Blanche K. Bruce

Blanche Kelso Bruce (March 1, 1841 – March 17, 1898) was born into slavery in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and went on to become a politician who represented Mississippi as…

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people…

Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 – January 3, 2015) was an American Republican politician. In 1966, he became the first African American popularly elected to the United States…

Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez (born January 29, 1942) is a Cuban military officer, legislator, and former cosmonaut and the first person of African heritage in space. In 1980, as a member…

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. (born November 22, 1942) is an American aerospace engineer, retired U.S. Air Force officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut, who is the first African…

Benjamin Banneker (November 9, 1731 – October 19, 1806) was a free African-American almanac author, surveyor, landowner and farmer who had knowledge of mathematics and natural history. Born in Baltimore…

James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. His essays, collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore…

Crispus Attucks (c.1723 – March 5, 1770) was an American whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African and Native American descent, generally regarded as the first person killed in the Boston…

Maya Angelou (/ˈændʒəloʊ/ (About this soundlisten) AN-jə-loh; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven…