In celebration of Black History Month, here are some facts celebrating Black excellence throughout history.
• George Poage became the first African American to win a medal at the Olympics, taking bronze in both the 220-yard and 440-yard hurdles in 1904.
• Alice Ball invented the first successful treatment for Hansen’s disease (otherwise known as leprosy) in 1916. Bell was also the first African American and first woman to graduate with a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii.
• Ethel Waters became the first Black performer to appear on TV when her one-night variety special, “The Ethel Waters Show,” aired on NBC in 1939.
• Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman to win a seat in Congress in 1968.
• The celebration of Black History Month began as “Negro History Week,” which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a Black historian, scholar and educator.
• Jackie Robinson became the first Black American to play Major League Baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
• Marie Selika Williams became the first Black musician to sing at the White House when she performed for President Rutherford Hayes and First Lady Lucy Webb Hayes in 1878.
• Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to be admitted into NASA’s astronaut training program in 1987.
• Althea Gibson became the first Black tennis player to compete at the U.S. National Championships in 1950.
• In 1956, Gladys West was hired as a mathematician by the U.S. Naval Proving Ground in 1956, and she invented an accurate model of Earth that was used to create the Global Positioning System (GPS).
• Jack Johnson became the first African American man to win the World Heavyweight Champion boxing title in 1908.
• Thurgood Marshall was the first Black person ever appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and served on the court from 1967 to 1991.
• George Washington Carver developed 300 derivative products from peanuts, including cheese, milk, coffee, flour, ink, dyes, plastics, wood stains, soap, linoleum, medicinal oils and cosmetics.
• Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first Black person ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He represented the state of Mississippi from February 1870 to March 1871.
• Before Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan joined the billionaire’s club, Robert Johnson became the first African American billionaire when he sold the cable station he founded, Black Entertainment Television (BET), in 2001.
• Madam C.J. Walker was born on a cotton plantation in Louisiana and became wealthy after inventing a line of African American hair care products. She established Madame C.J. Walker Laboratories and was also known for her philanthropy.
• In January 2021, Kamala Harris became the first woman of African or Asian descent to become vice president. Harris’ mother immigrated to the United States from India and her father immigrated from Jamaica.
• Black Americans held their first large-scale convention in Philadelphia in 1830, and the gathering (which marked the start of the National Negro Conventions Movement) led to the formation of the American Society of Free Persons of Color. Bishop Richard Allen, who founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was made president of the society, and he worked to coordinate civil rights efforts locally.
• For her role as Mammy in “Gone with the Wind,” Hattie McDaniel won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1940, becoming the first Black American to win an Oscar.
• Gwendolyn Brooks became the first Black person to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for her book “Annie Allen,” which chronicles the evolution of a young Black girl into womanhood through poetry.
• Though he only ended up playing 45 games during his career, Willie O’Ree will always be remembered as the National Hockey League’s first Black player, and he continues to fight for more diversity in the sport.
• The final convention movement in 1864 — presided over by Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass — led to the founding of the National Equal Rights League, an organization that pushed for full political rights for Black Americans as compensation for military service in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
