Satchel Paige: Baseball trailblazer
Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige (July 7, 1906-June 8, 1982) was an African-American Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher who became a legend...
Category : Black Firsts
John Wesley Gilbert: The first African-American Archaeologist
John Wesley Gilbert was a classical scholar who was the first African-American archaeologist. Gilbert discovered the ancient Greek city, Eretria, and produced the first map...
Viola Desmond: Black Canadian Civil Rights Pioneer
Civil rights pioneer, Viola Desmond, was a Black-Canadian businesswoman who was jailed and fined in 1946 for refusing to give up her seat in the...
Prince Hall: The Father of Black Masonry
“… for they know that they dare not face you man for man, but in a mob.” Prince Hall was an African American abolitionist, who...
Patrice Lumumba: The Best Son of Africa
Patrice Lumumba, was the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He became a legend in his own life...
Thurgood Marshall: A Civil Rights Hero
Thurgood Marshall was an African-American lawyer, civil rights activist and the first African American member of the Supreme Court. As an attorney, Marshall successfully argued...
Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr.: The First Black General of the U.S. Army
Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr., was the first African-American general for the U.S. Army. His army career dated from the Spanish-American war to World War ll....
Robert Allen Cole: A Pioneering Black Composer
Robert Allen “Bob” Cole (July 1, 1868 – August 2, 1911) was an African-American composer, actor, playwright, and stage producer and director, who influenced the...
York: The Black Explorer
Born into the Maafa (Atlantic trafficking and captivity) in the early 1770s, York was the only African-descended member of the Lewis and Clark expedition and...
Walter Moses Burton: The first Black elected sheriff in the United States
Walter Moses Burton holds the distinction of being the first Black elected sheriff in the United States. Burton was also a State Senator in Texas....