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Famous Firsts by African Americans
by Borgna Brunner
www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmfirsts.html
African-American Firsts: Government
Local elected official: John Mercer Langston, 1855, town clerk of Brownhelm Township, Ohio.
State elected official: Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1836, the Vermont legislature.
Mayor of major city: Carl Stokes, Cleveland, Ohio, 1967–1971.
Governor (appointed): P.B.S. Pinchback served as governor of Louisiana from Dec. 9, 1872–Jan. 13, 1873, during impeachment proceedings against the elected governor.
Governor (elected): L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia, 1990–1994.
U.S. Representative: Joseph Rainey became a Congressman from South Carolina in 1870 and was reelected four more times. The first black female U.S. Representative was Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman from New York, 1969–1983.
U.S. Senator: Hiram Revels, became Senator from Mississippi from Feb. 25, 1870 to March 4, 1871, during Reconstruction. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.) became the first African-American Senator since Reconstruction, 1966–1979. Carol Mosely Braun became the first black woman Senator serving from 1992–1998 for the state of Illinois. (There have only been a total of five black senators in U.S. history: the remaining two are Blanche K. Bruce (1875–1881) and Barack Obama (2005— ).
U.S. Cabinet Minister: Robert C. Weaver, 1966–1968, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Lyndon Johnson; the first black female cabinet minister was Patricia Harris, 1977, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Jimmy Carter.
U.S. Secretary of State: Gen. Colin Powell, 2001–2004. The first black female Secretary of State was Condoleezza Rice, 2005—.
African-American Firsts: Law
Editor, Harvard Law Review: Charles Hamilton Houston, 1919. Barack Obama became the first President of the Harvard Law Review.
Federal Judge: William Henry Hastie, 1946; Constance Baker Motely became the first black woman Federal judge, 1966.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice: Thurgood Marshall, 1967–1991. Clarence Thomas became the second African American to serve on the court in 1991.
African-American Firsts: Diplomacy
U.S. diplomat: Ebenezer D. Bassett, 1869, became minister-resident to Haiti; Patricia Harris became the first black female ambassador (1965; Luxembourg).
Nobel Peace Prize winner: Ralph J. Bunche received the prize in 1950 for mediating the Arab-Israeli truce. Martin Luther King became the second African-American Peace Prize winner in 1964. (See King's Nobel acceptance speech.)
African-American Firsts: Military
Combat pilot: Georgia-born Eugene Jacques Ballard, 1917, denied entry into the U.S. Army Air Corps because of his race, served throughout World War I in the French Flying Corps. He received the Legion of Honor, France's highest honor, among many other decorations.
First Congressional Medal of Honor winner: Sgt. William H. Carney for bravery during the Civil War. He received his Congressional Medal of Honor in 1900.
General: Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., 1940–1948.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Colin Powell, 1989–1993.
African-American Firsts: Science and Medicine
First patent holder: Thomas L. Jennings, 1821, for a dry-cleaning process. Sarah E. Goode, 1885, became the first African-American woman to receive a patent, for a bed that folded up into a cabinet.
M.D. degree: James McCune Smith, 1837, University of Glasgow; Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black woman to receive an M.D. degree. She graduated from the New England Female Medical College in 1864.
Inventor of the blood bank: Dr. Charles Drew, 1940.
Successful open heart surgery: Daniel Hale Williams, 1893.
Astronaut: Guion Bluford, 1983, became the first black astronaut to travel in space; Mae Jemison, 1992, became the first black female astronaut.
For a list of the first black Ph.D.'s in the sciences, see "The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences."
African-American Firsts: Scholarship
College graduate (B.A.): Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1823, Middlebury College; first black woman to receive a B.A. degree: Mary Jane Patterson, 1862, Oberlin College.
Ph.D.: Edward A. Bouchet, 1876, received a Ph.D. from Yale University. In 1921, three individuals became the first black women to earn Ph.D.s in the country: Georgiana Simpson, University of Chicago; Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, University of Pennsylvania; and Eva Beatrice Dykes, Radcliffe.
Rhodes Scholar: Alain L. Locke, 1907.
College president: Daniel A. Payne, 1856, Wilberforce University, Ohio.
Ivy League president: Ruth Simmons, 2001, Brown University.
See also Milestones in Black Education.
African-American Firsts: Literature
Novelist: Harriet Wilson, Our Nig (1859).
Poet: Lucy Terry, 1746, "Bar's Fight." It is her only survivng poem.
Poet (published): Phillis Wheatley, 1773, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Considered the founder of African-American literature.
Pulitzer Prize winner: Gwendolyn Brooks 1950, won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
Nobel Prize for Literature winner: Toni Morrison, 1993.
Poet Laureate: Rita Dove, 1993–1995.
African-American Firsts: Music and Dance
Member of the New York City Opera: Todd Duncan, 1945.
Member of the Metropolitan Opera Company: Marian Anderson, 1955.
Principal dancer in a major dance company: Arthur Mitchell, 1959, New York City Ballet.
African-American Firsts: Film
First Oscar: Hattie McDaniel, 1940, supporting actress, Gone With the Wind.
Oscar, Best Actor/Actress: Sidney Poitier, 1963, Lilies of the Field; Halle Berry, 2001, Monster's Ball.
Film director: Oscar Micheaux, 1919, wrote, directed, and produced The Homesteader, a feature film.
Hollywood director: Gordon Parks directed and wrote The Learning Tree for Warner Brothers in 1969.
African-American Firsts: Television
Network television show host: Nat King Cole, 1956, "The Nat King Cole Show"; Oprah Winfrey became the first black woman television host in 1986, "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
Star of a Network Television show: Bill Cosby, 1965, "I Spy"
African-American Firsts: Sports
Major league baseball player: Jackie Robinson, 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers.
NFL quarterback: Willie Thrower, 1953.
NFL football coach: Fritz Pollard, 1922–1937.
Golf champion: Tiger Woods, 1997, won the Masters golf tournament.
NHL hockey player: Willie O'Ree, 1958, Boston Bruins.
Tennis champion: Althea Gibson became the first black person to play in and win Wimbledon and the United States national tennis championship. She won both tournaments twice, in 1957 and 1958. In all, Gibson won 56 tournaments, including five Grand Slam singles events. The first black male champion was Arthur Ashe who won the 1968 U.S. Open, the 1970 Australian Open, and the 1975 Wimbledon championship.
Heavyweight boxing champion: Jack Johnson, 1908.
Olympic gold medalist (Summer games): John Baxter "Doc" Taylor won a gold medal as part of the 4 x 400 meter relay team.
Olympic gold medalist (Summer games; individual): DeHart Hubbard, 1924, for the long jump; the first woman was Alice Coachman, who won the high jump in 1948.
Olympic gold medalist (Winter games): Vonetta Flowers, 2002, bobsled.
Other African-American Firsts
Millionaire: Madame C. J. Walker.
Billionaire: Robert Johnson, 2001, owner of Black Entertainment Television; Oprah Winfrey, 2003.
Portrayal on a postage stamp: Booker T. Washington, 1940 (and also 1956).
Miss America: Vanessa Williams, 1984, representing New York. When controversial photos surfaced and Williams resigned, Suzette Charles, the runner-up and also an African American, assumed the title. She represented New Jersey. Three additional African Americans have been Miss Americas: Debbye Turner (1990), Marjorie Vincent (1991), and Kimberly Aiken (1994).
Explorer, North Pole: Matthew A. Henson, 1909, accompanied Robert E. Peary on the first successful U.S. expedition to the North Pole.
Explorer, South Pole: George Gibbs, 1939–1941 accompanied Richard Byrd.
source:
www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmfirsts.html
by Borgna Brunner
www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmfirsts.html
African-American Firsts: Government
Local elected official: John Mercer Langston, 1855, town clerk of Brownhelm Township, Ohio.
State elected official: Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1836, the Vermont legislature.
Mayor of major city: Carl Stokes, Cleveland, Ohio, 1967–1971.
Governor (appointed): P.B.S. Pinchback served as governor of Louisiana from Dec. 9, 1872–Jan. 13, 1873, during impeachment proceedings against the elected governor.
Governor (elected): L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia, 1990–1994.
U.S. Representative: Joseph Rainey became a Congressman from South Carolina in 1870 and was reelected four more times. The first black female U.S. Representative was Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman from New York, 1969–1983.
U.S. Senator: Hiram Revels, became Senator from Mississippi from Feb. 25, 1870 to March 4, 1871, during Reconstruction. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.) became the first African-American Senator since Reconstruction, 1966–1979. Carol Mosely Braun became the first black woman Senator serving from 1992–1998 for the state of Illinois. (There have only been a total of five black senators in U.S. history: the remaining two are Blanche K. Bruce (1875–1881) and Barack Obama (2005— ).
U.S. Cabinet Minister: Robert C. Weaver, 1966–1968, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Lyndon Johnson; the first black female cabinet minister was Patricia Harris, 1977, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Jimmy Carter.
U.S. Secretary of State: Gen. Colin Powell, 2001–2004. The first black female Secretary of State was Condoleezza Rice, 2005—.
African-American Firsts: Law
Editor, Harvard Law Review: Charles Hamilton Houston, 1919. Barack Obama became the first President of the Harvard Law Review.
Federal Judge: William Henry Hastie, 1946; Constance Baker Motely became the first black woman Federal judge, 1966.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice: Thurgood Marshall, 1967–1991. Clarence Thomas became the second African American to serve on the court in 1991.
African-American Firsts: Diplomacy
U.S. diplomat: Ebenezer D. Bassett, 1869, became minister-resident to Haiti; Patricia Harris became the first black female ambassador (1965; Luxembourg).
Nobel Peace Prize winner: Ralph J. Bunche received the prize in 1950 for mediating the Arab-Israeli truce. Martin Luther King became the second African-American Peace Prize winner in 1964. (See King's Nobel acceptance speech.)
African-American Firsts: Military
Combat pilot: Georgia-born Eugene Jacques Ballard, 1917, denied entry into the U.S. Army Air Corps because of his race, served throughout World War I in the French Flying Corps. He received the Legion of Honor, France's highest honor, among many other decorations.
First Congressional Medal of Honor winner: Sgt. William H. Carney for bravery during the Civil War. He received his Congressional Medal of Honor in 1900.
General: Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., 1940–1948.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Colin Powell, 1989–1993.
African-American Firsts: Science and Medicine
First patent holder: Thomas L. Jennings, 1821, for a dry-cleaning process. Sarah E. Goode, 1885, became the first African-American woman to receive a patent, for a bed that folded up into a cabinet.
M.D. degree: James McCune Smith, 1837, University of Glasgow; Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black woman to receive an M.D. degree. She graduated from the New England Female Medical College in 1864.
Inventor of the blood bank: Dr. Charles Drew, 1940.
Successful open heart surgery: Daniel Hale Williams, 1893.
Astronaut: Guion Bluford, 1983, became the first black astronaut to travel in space; Mae Jemison, 1992, became the first black female astronaut.
For a list of the first black Ph.D.'s in the sciences, see "The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences."
African-American Firsts: Scholarship
College graduate (B.A.): Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1823, Middlebury College; first black woman to receive a B.A. degree: Mary Jane Patterson, 1862, Oberlin College.
Ph.D.: Edward A. Bouchet, 1876, received a Ph.D. from Yale University. In 1921, three individuals became the first black women to earn Ph.D.s in the country: Georgiana Simpson, University of Chicago; Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, University of Pennsylvania; and Eva Beatrice Dykes, Radcliffe.
Rhodes Scholar: Alain L. Locke, 1907.
College president: Daniel A. Payne, 1856, Wilberforce University, Ohio.
Ivy League president: Ruth Simmons, 2001, Brown University.
See also Milestones in Black Education.
African-American Firsts: Literature
Novelist: Harriet Wilson, Our Nig (1859).
Poet: Lucy Terry, 1746, "Bar's Fight." It is her only survivng poem.
Poet (published): Phillis Wheatley, 1773, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Considered the founder of African-American literature.
Pulitzer Prize winner: Gwendolyn Brooks 1950, won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
Nobel Prize for Literature winner: Toni Morrison, 1993.
Poet Laureate: Rita Dove, 1993–1995.
African-American Firsts: Music and Dance
Member of the New York City Opera: Todd Duncan, 1945.
Member of the Metropolitan Opera Company: Marian Anderson, 1955.
Principal dancer in a major dance company: Arthur Mitchell, 1959, New York City Ballet.
African-American Firsts: Film
First Oscar: Hattie McDaniel, 1940, supporting actress, Gone With the Wind.
Oscar, Best Actor/Actress: Sidney Poitier, 1963, Lilies of the Field; Halle Berry, 2001, Monster's Ball.
Film director: Oscar Micheaux, 1919, wrote, directed, and produced The Homesteader, a feature film.
Hollywood director: Gordon Parks directed and wrote The Learning Tree for Warner Brothers in 1969.
African-American Firsts: Television
Network television show host: Nat King Cole, 1956, "The Nat King Cole Show"; Oprah Winfrey became the first black woman television host in 1986, "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
Star of a Network Television show: Bill Cosby, 1965, "I Spy"
African-American Firsts: Sports
Major league baseball player: Jackie Robinson, 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers.
NFL quarterback: Willie Thrower, 1953.
NFL football coach: Fritz Pollard, 1922–1937.
Golf champion: Tiger Woods, 1997, won the Masters golf tournament.
NHL hockey player: Willie O'Ree, 1958, Boston Bruins.
Tennis champion: Althea Gibson became the first black person to play in and win Wimbledon and the United States national tennis championship. She won both tournaments twice, in 1957 and 1958. In all, Gibson won 56 tournaments, including five Grand Slam singles events. The first black male champion was Arthur Ashe who won the 1968 U.S. Open, the 1970 Australian Open, and the 1975 Wimbledon championship.
Heavyweight boxing champion: Jack Johnson, 1908.
Olympic gold medalist (Summer games): John Baxter "Doc" Taylor won a gold medal as part of the 4 x 400 meter relay team.
Olympic gold medalist (Summer games; individual): DeHart Hubbard, 1924, for the long jump; the first woman was Alice Coachman, who won the high jump in 1948.
Olympic gold medalist (Winter games): Vonetta Flowers, 2002, bobsled.
Other African-American Firsts
Millionaire: Madame C. J. Walker.
Billionaire: Robert Johnson, 2001, owner of Black Entertainment Television; Oprah Winfrey, 2003.
Portrayal on a postage stamp: Booker T. Washington, 1940 (and also 1956).
Miss America: Vanessa Williams, 1984, representing New York. When controversial photos surfaced and Williams resigned, Suzette Charles, the runner-up and also an African American, assumed the title. She represented New Jersey. Three additional African Americans have been Miss Americas: Debbye Turner (1990), Marjorie Vincent (1991), and Kimberly Aiken (1994).
Explorer, North Pole: Matthew A. Henson, 1909, accompanied Robert E. Peary on the first successful U.S. expedition to the North Pole.
Explorer, South Pole: George Gibbs, 1939–1941 accompanied Richard Byrd.
source:
www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmfirsts.html
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