George Wells Parker: A forgotten historian
George Wells Parker was an African-American political activist and historian who co-founded the Hamitic League of the World, to promote African pride and black economic...
Tag : Black Firsts
Jesse Owens: Olympic Legend
Jesse Owens achieved what no Olympian before him had accomplished, and was recognized in his lifetime as “perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in...
Euphemia Lofton Haynes: The first African-American woman to gain a PhD in mathematics.
Euphemia Lofton Haynes was an American mathematician and educator. In 1943, she became the first African-American woman to gain a PhD in mathematics. Euphemia Lofton...
Josephine Silone Yates: The first Black woman to hold a full professorship
Josephine Silone Yates was an African American teacher, journalist and clubwoman, who was the first African American certified to teach in the public schools of...
Henry E. Baker: The First Chronicler of African American inventors
Henry Edwin Baker, Jr. was the third African American to enter the United States Naval Academy. He later served as an assistant patent examiner in...
Althea Gibson: Queen of Tennis
“I Always Wanted to Be Somebody.” Althea Gibson was the first African American tennis player to win a Grand Slam title (the French Open). In...
Joseph Douglass: The Black concert violinist
Joseph Douglass (1871–1935) was a groundbreaking African-American concert violinist. He was the grandson of abolitionist Frederick Douglas; and was widely viewed as Douglass’s favorite grandchild....
Arthur B. C. Walker, Jr.: The African American physicist who helped develop solar telescopes
[dropcap size=small]A[/dropcap]rthur Bertram Cuthbert Walker, Jr. was an African American physicist and educator who helped develop solar telescopes used in 1987 to capture the first...
Muhammad ibn Tumart: The First Leader of the Almohads
Muhammad ibn Tumart (ca. 1080–1130) was a North African religious reformer who founded the Almohad movement in North Africa. His organisation of Berber warriors helped...
Bridget “Biddy” Mason: From Bondage to Wealth
Bridget “Biddy” Mason was an African-American nurse and a Californian real-estate entrepreneur and notable philanthropist. Mason who was born into the Maafa (slavery) become free...