Black History & Heritage – Spotlight
Claudette Colvin
On March 2, 1955, a full nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous arrest, Claudette Colvin was dragged from a Montgomery bus by two police officers, arrested and taken to an adult jail to be booked. She was only 15 years […]
Robert Smalls
Robert Smalls was an African-American born into slavery in Beaufort, S.C., but during and after the American Civil War, he became a ship’s pilot, sea captain, and politician.He freed himself, his crew and their families from slavery on May 13, 1862, when he led […]
Maya Angelou
Born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou is known for her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. […]
Deray McKesson
Black Lives Matter activist Deray Mckesson took the stage at a San Francisco gala on Saturday and opened up about the complexities of being black and gay. “I stand here as a proud black gay man,” said Mckesson, who has […]
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson – Great Minds: Math and Science (5:05) In the early days of spaceflight, if NASA needed to plot a rocket’s path or confirm a computer’s calculations, they knew who to ask: Katherine Johnson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdr9QBRcPEk Katherine Johnson – […]
Young American Black Activists
DeRay Mckesson is an American civil rights activist. He is a member of the Black Lives Matter Movement, which organizes protests that center on African-American people. Mckesson is known for his activism via social media outlets such as Twitter and […]
Martin Delany
Martin Robison Delany was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician and writer. He was born free in Charles Town, W.Va. (then part of Virginia, a slave state). Delany was an outspoken Black nationalist, arguably the first; and is considered by some to be the […]
Matthew Henson
Born to sharecroppers on a farm in Nanjemoy, Md., Matthew Alexander Henson became the first African-American Arctic explorer, and is credited by many as the first man to reach the North Pole, in 1909. Henson was an associate of the American explorer Robert Peary on seven voyages over […]
Claudette Colvin
On March 2, 1955, a full nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous arrest, Claudette Colvin was dragged from a Montgomery bus by two police officers, arrested and taken to an adult jail to be booked. She was only 15 years […]
Dr. Alexa Canady
In 1981, Alexa Canady became the first female African-American neurosurgeon in the United States. Dr. Alexa Canady was born on November 7, 1950, in Lansing, Michigan. While she was in college, a summer program inspired her to pursue a medical […]
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa in 1994, serving until 1999. A symbol of global peacemaking, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in Mveso, Transkei, South […]
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes was an American poet, novelist, and playwright whose African-American themes made him a primary contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He published his first poem […]
Mae C. Jemison
Mae C. Jemison is the first African-American female astronaut. In 1992, she flew into space aboard the Endeavour, becoming the first African-American woman in space. Mae C. Jemison was born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama. On June 4, […]
Oprah Winfrey
Media giant Oprah Winfrey was born in the rural town of Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954. In 1976, Winfrey moved to Baltimore, where she hosted a hit television chat show, People Are Talking. Afterward, she was recruited by a […]
Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records, the most successful black owned music company in the history of the United States. Born in 1929 in Detroit, Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records in 1959. The 1960s and ’70s saw popular artists […]
Ruby Bridges
Born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, Ruby Bridges was 6 when she became the first African-American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school, having to be escorted to class by her mother and U.S. marshals due to […]Site Visitors Map
