University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee Admits 1st Black

Robert Smalls
Robert Smalls Union Naval Hero

Madame C.J. Walker
Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 on a Delta, Louisiana plantation, this daughter of former slaves transformed herself from an uneducated farm laborer and laundress into one of the twentieth century's most successful, self-made women entrepreneurs, and the nation's first millionairess. Orphaned at age seven, she often said, "I got my start by giving myself a start." She and her older sister, Louvenia, survived by working in the cotton fields of Delta and nearby Vicksburg, Mississippi. At 14, she married Moses McWilliams to escape abuse from her cruel brother-in-law, Jesse Powell.

James Arthur Baldwin
Baldwin spent an impoverished boyhood in Harlem and at 14 became a preacher in the Fireside Pentecostal Church. His first two novels, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), reflecting his experience as a young preacher, and Giovanni's Room (1956), which dealt with his homosexuality, were written while he lived in Paris. He returned to the United States in 1957 and participated in the civil-rights movement, later returning to France where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Sarah Grimké
Sarah Grimke One of the first women in the United States to publicly argue for the abolition of slavery.

Patricia Roberts Harris
Patricia Roberts Harris Attorney, Ambassador, Cabinet Member

Ralph Bunche
Ralph Bunche First black to win the Nobel Peace Prize

Richard Allen
Richard Allen Founder,African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes
Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes First African American woman mathematican

Sammie Davis Jr.
Samie Davis Jr. Samie Davis Jr.dies

Bernice Gaines Hughes
Bernice Gaines Hughes First black woman to become a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Armed Forces

Philadelphia’s Free Africa Society
Philadelphia's Free Africa Society .

Bill Bojangles Robinson
Bill "Bojangeles" Roberson dancer and entertainer

William Reuben Pettiford
W.R. Pettiford Founder

Jane Bolin
Jane Bolin First Black woman judge