the death penalty was
constitutional in some circumstances. Thereafter, Brennan or
Marshall dissented from every denial of certiorari in a capital
case and from every decision upholding a sentence of death.
In 1987, Marshall gave a controversial speech on the
occasion of the bicentennial celebrations of the Constitution
of the United States.[12] Marshall stated,
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HATTIE MCDANIEL
FIRST BLACK PERSON TO WIN AN ACADAMY AWARD
Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1895 – October 26, 1952) was an

American actress. McDaniel was the first black person to win
an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting
Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939).
In addition to having acted in many films, McDaniel was a

professional singer-songwriter, comedian, stage actress,
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radio performer, and television star; she was the first black
woman to sing on the radio in America.[1][2] Over the course
of her career, McDaniel appeared in over 300 films, although
she received screen credits for only about 80. She gained the
respect of the African American show business community
with her generosity, elegance, great beauty, and charm.
McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in

Hollywood: one for her contributions to radio at 6933
Hollywood Boulevard, and one for motion pictures at 1719
Vine Street. In 1975, she was inducted into the Black
Filmmakers Hall of Fame and in 2006 became the first black
Oscar winner honored with a US postage stamp.[3]
The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Cocoanut

Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was
preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an
American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night,
February 29, 1940:
"Hattie McDaniel earned that gold Oscar, by her fine

performance of "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind. If you had
seen her face when she walked up to the platform and took
the gold trophy, you would have had the choke in your voice
that all of us had when Hattie, hair trimmed with gardenias,
face alight, and dress up to the queen's taste, accepted the
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honor in one of the finest speeches ever given on the

Academy floor. ...[32]
"Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, fellow

members of the motion picture industry and honored guests:
This is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I want to
thank each one of you who had a part in selecting me for one
of their awards, for your kindness. It has made me feel very,
very humble; and I shall always hold it as a beacon for
anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely
hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion
picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I
feel, and may I say thank you and God bless you."[33][34]
—Hattie McDaniel: Acceptance Speech delivered on February

29, 1940 at the 12th Annual Academy Awards
The Oscar McDaniel took home was not the well-known tall
Oscar. Instead, she received a plaque-style Oscar
approximately 5 1/2 x 6 inches, the type of Oscar awarded to
all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses in that time.[35]
On the same night that McDaniel became the first African

American to be honored by the motion picture industry, she
was also reminded of how far the industry and the country
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had yet to go in overcoming racism. She and her escort were

seated at a segregated table for two, apart from her Gone
with the Wind colleagues and her colleagues in the motion
picture industry.[36]
Gone with the Wind was awarded ten Academy Awards, a

record that stood for years, and has been named by the
American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top
100 American films of all time.[37]
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JAMES MEREDITH
FIRST BLACK PERSON TO GRADUATE
FROM UNIVERSITY OF MISSISISPPI, 1963
James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American

civil rights movement figure, a writer, and a political adviser.
In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted
to the segregated University of Mississippi, an event that was
a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement.
Motivated by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address,
Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and
apply to the University of Mississippi.[1] His goal was to put
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pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil

rights for African Americans.[1]
Meredith was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi of

Choctaw[citation needed] and African American heritage.
Thousands of Choctaw had stayed in Mississippi when most
of the people left their traditional homeland for Indian
Territory in the removal of the 1830s.
After attending local segregated schools and graduating from

high school, Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force.
He served honorably from 1951 to 1960.
He attended Jackson State University for two years, then

applied to the University of Mississippi which, under the
state's legally imposed racial segregation, had traditionally
accepted only white students. In Brown v. Board of Education
(1955), the US Supreme Court ruled that publicly supported
schools had to be desegregated.
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CAROL MOSELY-BRAUN
FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE SENATE
Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun (born August 16, 1947) is an

American feminist politician and lawyer who represented
Illinois in the United States Senate from 1993 to 1999. She
was the first and to date only African-American woman
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elected to the United States Senate, the first woman to

defeat an incumbent senator in an election, and the first and
to date only female Senator from Illinois. From 1999 until
2001, she was the United States Ambassador to New
Zealand. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination
during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Following the
public announcement by Richard M. Daley that he would not
seek re-election, in November 2010, Braun began her
campaign for Mayor of Chicago.[2] The former Senator
placed fourth in a field of six candidates, losing the February
22, 2011 election to Rahm Emanuel.
As an attorney, Moseley Braun was a prosecutor in the

United States Attorney's office in Chicago from 1973 to 1977.
An Assistant United States Attorney, she worked primarily in
the civil and appellate law areas. Her work in housing, health
policy, and environmental law won her the Attorney
General's Special Achievement Award.[8]
[edit] Early political career
Moseley Braun was first elected to public office in 1978, as a

member of the Illinois House of Representatives. There, she
rose to the post of assistant majority leader. As a State
Representative, she became recognized as a champion for
liberal social causes.[9] As early as 1984, she proposed a
moratorium on the application in Illinois of the death
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penalty. And in what became a landmark reapportionment

case, Crosby vs State Board of Elections, she successfully
sued her own party and the state of Illinois on behalf of
African American and Hispanic citizens. When she left the
state legislature in 1987, her colleagues recognized her in a
resolution as "the conscience of the House."[10] That same
year, she was elected as Cook County, Illinois, Recorder of
Deeds, a post she held for four years.
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TONI MORRISON
FIRST BLACK WOMEN
TO WIN THE NOBLE PRIZE IN LITERTURE
Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford;[1] February 18,

1931) is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Her
novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and
richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are
The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon and Beloved. She also
was commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera,
Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005. She won the Nobel
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Prize in 1993 and in 1987 the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved. In

April 2012, it was announced she would be awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, and on 29 May 2012, she
received the award.
Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio to Ramah (née Willis)

and George Wofford. She is the second of four children in a
working-class family.[2] As a child, Morrison read fervently;
among her favorite authors were Jane Austen and Leo
Tolstoy. Morrison's father told her numerous folktales of the
black community (a method of storytelling that would later
work its way into Morrison's writings).[3]
In 1949 Morrison entered Howard University, where she

received a B.A. in English in 1953. She earned a Master of
Arts degree in English from Cornell University in 1955, for
which she wrote a thesis on suicide in the works of William
Faulkner and Virginia Woolf.[4] After graduation, Morrison
became an English instructor at Texas Southern University in
Houston, Texas (1955–57), then returned to Howard to teach
English. She became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha
sorority.
In 1958 she married Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect

and fellow faculty member at Howard University. They had
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two children, Harold and Slade, and divorced in 1964. After

the divorce she moved to Syracuse, New York, where she
worked as a textbook editor. A year and a half later, she went
to work as an editor at the New York City headquarters of
Random House.[4] As an editor, Morrison played a vital role
in bringing black literature into the mainstream, editing
books by authors such as Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis,
and Gayl Jones.[5]
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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT
Barack Hussein Obama II (i/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born

August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the
United States. He is the first African American to hold the
office. Obama served as a U.S. Senator representing the state
of Illinois from January 2005 to November 2008, when he
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resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential

election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia

University and Harvard Law School, where he was the
president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community
organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He
worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught
constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School
from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the
13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic

incumbent for a seat in the United States House of
Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States
Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national
attention during the campaign, including his victory in the
March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate
election and his keynote address at the Democratic National
Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate
in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began
in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008
Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary
Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008
presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John
McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20,
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2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel
Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he
would be running for re-election in 2012.
As president, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in

the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance
Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other
domestic policy initiatives include the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal
Act of 2010, and the Budget Control Act of 2011. In May
2012, he became the first sitting U.S. president to openly
support legalizing same-sex marriage. In foreign policy, he
ended the war in Iraq, increased troop levels in Afghanistan,
signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia,
ordered U.S. involvement in the 2011 military intervention in
Libya, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the
death of Osama bin Laden.
106
107
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KEITH ELLISON
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From Some Place in Time," Diverse Online (formerly Black
Issues In Higher Education), Jun 17, 2007.
12.^ "National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished

Contribution to American Letters, Presenter of National Book
Awards". Nationalbook.org. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
13.^ a b Jaffrey, Zia (February 2, 1998). "The Salon Interview

with Toni Morrison". Salon.com. Retrieved 2007-06-11.
Why distance oneself from feminism? In order to be as free

as I possibly can, in my own imagination, I can't take
positions that are closed. Everything I've ever done, in the
157
writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to

close it, to open doors, sometimes, not even closing the book
-- leaving the endings open for reinterpretation, revisitation,
a little ambiguity. I detest and loathe [those categories]. I
think it's off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I'm
involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't
subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it should be
substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of
equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things.
14.^ "About the Artist". SladeMorrison.com. Retrieved 14

May 2011.
BARACK OBAMA
1.^ "President Barack Obama". The White House. 2008.

Retrieved December 12, 2008.
2.^ a b "Certificate of Live Birth: Barack Hussein Obama II,

August 4, 1961, 7:24 pm, Honolulu". Department of Health,
State of Hawaii. The White House. April 27, 2011. Retrieved
April 27, 2011.
158
3.^ "American President: Barack Obama". Miller Center of

Public Affairs, University of Virginia. 2009. Retrieved January
23, 2009. "Religion: Christian" "The Truth about Barack's
Faith". Obama for America. Archived from the original on
January 5, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
Miller, Lisa (July 18, 2008). "Finding his faith". Newsweek.

Retrieved February 4, 2010. "He is now a Christian, having
been baptized in the early 1990s at Trinity United Church of
Christ in Chicago."
Barakat, Matthew (November 17, 2008). "Obama's church

choice likely to be scrutinized; D.C. churches have started
extending invitations to Obama and his family". Associated
Press. msnbc.com. Retrieved January 20, 2009. "The United
Church of Christ, the denomination from which Obama
resigned when he left Wright's church, issued a written
invitation to join a UCC denomination in Washington and
resume his connections to the church.".
"Barack Obama, long time UCC member, inaugurated forty-

fourth U.S. President". United Church of Christ. January 20,
2009. Retrieved January 21, 2009. "Barack Obama, who
spent more than 20 years as a UCC member, is the forty-
fourth President of the United States."
Sullivan, Amy (June 29, 2009). "The Obama's find a church

home—away from home". Time. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
"instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he
will follow in George W. Bush's footsteps and make his
159
primary place of worship Evergreen Chapel, the

nondenominational church at Camp David.".
Kornblut, Anne E. (February 4, 2010). "Obama's spirituality is

largely private, but it's influential, advisers say". The
Washington Post: p. A6. Retrieved February 5, 2010. "Obama
prays privately ... And when he takes his family to Camp
David on the weekends, a Navy chaplain ministers to them,
with the daughters attending a form of Sunday school there."
4.^ a b Maraniss, David (August 24, 2008). "Though Obama

had to leave to find himself, it is Hawaii that made his rise
possible". The Washington Post: p. A22. Retrieved October
28, 2008.
5.^ Nakaso, Dan (December 22, 2008). "Twin sisters, Obama

on parallel paths for years". The Honolulu Advertiser: p. B1.
Retrieved January 22, 2011.
6.^ Rudin, Ken (December 23, 2009). "Today's Junkie

segment On TOTN: a political review Of 2009". Talk of the
Nation (Political Junkie blog). NPR. Retrieved April 18, 2010.
"We began with the historic inauguration on January 20—
yes, the first president ever born in Hawaii"
7.^ for Stanley Ann's first name, see Obama (1995, 2004), p.
19.
160
8.^ Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Nicholas Watt (May

20, 2011). "Obama looks forward to rediscovering his Irish
roots on European tour". The Guardian (London). Retrieved
August 3, 2011.
9.^ Mason, Jeff (May 23, 2011). "Obama visits family roots in
Ireland". Reuters. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
10.^ "Obama urged to create own tartan". BBC News Online.

January 20, 2009. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
11.^ "Researchers: Obama has German roots". USA Today.

June 4, 2009. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
12.^ "Honorary citizenship papers sent to Obama".

Swissinfo.ch. July 14, 2010. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
13.^ a b Jones, Tim (March 27, 2007). "Barack Obama:

Mother not just a girl from Kansas; Stanley Ann Dunham
shaped a future senator". Chicago Tribune: p. 1 (Tempo).
Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved
May 18, 2012.
14.^ a b Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 9–10.
15.^ a b Ripley, Amanda (April 9, 2008). "The story of Barack

Obama's mother". Time. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
16.^ Ochieng, Philip (November 1, 2004). "From home

squared to the US Senate: how Barack Obama was lost and
found". The EastAfrican. Archived from the original on
September 27, 2007. Retrieved June 25, 2008. Merida, Kevin
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(December 14, 2007). "The ghost of a father". The

Washington Post: p. A12. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
17.^ Karana, Kinanti Pinta (December 9, 2009). "Statue of a

young Obama to watch over Indonesian capital". Jakarta
Globe. Retrieved December 8, 2009. Obama (1995, 2004), pp.
44–45.
18.^ Pickler, Nedra (January 24, 2007). "Obama debunks

claim about Islamic school". The Washington Post. Associated
Press. Retrieved December 31, 2009. "Statue of boy Obama
erected in Jakarta". Xinhua News Agency. December 10,
2009. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
19.^ Serafin, Peter (March 21, 2004). "Punahou grad stirs up

Illinois politics". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved March 20,
2008. Scott, Janny (March 14, 2008). "A free-spirited
wanderer who set Obama's path". The New York Times: p.
A1. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
Obama (1995, 2004), Chapters 3 and 4.
162
20.^ Suryakusuma, Julia (November 29, 2006). "Obama for

President... of Indonesia". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved June
25, 2008.
21.^ Serrano, Richard A. (March 11, 2007). "Obama's peers

didn't see his angst
163

Great Achievements by African American People

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Great Achievements by African American People

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Great Achievement’s by African American People

5 James Hubert Blake

10 Nat King Cole

11 Benjamin Oliver Davis

17 Dr. Mae Jamison

First black member of the metropolitan opera company,

Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993)[1] was

between 1925 and 1965. Although offered roles with many

Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for

Anderson worked for several years as a delegate to the

FIRST BLACK MAN TO WIN THE WEMBELTON DEFEATING

Born in Gum Spring, Virginia, to parents Arthur Ashe Sr. and

died suddenly from heart related complications during

Ashe was awarded a tennis scholarship to the University of

In 1965, Ashe won the National Collegiate Athletic

The Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, on the

In 1968, Ashe won the United States Amateur Championships

In 1969, Ashe turned professional. In 1970, Ashe won his

In 1975, Ashe won Wimbledon, defeating Jimmy Connors in

FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN TO

WIN AN ACADAMY AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS IN 2011

Halle Berry ( /ˈhæli ˈbɛri/; born August 14, 1966[1]) is an

an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award

Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty

Berry took part in a nearly 2000-house party cell-phone bank

In October 2008, Berry was named Esquire magazine's

In 2009, she was voted #23 on Empire's 100 Sexiest Film

Also in 2009, the 'rapper' Hurricane Chris released a song

MADE HISTORY HOLDING BILLBOARDS TOP 1#

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter[2][3] (née Beyoncé Giselle

During the hiatus of Destiny's Child, Knowles released her

She has endorsed brands including, L'Oréal, Pepsi, Tommy

Knowles' work has earned her numerous awards and

JAMES HUBERT (EUBIE) BLAKE

COMPOSED FIRST BROADWAY MUSICAL

James Hubert Blake (February 7, 1887[1][2][3] – February 12,

Honors and awards and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular

"Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find A Way",

1969: Eubie Blake's nomination for a Grammy Award for The

1972: Omega Psi Phi Scroll of Honor

1974: Diploma, Rutgers University Doctor of Fine Arts[11]

1974: Diploma, Dartmouth College, Doctor of Humane

1978: Diploma, University of Maryland Doctor of Fine Arts

1979: Diploma, Morgan State University Doctor of Music

1980: Received the Johns Hopkins University's, George

1981: Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on

1982: Diploma, Howard University Doctor of Music

1983: Inducted in the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame

1995: The United States Postal Service issued a stamp in his

1995: Inducted into the New York's American Theatre Hall of

1998: James Hubert Blake High School was built in Cloverly,

2006: The album The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake (1969)

FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN TO LAUNCH INTO SPACE

Dr. Guion Stewart “Guy” Bluford, Jr. (born November 22,

Bluford attended pilot training at Williams Air Force Base,

F-4C combat crew training in Arizona and Florida and was

In July 1967, he was assigned to the 3,630th Flying Training

In August 1972, he entered the Air Force Institute of

as a T-38 instructor pilot. He also has an FAA commercial

Bluford became a NASA astronaut in August 1979. Out of

Bluford's first mission was STS-8, which launched from

FIRST BLACK WOMEN TO WIN PULITIZER PRIZE, IN 1950

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3,

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born on June 7, 1917, in