Businessman, inventor, community leader.Garrett Morgan was born in 1877 in Kentucky to parents who were both freed slaves. Morgan grew up in an almost exclusively Black community in Kentucky, and only received a 6th grade education. After that, he moved to Ohio in search of work when he was just 14 years old. Occurrenc...

Selma Burke was born in North Carolina and was 1 of 10 children. She would grow up to be a pivotal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and an iconic Black sculptor with a career that spanned 60 years.Burke's first experience with clay was at the age of 7. There was a riverbed near her family's farm, and she would often pl...

There is little known about Henry Blair's early life, other than that he was born in 1807 in Maryland. Blair was a farmer who created new ways to boost productivity of planting and harvesting. In 1834, Blair received a patent for his mechanical corn seed planter, an invention of his own design that increased crop yield...

The first Black neurosurgeon.Alexa Canady was born in Michigan, and with her mother being an educator and father a dentist, she was taught about the importance of both education and hard work from an early age. She and her brother were the only African American students in their school and faced many prejudices. The in...

Lonnie Johnson was born in Alabama in 1949 to a nurse's aid and a World War II veteran. From an early age, Johnson showed interest in how things worked. He was notorious for taking things apart to figure out what made them function, like his sister's dolls to see how they blinked. The other children in his neighborhood...

Born in 1914, Viola Desmond was a Black woman from Nova Scotia. Growing up, and with her father eventually becoming a barber, Desmond noticed the lack of hair and beauty products for black women. Due to her race, however, she was not allowed to train as a beautician in Halifax - but this did not stop her from her dream...

In 1903, Carrie Best was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. She was born during a time when racial segregation was common. She and her siblings were encouraged by their parents to study the history of African Canadians and emphasized the importance of education, despite not having received one themselves. Best wrote her...

"An icon." - USA Today"The Martin Luther King Jr. of Movies." - Vanity FairSidney Poitier - actor, director, diplomat and first African American and Bahamian actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1964. Sidney Poitier's parents were from the Bahamas, but Poitier himself was born in 1927 in...

James Hemings was born in 1765 in Virgina. At just 8 years of age, he became a slave to Thomas Jefferson through his wife's inheritance - slaves were considered property and the status of 'slave' was made hereditary due to a law passed in Virginia in 1662. Hemings was the half-brother of Thomas Jefferson's wife, Martha...

Feminine care products have come a long way and are continuously evolving. For where we are today, we have Mary Kenner to thank.Mary Kenner was born in 1912 in North Carolina and from day one, inventing was in her blood. Her father, sister and grandfather were all inventors. Over the course of Mary Kenner's life, she w...

"All for one, and one for all."Does this quote ring a bell? Most likely. Everyone is familiar with the beloved tale of the Three Musketeers, which has seen several movie adaptations over the years. But how familiar are you with its author?Alexandre Dumas is of Haitian and French descent. Because of his father...

Rosetta Tharpe was born March 20, 1915 to Katie Nubin and Willis Atkins, cotton pickers in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. From the very beginning, music was in her veins with both of her parents being singers, and her mother also playing mandolin. When she was 4, she began playing guitar and singing. Her musical career began ...