Black History Month

Who was the first Black woman elected to Congress. She represented New York's 12th District from 1969 to 1983, and in 1972.  She became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Her campaign slogan was "Unbought and unbossed".

This man organized and strategized the March on Washington in August 1963 in the background. As a gay man who had controversial ties to Communism, he was considered too much of a liability to be on the front lines of the movement. Nonetheless, he served his community tirelessly while pushing for more jobs and better wages.

Before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, there was a brave 15-year-old who chose not to sit at the back of the bus.  She challenged the driver and was subsequently arrested.  She was the first woman to be detained for her resistance.  Who was that young girl?

Jesse Owens was a track-and-field athlete who set a world record in the long jump at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin—and went unrivaled for 25 years. He won four gold medals at the Olympics that year.  True or False?

Who was the first licensed Black pilot in the world?  Though history has favored Amelia Earhart or the Wright brothers.  This pilot paved the way for a new generation of diverse fliers like the Tuskegee Airmen, Blackbirds, and Flying Hobos.

She was the first African American to star in her own TV show and she was nominated for an Emmy in 1962.  Who was she?

She was the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize (in 1950, for Annie Allen), and she served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, becoming the first Black woman to hold that position.  Who was she?

Who was the first African American photographer on the staff of Life magazine?  He also was the first Black writer and director of a studio film.

Who was the first Black woman to attend Yale Law School in 1931?  In 1939, she also became the first Black female judge in the United States.

Who was a Black trans woman and activist and was at the forefront of fighting for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and 70s (including partaking in the resistance at Stonewall)?

Ruby Bridges was just 6 years old when she became the first African American student to attend William Frantz Elementary in Louisiana at the height of desegregation.  True or False?

Who was the first African American woman who orbited into space aboard the shuttle Endeavour?  She's also a physician, teacher, and Peace Corps volunteer.  She continues to work toward helping young women of color get more involved in technology, engineering, and math careers.

In 1894, he became the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Science degree.  This inventor who developed hundreds of products using peanuts, sweet potatoes and soybeans.   In all, he developed more than 300 food, industrial and commercial products from peanuts, including milk, Worcestershire sauce, punches, cooking oils, salad oil, paper, cosmetics, soaps and wood stains. He also experimented with peanut-based medicines, such as antiseptics, laxatives and goiter medications.

Who was the father of the Civil Rights Movement?  He was an abolitionist, a journalist, and a diplomat.

Who was the first man to step on the North Pole?  This African American Arctic Explorer was fluent in the Inuit language and established a rapport with the native people of the region. He was known by all he encountered as "________ the Kind One.” He learned the methods the Inuit used to survive and travel through the incredibly hostile landscape of the Arctic.