African American Figures

Who was Harriet Tubman, known as “Moses” for helping enslaved people escape?

Harriet Tubman

Which abolitionist escaped slavery, wrote an autobiography, and delivered “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

Frederick Douglass

Who delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963?

Martin Luther King Jr.

Who refused to surrender her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus in 1955?

Rosa Parks

Which civil rights activist became known for Black nationalism and was assassinated in 1965?

Malcolm X

Who co-founded the NAACP and wrote The Souls of Black Folk?

W. E. B. Du Bois

Which journalist and activist campaigned against lynching?

Ida B. Wells

Who founded Tuskegee Institute and promoted vocational education?

Booker T. Washington

Who established Negro History Week, the precursor to Black History Month?

Carter G. Woodson

Who argued Brown v. Board of Education and became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice?

Thurgood Marshall

Who was the first Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and used the slogan “Unbought and Unbossed”?

Shirley Chisholm

Who built a successful hair-care business and became a pioneering self-made female millionaire?

Madam C. J. Walker

Which NASA mathematician calculated trajectories for John Glenn’s orbital flight?

Katherine Johnson

Which scientist was known as the “Peanut Man” for agricultural research and products derived from peanuts?

George Washington Carver

Who wrote “Still I Rise” and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings?

Maya Angelou

Which novelist wrote Beloved and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993?

Toni Morrison

Which jazz singer was nicknamed “Lady Day” and performed “Strange Fruit”?

Billie Holiday

Who was known as the “Queen of Soul” and recorded “Respect”?

Aretha Franklin

Who broke Major League Baseball’s modern color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947?

Jackie Robinson

Which boxer was nicknamed “The Greatest,” won Olympic gold in 1960, and refused military induction during the Vietnam War?

Muhammad Ali

Who became the first Black president of the United States in 2008?

Barack Obama

Who was the first Black American elected to the U.S. Senate, representing Mississippi during Reconstruction?

Hiram Rhodes Revels

Who was the first Black American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives?

Joseph Rainey

Who became the first Black woman to run for president as a candidate of a major U.S. political party?

Shirley Chisholm

Who was the first Black woman to win a Grand Slam tennis title and later competed in professional golf?

Althea Gibson

Who became the first African American to win an Academy Award for acting, for Gone with the Wind?

Hattie McDaniel

Which poet wrote “Harlem” and “I, Too” and was a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance?

Langston Hughes

Who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God and studied African American folklore?

Zora Neale Hurston

Which writer and civil rights activist wrote Go Tell It on the Mountain and The Fire Next Time?

James Baldwin

Who wrote Native Son and Black Boy?

Richard Wright

Which poet was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry?

Gwendolyn Brooks

Who became the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral?

Phillis Wheatley

Who founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church?

Richard Allen

Which abolitionist and writer published the antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Who was a formerly enslaved abolitionist and women’s rights activist known for “Ain’t I a Woman?”

Sojourner Truth

Which abolitionist helped enslaved people escape through the Underground Railroad and published The North Star?

Frederick Douglass

Who was a prominent abolitionist known for the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859?

John Brown

Which Black inventor patented an improved ironing board and contributed to other household inventions?

Sarah Boone

Who invented an early traffic signal and a safety hood that influenced modern gas masks?

Garrett Morgan

Which inventor developed an improved process for manufacturing carbon filaments for light bulbs?

Lewis Howard Latimer

Who invented an automatic lubricator for steam engines, inspiring the phrase “the real McCoy”?

Elijah McCoy

Which inventor developed a machine that made it possible to mass-produce shoes?

Jan Matzeliger

Who became the first Black woman to travel into space, in 1992?

Mae Jemison

Who was the first African American astronaut to travel into space, in 1983?

Guion Bluford

Which surgeon performed a pioneering successful open-heart operation in 1893 and founded Provident Hospital?

Daniel Hale Williams

Who developed the blood-plasma preservation process that helped transform blood banking?

Charles Drew

Which track-and-field athlete won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?

Jesse Owens

Which track star overcame childhood illness and won three gold medals at the 1960 Olympics?

Wilma Rudolph

Who was the first Black heavyweight boxing champion of the world?

Jack Johnson

Which tennis champion won three Grand Slam singles titles and became an advocate for AIDS awareness?

Arthur Ashe

Who became the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal in tennis singles?

Venus Williams?

Which singer was known as the “Queen of Gospel” and performed at the March on Washington?

Mahalia Jackson

Who was a pioneering Black classical contralto whose 1939 Lincoln Memorial concert challenged segregation?

Marian Anderson