Important African American’s
throughout history.
American agricultural
chemist George
Washington Carver helped
to modernize the
agricultural economy of the
South. He developed new
products derived from
peanuts and soybeans and
promoted the planting of
these legumes as a way of
liberating the South from its
dependency on cotton..
An escaped slave, Frederick
Douglass became one of the
foremost black abolitionists and
civil rights leaders in the United
States. His powerful speeches,
newspaper articles, and books
awakened whites to the evils of
slavery and inspired blacks in
their struggle for freedom and
equality.
Charley Pride is one of the few
black country musicians to have
enjoyed considerable success in
the mostly white industry.
During his 20s, he played
baseball for the Negro leagues
but moved over to music in
1966 when RCA signed him. He
was the first black performer to
appear at the Grand Ole Opry.
Two of his big hits include "Is
Anybody Goin' to An Antone"
and "Kiss an Angel Good
Mornin' ".
U.S. poet, playwright, and
performer Maya Angelou
produced several
autobiographies that explore
the themes of economic, racial,
and sexual oppression. She
became the first African
American woman to have a
feature film adapted from one
of her own stories when her
screenplay Georgia, Georgia was
produced in 1972.
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise. Out of the huts of history's
shame
Does my sassiness upset you?
I rise
Why are you beset with gloom?
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
I rise
Pumping in my living room.
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Just like moons and like suns,
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
With the certainty of tides,
I rise
Just like hopes springing high,
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
Still I'll rise.
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
Did you want to see me broken?
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops. I rise
I rise
Weakened by my soulful cries.
I rise.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
Guion S. Bluford, Jr.
U.S. astronaut Guion S.
Bluford, Jr., was born in
Philadelphia, Pa., in 1942. He
served as a United States Air
Force officer and was selected as
an astronaut candidate by the
NASA space travel program in
1978. The first African American
to fly in space, he served as
mission specialist for the space
shuttle Challenger in August
1983, with Richard Truly,
Daniel Brandenstein, William
Thornton, …
Lady Day, as she was
usually called, was the
finest jazz singer of her
generation, and in the
opinion of her followers
and many critics she was
the greatest jazz singer of
the 20th century. The
autobiography (1956) of
Billie Holiday, written in
collaboration with
William Dufty, and the
movie (1972) made from
it, was called Lady Sings
the Blues.
“A life is not important except
in the impact it has on other
lives,” reads the tombstone of
Jackie Robinson, the first
African American athlete to
play in baseball's major leagues
in the 20th century. By breaking
the color barrier in 1947,
Robinson made great strides
not only for black athletes but
also for all concerned with racial
justice.
Born October 18, 1926, in St.
Louis, Missouri, Chuck Berry
had early exposure to music at
school and church. As a teen, he
was sent to prison for three
years for armed robbery. He
began producing hits in the
1950s, and had his first number
one hit, "My Ding-a-Ling," in
1972. With his clever lyrics and
distinctive sounds, he was one
of the most influential figures in
the history of rock music.
U.S. football coach and player.
Fritz Pollard was the lightningswift Brown University AllAmerican halfback of 1916 who
paved the way for African
Americans in the sport by
playing in the first professional
football league and by
becoming the first African
American head coach of a
National Football League team.
One of the greatest U.S.
heavyweight boxing
champions, Muhammad Ali
was known as much for his
flamboyant self-promotion and
controversial political stances as
for his boxing ability. His motto
was “I am the greatest!” He
became the first boxer to win
the heavyweight title three
times.
Aretha Franklin was born
March 25, 1942, in
Memphis, Tennessee, the
fourth of five children of a
Baptist preacher and a
gospel singer. A gifted
singer and pianist, Franklin
went on tour with her
father's traveling revival
show and later went to
New York and signed with
Columbia records. Over
time she released singles
that would become classics.
She has won 18 Grammys
and continues to perform.
Thurgood Marshall
U.S. lawyer Thurgood Marshall
became the first African
American justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States. He
was a champion of civil rights,
both as a lawyer and later as a
judge.
The Olympic Games of 1936
were held in Berlin, Germany,
under the auspices of the new
Nazi regime. It was Adolf
Hitler's intent to use the games
to demonstrate what he
believed to be the superiority of
the Aryan, or white, race. This
aim was seriously undermined
when an African American
athlete named Jesse Owens
won four gold medals in track
and field events.
After a troubled childhood,
Ella Fitzgerald turned to
singing and debuted at the
Apollo Theater in 1934.
Discovered in an amateur
contest, she became the top
female jazz singer for over 50
years. Her multi-volume
"songbooks" on Verve are
among the treasures of
American song. Her voice
quality, with lucid intonation
and a broad range, won her
13 Grammy awards and sold
over 40 million albums.
Benjamin Banneker was a freeborn descendant of slaves who
became a famous 18th-century
astronomer, mathematician and
surveyor. He is considered by
many to be the first AfricanAmerican scientist.
Reared in the Mississippi Delta,
guitarist B.B. King was a
principal figure in the
development of blues music.
With his influence on rock as
well as blues musicians, he
helped broaden the appeal of
the blues.
Born November 9, 1922, in
Cleveland, Ohio, Dorothy
Dandridge sang at Harlem's
Cotton Club and Apollo Theatre
and became the first African
American woman to be
nominated for an Academy
Award for Best Actress. Many
years passed before the
entertainment industry
acknowledged Dandridge's
legacy. In 1999, Halle Berry
played Dandridge in "Introducing
Dorothy Dandridge," for which
she won an Emmy Award.
The New Orleans
trumpeter who became a
world ambassador for jazz,
Louis Armstrong learned
to blow on a bugle in
reform school when he was
13. His genius for
improvisation changed the
course of jazz, but after the
1940s he had his greatest
success as a pop singer.
The first African American
whose face appeared on a
United States postage stamp
was Booker T. Washington,
who was thus honored a
quarter century after his death.
(In 1946 he also became the first
black with his image on a coin, a
50-cent piece.) His ten-cent
stamp went on sale in 1940 at
Tuskegee Institute, which
Washington had founded when
he was only 25 years old.
Halle Berry (b. August 14,
1966 in Cleveland, Ohio) is
an American actress and
former beauty queen. She
won an Academy Award for
Best Actress and was also
nominated for a BAFTA
Award in 2001 for her
performance in Monster's
Ball, becoming the first
woman of African American
descent to have won the
award. She is one of the most
highly paid actresses in
Hollywood and also a
Revlon spokeswoman.
U.S. talk-show host, actress, and
producer. As the most
successful woman in
entertainment in America,
Oprah Winfrey's extraordinary
accomplishments were amazing
by any standards. That an
African American female, born
into poverty in the South,
presided over an empire valued
at more than 100 million dollars
was even more amazing.
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B.B. King. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9311999/BB-King

Benjamin Banneker. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/benjamin-banneker

Booker T. Washington. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9277656/Booker-T-Washington
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Charley Pride biography. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/charley-pride-546502
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Frederick Douglass. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9274051/Frederick-Douglass
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Fritz Pollard. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9313023/Pollard-Fritz

George Washington Carver. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9273543/George-Washington-Carver
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Guion S. Bluford, Jr.. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9317719/Guion-S-Bluford-Jr

Jackie Robinson. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9276748/Jackie-Robinson
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Jesse Owens. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9276233/Jesse-Owens
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Louis Armstrong. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9272957/Louis-Armstrong
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Maya Angelou. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9309855/Maya-Angelou
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Muhammad Ali. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9272808/Muhammad-Ali
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Oprah Winfrey. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9314241/Oprah-Winfrey
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Thurgood Marshall. (2012). Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9312368/Thurgood-Marshall