Charlayne Hunter-Gault was the first African American woman to enroll in the University of Georgia; she was also among the first African American women to graduate from the university, earning a degree in journalism in 1963. And in 1978, she became the first Black woman to anchor a national newscast, “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report”.
View PostMinnie Joycelyn Elders was the first African American to serve as Surgeon General. She was also the first woman and first African American to hold the position of Arkansas health director.
View PostClara Leach Adams-Ender was the 1st black woman and nurse to receive a master’s degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. She was also the 1st woman to be awarded the Expert Field Medical Badge, the 1st black Army Nurse Corps officer to graduate from the Army War College, the 1st black nurse appointed chief of nursing …
View PostRebecca Lee Crumpler challenged the prejudice that prevented African Americans from pursuing careers in medicine to became the first African American woman in the United States to earn an M.D. degree, a distinction formerly credited to Rebecca Cole. Although little has survived to tell the story of Crumpler’s life, she has secured her place in the historical record with her …
View PostToday’s black history fact: In 1974, Vivian McFadden became the first black female to serve as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy.
View PostRudolph Fisher was a physician, orator, music arranger, and writer during the Harlem Renaissance. His first short story, “City of Refuge,” which depicted the clashes between the newly arrived southern African Americans and Harlem’s black society, was published by the Atlantic Monthly in 1925. His second novel, The Conjure Man Dies, published in 1932, is still considered to be the …
View PostThomas Day was the first widely recognized black furniture maker in the South. He worked in Milton, North Carolina, and his workshop.
View PostLynette Woodard made history by becoming the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters and who, at age 38, began playing as one of the oldest members in the newly formed American women’s professional basketball league, the WNBA.
View PostEdward R Bradley became the first black co-editor of “Sixty Minutes”, a weekly news magazine on CBS-TV. His previous assignments included principal correspondent for “CBS Report,” CBS News White House correspondent, anchor of the “CBS Sunday Night News,” and reports broadcaster on “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.” He is a native of Pennsylvania and a graduate of Cheyney State …
View PostHugh Nathaniel Mulzac was an African-Caribbean member of the United States Merchant Marine. He earned a Master rating in 1918 which should have qualified him to command a ship, but this did not happen until September 29, 1942 because of racial discrimination.
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