Oliver Lewis (1856-1924) was the first African American and the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. The first Derby was held at the Louisville Jockey Club on May 17, 1875. Oliver Lewis, who was just nineteen at the time, was the jockey for a horse called Aristide. Aristide was not expected to win. Chesapeake, […]
When Maggie Lena Walker was just a teen she joined the local chapter of the Independent Order of St. Luke, a fraternal society that provided for the needs of African Americans. Walker believed in a strong community. She also believed African Americans should establish institutions within their community to strengthen it and help it thrive.
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Countee Cullen was one of the best known poets to emerge during the Harlem Renaissance. He was born Countee Leroy Porter on March 30, 1903 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was raised by his maternal grandmother until her death in 1918. Countee was then adopted by Reverend Frederick Cullen, pastor of Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in
Jessie Redmon Fauset, poet, editor, essayist and novelist, saw the Harlem Renaissance as a historical educational opportunity. For her it was a chance to tell the stories of African Americans through the lens of other blacks and not through the lens of white writers. Fauset was born on April 27, 1882 in Camden County, New
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Arna Bontemps, Harlem Renaissance poet and novelist was born on October 13, 1902 in Alexandria, Louisiana. He graduated from Pacific Union College in Angwin, California in 1923, and moved to New York the following year to teach at the Harlem Academy in New York City. Bontemps was motivated and inspired by what was happening in
Elizabeth Keckley was born into slavery in 1818 in Dinwiddie, Virginia. She was sent out to work by her enslaver to make money for his family. She worked as a seamstress and soon had several prominent customers, several of whom loaned her money so she could purchase her freedom. Keckley moved to Washington, DC in
Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005) was the first African American woman to serve as a federal judge. She was appointed by President Lyndon B Johnson in 1966 to serve in the Southern District of New York, the largest and busiest federal court in the country. Constance was born in New Haven, Connecticut on September 21, 1921.
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Susie King Taylor was one of the first people to write about her experience with a “colored regiment” during the Civil War. Taylor was born into slavery in Georgia in 1848. She learned to read and write with other African American children in a secret school in Savannah. During this period blacks, free and enslaved,
Marian Anderson was the first African American invited to perform at the White House and the first to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera. Anderson was born on February 27, 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She began singing with the youth choir in her church. Adult members were so impressed with her voice that they
Who was Marie Maynard Daly? She was an educator, biochemist, researcher, science pioneer and the first African American woman in America to receive a PhD in chemistry. She was committed to improving heart health and determining factors that led to heart attacks. Additionally, with the lack of diversity in the study of the sciences, she
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