BESSIE COLEMAN
First Black American woman to be a Licensed Pilot in 1921.
Madame C. J. Walker
First Black Millionaire listed in the Guiness Book of World Records.
Robert Johnson
First Black American Billionaire 2001 owner of Black Entertainment Television; which was later sold.
Oprah Winfrey
First Black American woman Billionaire 2003, owner of Own, O magazine and various other organization, First Black American to open an all girl in Africa.
Matthew A. Henson
First Black to reach and explore the North Pole which was the first successful American expedition accompanied by Robert E. Peary 1909.
George Bibbs
First black American to reach and explore the South Pole: 1939–1941 accompanied Richard Byrd.
Barrington Irving
First Black American to fly Flight around the world 2007, from Miami Gardens,
Jack Johnson
First black American Heavyweight boxing champion: 1908.
George Poage
First black American man to be an Olympic medalist (Summer games): 1904, won two bronze medals in the
200 m hurdles and 400 m hurdles.
John Baxter AKA ( Doc) Taylor
First black American man Olympic gold medalist (Summer games): 1908, won a gold
medal as part of the 4 x 400 m relay team.
DeHart Hubbard
First black American Olympic gold medalist (Summer games; 1924, for the
Alice Coachman
first American woman long jump; who won the high jump in 1948.
Debi Thomas
First black American woman Olympic medalist (Winter games): 1988, won the bronze in figure skating.
Vonetta Flowers
First black American Olympic gold medalist (Winter games): 2002, bobsled.
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.
Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Jackie Robinson, 1962.
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. 1
World cycling champion: Marshall W. “Major” Taylor, 1899.
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.
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. The first black woman
to serve as a mayor of a major U.S. city was Sharon Pratt Dixon Kelly, Washington, DC,
1991–1995.
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. The only other elected
black governor has been Deval Patrick, Massachusetts, 2007–
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 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 (2005–2008).
U.S. cabinet member: 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, 2005–2009.
Major Party Nominee for President: Sen. Barack Obama, 2008. The Democratic Party
selected him as its presidential nominee.
U.S. President: Sen. Barack Obama. Obama defeated Sen. John McCain in the general
election on November 4, 2008, and was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United
States on January 20, 2009.
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 Motley 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.