Terrence Blanchard, 59, is the first Black Trumpeter and Composer to have his work performed at the Metropolitan Opera.
In 2009, Susan Rice was appointed by former President Barack Obama as the first African American woman to serve as the United States Ambassador of the United Nations.
Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball, joining the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 5, 1947.
Kenneth Hahn was the only elected politician to meet Reverent Martin Luther King Jr. at the airport when he visited Los Angeles in 1961.
Tarana Burkę founded the #MeToo movement in 2006, creating a hashtag and a voice to the many untold stories of victims of sexual assault.
After almost 100 competitions, Zaila Avant-Garde, 14, became the first Black contestant to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee
The first Black Barbie doll, Christie, premiered in 1968 in response to the Equal Rights Movement.
Robert Johnson became the first African American billionaire when he sold his cable television station, Black Entertainment Television
Sharon Jackson-Lee is one of the longest-serving African American women in Congress.
Quinton Byfield, 19, is the highest drafted Black hockey player in NHL history.
In 2008, former President Barack Obama became the first Black President of the United States.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA), founded at Howard University in 1908, is the oldest Black female Greek-letter organization.
Vice President Kamala Harris became the first woman, and woman of color, to be sworn into the office of Vice President of the United States.
From 1810 to 1850, around 10,000 enslaved people escaped to the North via the Underground Railroad.
In January 2021, Reverend Raphael Warnock, 51, became Georgia’s first Black senator.