Martin Luther King
Malcolm X
Harriet Tubman
Abraham Lincoln
Shirley Chisholm
Frederick Douglass
Tuskegee Airmen
Sojourner
Truth was born
at the end of
the 1700s and
was important
as both an
abolitionist and
promoter of
women rights
until the 1880s.
Booker T.
Washington lived
from the mid 1800s –
1915 and was famous
as an educator, public
speaker and advisor
to presidents of the
United States. During
his time, he was the
“dominant leader of
the African American
community.”
President
Abraham
Lincoln ended
slavery with the
Emancipation
Proclamation
and the 13th
amendment to
the Constitution.
Harriet Tubman was
an abolitionist in the
early/mid 1800s, and
a key leader in the
Underground
Railroad. After
gaining her own
freedom, she
returned to the south
17 times to help over
300 slaves escape to
freedom.
Frederick
Douglas
was a former
slave and an
important
abolitionist
who spoke
against the
evils of
slavery
during the
mid 1800s.
The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African Brown vs. Board of Education was
the Supreme Court decision that
American pilots who fought bravely abroad
declared segregation or the separation
during WWII, meanwhile their country
discriminated against African Americans at home. of races in schools and businesses to
be unconstitutional. This was in 1954.
Malcolm X was a leader in the
Nation of Islam. While he served
time in jail he realized the
importance of education. He was
an important leader of his day.
Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white
man, in 1955. This led to her arrest and to the boycott
and integration of the Montgomery Alabama bus system.
President Lyndon B. Johnson
signed the Equal Rights
amendment which guaranteed
everyone their rights, in 1965.
Freedom Riders began as mostly white college students
but became a group of young and old, black and white,
from the north and south, standing together and
marching for equal rights, in the early 1960s.
In 1967, Thurgood
Marshall became
the first African
American to be a
supreme court
Dr. Martin Luther King was a
justice.
preacher during the 1950s –
In 1969, Shirley Chisholm
became the first female African
American in Congress and later,
the first woman to seek a
presidential nomination in 1972.
1960s. He was best known for
his non-violent advancement of
civil rights. Following several
marches he led the
government passed the Voting
Rights Act in 1965 which
banned literacy tests and poll
taxes as a voting requirement.
In 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. His journey was
long and difficult. It was paved by countless other African Americans who preceded him
and stood their ground with self respect and courage few of us can imagine.
Benjamin Banneker
Garrett Morgan
Madam C. J. Walker
Elijah McCoy
Dr. Charles Drew
Lewis Latimer
George Washington Carver
Benjamin Banneker was a free
black man in Baltimore in the mid
1700s. He is remembered as an
author, scientist, mathematician,
astronomer, publisher and urban
planner. As an urban planner he
assisted Andrew Ellicott in surveying
the Potomac River, for what would
become Washington DC.
Elijah McCoy’s work on lubrication for trains helped lead Lewis Latimer was an African
to safer trains and at the time led to the transcontinental American inventor who greatly
railroad. Transcontinental means “goes across the
helped improve the use of
country.” His work was so reliable and successful that
electric light along with many
customers would ask for the real McCoy!
important inventions.
Granville T. Woods was called
the Black Edison and created
many inventions which helped
with telephones, railway
telegraphs, furnaces,
amusement parks, and other
many other important
inventions.
Madam C. J. Walker was
an entrepreneur and
philanthropist and a selfmade millionaire as she
built an empire with haircare products at the turn
of the 20th century.
Garrett Morgan
was an African
American inventor
famous for inventing
the traffic light and
gas mask among
his many inventions
During the
early/mid-1900s,
Dr. Charles Drew
was famous for his
life saving lives for
his work with blood
transfusions and
setting up blood
banks.
George Washington
Carver lived from the
1860s through the 1940s.
He was famous as an
inventor, scientist,
botanist (studies plants)
and educator.
Where there is no
vision, there is no hope.
George Washington Carver
Jessie Owens
Duke Ellington
Marian Anderson
Muhammad Ali
Paul Robeson
Oprah Winfrey
Duke Ellington was famous for over 50 years in the 1900s as
composer, musician and orchestra leader. His work and effort
helped make jazz America’s classical music.
Paul Robeson was a
Rutgers football star in
the early 1900s. He
later became well
known as both a singer
and actor, but is
remembered more for
standing his ground
against racial injustice.
Marian Anderson was a
celebrated opera singer in
the early/mid 1900s. In
1939, she was refused the
right to sing in Constitution
Hall by the Daughters of the
American Revolution.
President Roosevelt and his
wife Eleanor intervened. On
Easter Sunday, Ms.
Anderson gave a concert on
the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial, before a crowd of
more than 75,000 people
with millions more on the
radio.
This singer and jazz
musician was known as
Pops or Satchmo. Louis
Armstrong was
America’s goodwill
ambassador performing
world leaders around the
world for decades, in the
mid 1900s through his
death in the early 1970s.
Jessie Owens competed in
1936 Olympics in Germany
and helped prove Hitler’s
theories on superior races to
be false, by winning a gold
medal in four Olympic
events that year.
As a young child Wilma
Rudolph wore a brace
on her left leg and foot,
until she was nine, as a
result of infantile
paralysis. Eventually she
would be considered the
fastest woman in the
world in the 1960s,
winning 3 gold medals at
a single Olympic game.
In 1916, it happened briefly for two
games, but it is Jackie Robinson
who will be remembered for breaking
baseball’s color barrier on a
continuous basis beginning in 1947.
Muhammad Ali, “an American…boxer, generally considered among the greatest
heavyweights in the sport's history…Ali is today widely regarded for not only the skills he
displayed in the ring but also the values he exemplified outside of it: religious freedom,
racial justice and the triumph of principle over expedience…”
Sidney Poitier is a famous
actor and was the first African
American to win an Oscar as
a leading actor in 1963 for the
movie Lilies of the Field. One
of his more famous roles was
for the ground breaking topic
of interracial marriage in
“Guess Who’s Coming to
Dinner” in 1968.
Bill Cosby is famous comedian
brought a realistic view of the
black family and the non
stereotypical butler, maid, car-lot
character into American homes
with his television shows.
Oprah Winfrey, a baby boomer who
is remembered as a self made
entrepreneur, celebrity, talk-show
host and philanthropist with
education being the most important
concern. Her talk show of 25 years
took on all topics with candor and
respect.