Herbert Henry “Herb” McKenley: A Jamaican Track and Field Hero
Herbert Henry “Herb” McKenley OM was a Jamaican sprint runner and the only athlete to reach an Olympic track final in all three of the...
Tag : Black Firsts
Arthur Ashe: Tennis Champion
Arthur Ashe is the first African American, and is still the only, African-American male player to win the men’s singles at Wimbledon and the U.S....
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune: The First Lady of The Struggle
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was an American educator, known as “The First Lady of The Struggle” because of her commitment to giving African Americans a...
William Harrison “Bones” Dillard: Olympic Hurdler
William Harrison “Bones” Dillard was an African-American Olympic track and field athlete. Dillard was the best hurdler of his time, and one of three male...
Margaret Walker: A Literary Mother
Margaret Walker was an African American poet and writer. She began her literary career in the 1930s and emerged as a “literary mother” to writers...
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...