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African American Pioneers of Science. Read. Explore more. Black History Month. Black History Month. The road to school desegregation. The road to school desegregation.
- Alvin Ailey Jr. was a dancer, choreographer, and activist. Born in Texas during the Great Depression, he moved to Los Angeles in 1946 and saw his first dance performance, and in 1949 he took his first dance class at Lester Horton's Melrose Ave.
- John Lewis. John Lewis was born as the son of sharecroppers in rural Alabama in 1940. He studied at the American Baptist Theological Society in Nashville and helped to organize sit-ins against segregated restaurants; during this period, he coined his iconic phrase, "Good Trouble," and was jailed on numerous occasions.
- Daisy Bates. When the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional, Daisy Bates stepped up to help a group of Black students integrate into an all-white high school—that group is known as The Little Rock Nine.
- Ruby Bridges. Ruby Bridges was the first Black student to integrate into a white elementary school in 1960. At only six years old, Ruby walked by protesters screaming awful slurs and angry words at her every day.
African Americans are Americans who have African ancestors. Many of these ancestors were captured in Africa and brought to the Americas to be slaves. African Americans are one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States .
- Claudette Colvin
- Alice Coachman
- Ronald Mcnair
- Bessie Coleman
- Alexa Canady
- Robert Smalls
- Gordon Parks
- Marian Anderson
- Jane Bolin
- Robert Sengstacke Abbott
While Rosa Parks' name may be synonymous with the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Claudette Colvin came first. On March 2, 1955, 15-year-old Colvin was on her way home from high school in Montgomery, Alabama when she refused to give up her seat to a white woman and move to the back of the bus. Colvin was inspired by black leaders she had learned about in s...
Alongside Jesse Owens, Alice Coachman is an important name to remember in the field of athletics. Coachman was the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal. "My father wanted me to be more like a young lady and sit on the porch," Coachman told the New York Times, reflecting on her childhood. "But I would go out back and jump over the fence an...
Ronald McNair was 9 years old when a South Carolina librarian told him he could not check out books from a segregated library in 1959. Refusing to leave, a determined McNair sat on the counter while the librarian called the police, as well as McNair's mother. The police arrived, told the librarian to let the young boy have his books, and McNair wal...
Bessie Coleman broke down barriers both on the ground and in the sky. Coleman was inspired to become an aviator at 27 after her brother, a World War I veteran, teasedher that women in France were superior because they could fly. Despite her drive, Coleman was denied from flight schools in the U.S. because she was Black and a woman. Determined to be...
Born in Lansing, Michigan in 1950, Dr. Alexa Irene Canadybroke both gender and color barriers when she became the first African American woman neurosurgeon in the United States in 1981. While majoring in zoology at the University of Michigan, Canady became interested in medicine after attending a summer program on genetics for minority students. Af...
Robert Smalls was only in his early 20s when he risked his life as a Black, enslaved man in the U.S. South to sail his family to freedom. After unsuccessfully attempting to buy his family's freedom, Smalls, a maritime pilot, devised a daring plan. On a moonlit night in May 1862 during the Civil War, Smalls and a crew of fellow enslaved people stole...
Gordon Parks was a Black American photojournalist, musician, writer and film director who is known for breaking the "color line" in professional photography. "I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs," said Parks, who was born in Kansas in 1912. "I knew at that point I had to have a...
Marian Anderson was an American contralto, meaning that she possessed a very low range in her vocal register. She was famous for performing a wide range of music, including opera and spirituals. Anderson was born in South Philadelphia in 1897. Her talent was apparent from a young age, so much so that her church congregation raised a “Marian Anderso...
Jane Bolin broke many boundaries in her life, but perhaps her most famous is being named the first Black woman judge in America in 1939. (This is after she was the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, and the first to gain admission to the New York City Bar.) She fought against racial discrimination within the legal system; one of he...
Born in Georgia in 1870 to parents who had once been enslaved, Robert Sengstacke Abbott was an American journalist, attorney and editor. Though Abbott graduated from Kent Law School in Chicago, he was discouraged from practicing law from a fellow African-American attorney, who advised him that he was “too dark” to be successful in the field. Instea...
- Rosa Parks (1913 – 2005) The first name on our list is the woman whose actions sparked the Civil Rights Movement which Martin Luther King led. More specifically, her refusal to stand up and free a row of four seats in the “colored” section of a bus in favor of a white passenger started the Montgomery bus boycott.
- Claudette Colvin (1939 – ) Before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin, although she’s not nearly as popular as Rosa Parks. The reason why we compare these two women is that Claudette was the first woman to be detained for her resistance – choosing not to sit at the back of the bus.
- Bessie Coleman (1892 – 1926) Bessie Coleman was the first African-American woman and first Native-American to hold an international pilot license. In her life, she faced many obstacles both as a Black person and as a woman, but her dreams and determination were bigger than those obstacles.
- Shirley Chisholm (1924 – 2005) Shirley Chisholm is a famous politician, educator, and writer, although her most notable achievements are being the first African-American candidate to make a bid to become U.S. President and the first African-American woman to be elected as a U.S. congresswoman.
Entries are grouped into eight broad periods: 2nd century ad –1789: Old World to New. 1790–1863: The Enslavement of Africans. 1864–1916: Reconstruction and the Start of the Great Migration. 1917–37: The Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance.
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Feb 1, 2023 · Getty Images. When it comes to pioneers in African American history, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Muhammad Ali are often mentioned—and rightfully so. But what do you know about other Black history heroes, like Claudette Colvin, Alice Coachman, or Shirley Chisholm?
