Firsts.
The people who got there first, in every field there is, and opened the door behind them.
Edward Bouchet
First African American to earn a doctorate from a U.S. university, a PhD in physics from Yale.
Maggie Lena Walker
First Black woman to charter and lead a bank in the United States, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia.
Bessie Coleman
First Black woman, and first Native American woman, to earn a pilot license, crossing the Atlantic to do it when no U.S. school would train her.
Ralph Bunche
First Black person awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for brokering armistice in the Middle East.
Shirley Chisholm
First Black woman elected to the United States Congress, and, in 1972, the first to run for a major party's presidential nomination.
Clarence Ellis
First African American to earn a PhD in computer science, and a pioneer of the collaborative software the whole industry now runs on.
Guion Bluford
First African American to travel to space, aboard the shuttle Challenger.
Reginald F. Lewis
Built TLC Beatrice into the first Black-owned company to surpass $1 billion in annual sales.
Oprah Winfrey
First Black woman recognized as a billionaire, built on a media company she owned outright.
Ursula Burns
First Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, as chairman and CEO of Xerox.
Kwanza Jones
First Black woman to hold a principal ownership stake in a Major League Baseball franchise.
Read the story →A living record. More firsts filed as they are verified.