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Discover the people behind the progress

Black Inventors
& History Makers

Ideas that changed everyday life. Courage that opened doors.
Explore 100 lives and the contributions that shaped our world.

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A daily discovery

Six stories, refreshed daily.

Transportation

Elijah J. McCoy

Automatic engine lubricator

Patented a device that continuously lubricated operating steam engines and locomotives.

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Medicine and Chemistry

Percy Lavon Julian

Affordable synthesis of important medicines

Developed chemical processes for producing medicines and hormones from plant materials, including a lower-cost route connected with cortisone production.

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100 lives. Lasting contributions.

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Invention & Engineering

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Transportation

Elijah J. McCoy

Automatic engine lubricator

Patented a device that continuously lubricated operating steam engines and locomotives.

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Sound and Communications

Dr. James E. West

Electret microphone

Co-invented the foil-electret microphone, a compact and dependable sound-conversion technology.

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Business and Hair Care

Madam C. J. Walker

Hair-care manufacturing and national sales enterprise

Developed and marketed hair-care products while building a large manufacturing, training, and sales organization for Black women.

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Aviation

Bessie Coleman

First African American woman with a pilot's license

Earned an international pilot's license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale after U.S. flight schools refused to admit her.

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Invention & Engineering

Alexander Miles

Automatic elevator-door improvements

Developed a mechanism that opened and closed elevator cabin and shaft doors automatically.

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Invention & Engineering

Dr. Marian Croak

Advances in internet voice communication

Helped develop technologies that carry voice calls as digital information over the internet.

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Invention & Engineering

Jan Ernst Matzeliger

Automatic shoe-lasting machine

Invented a machine that mechanized the difficult task of shaping a shoe upper and attaching it to the sole.

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Invention & Engineering

George Washington Murray

Agricultural machinery and recognition for inventors

Patented farm machinery with attachments for tasks including planting, fertilizing, and harvesting.

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Science & Medicine

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Medicine and Chemistry

Percy Lavon Julian

Affordable synthesis of important medicines

Developed chemical processes for producing medicines and hormones from plant materials, including a lower-cost route connected with cortisone production.

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Medicine

Dr. Charles R. Drew

Blood-plasma storage and blood-bank systems

Advanced methods for processing and preserving blood plasma and helped organize large-scale blood banks.

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Medicine

Dr. Alexa Irene Canady

First Black woman neurosurgeon in the United States

Completed neurosurgical residency in 1981, becoming the first Black woman neurosurgeon in the United States.

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Science & Medicine

Dr. Ruth Ella Moore

A pioneering doctorate in bacteriology

Became the first Black woman to earn a doctorate in a natural science in the United States.

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Science & Medicine

Dr. Ernest Everett Just

Research on fertilization and early development

Studied how marine organisms’ eggs fertilize and develop, emphasizing the role of the cell surface.

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Science & Medicine

Dr. Charles Henry Turner

Experimental studies of insect behavior

Investigated how insects learn and respond to their surroundings through carefully designed experiments.

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Space & Exploration

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Space and Mathematics

Katherine Johnson

NASA orbital calculations

Calculated and verified flight trajectories for major U.S. space missions, including John Glenn's orbital flight and Apollo missions.

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Space and Computing

Dorothy Vaughan

NASA mathematician and programming leader

Became the first Black supervisor at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and later led programmers using FORTRAN at NASA.

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Space and Engineering

Mary W. Jackson

NASA's first Black woman engineer

Became NASA's first Black female engineer after overcoming barriers to obtain required graduate coursework.

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Space & Exploration

Annie Easley

Computer programming for aerospace and energy

Developed computer programs for aerospace research, including work associated with the Centaur rocket stage.

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Space & Exploration

Dr. Valerie L. Thomas

Landsat image processing and illusion transmitter

Helped develop the processing systems that turned Landsat satellite data into useful images of Earth.

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Space & Exploration

Matthew Henson

Arctic exploration and expedition skills

Played a central role in Robert Peary’s Arctic expeditions through navigation, sledging, and practical survival skills.

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Education & Leadership

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Law and Government

Thurgood Marshall

First Black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Became the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

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Education & Leadership

Frederick Douglass

Abolitionist writer, speaker, and newspaper editor

Used autobiography, public speaking, and journalism to challenge slavery and demand equal rights.

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Education & Leadership

Harriet Tubman

Underground Railroad leadership

Returned to slaveholding territory to guide relatives and others toward freedom.

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Education & Leadership

Sojourner Truth

A voice for abolition and women’s rights

Traveled widely as a speaker advocating the end of slavery and the rights of women and African Americans.

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Education & Leadership

Mary McLeod Bethune

Education and national civic leadership

Founded a school for Black girls in Daytona Beach that became part of Bethune-Cookman University.

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Education & Leadership

Shirley Chisholm

First Black woman elected to Congress

Won election to the U.S. House of Representatives and later sought a major party’s presidential nomination.

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Education & Leadership

Rosa Parks

A defining stand against bus segregation

Her refusal to surrender her bus seat helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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Education & Leadership

W. E. B. Du Bois

Scholarship and civil-rights organizing

Combined sociological research, historical writing, and organizing to challenge racial inequality.

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Education & Leadership

Booker T. Washington

Building Tuskegee Institute

Led the development of Tuskegee Institute as a center for Black education and vocational training.

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Education & Leadership

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Building the study of Black history

Founded institutions devoted to African American history and launched Negro History Week in 1926.

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Education & Leadership

Dr. Anna Julia Cooper

Education and Black women’s intellectual leadership

Published A Voice from the South, arguing for education and the full participation of Black women.

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Education & Leadership

Mary Church Terrell

Organizing for civil rights and women’s suffrage

Helped found the National Association of Colored Women and served as its first president.

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Education & Leadership

Fannie Lou Hamer

Grassroots voting-rights leadership

Organized Black Mississippians seeking the right to register and vote despite violence and intimidation.

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Education & Leadership

Ella Baker

Developing community and student leadership

Helped students build the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee after the sit-in movement spread.

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Education & Leadership

Bayard Rustin

Organizing the March on Washington

Served as a central organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

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Education & Leadership

John Lewis

Nonviolent action for voting rights

Helped lead sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and the Selma voting-rights campaign.

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Education & Leadership

Medgar Evers

Civil-rights organizing in Mississippi

Worked as the NAACP’s Mississippi field secretary to challenge segregation and racial violence.

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Arts & Literature

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Film

Sidney Poitier

First Black winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor

Won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Lilies of the Field.

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Dance

Misty Copeland

First Black woman principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre

Was promoted to principal dancer, the highest rank at American Ballet Theatre.

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Arts & Literature

Edmonia Lewis

An international career in sculpture

Created marble sculptures exploring history, freedom, and her African American and Native American heritage.

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Arts & Literature

James Baldwin

Literature confronting race and identity

Wrote novels, essays, and plays that examined race, identity, belonging, and American life.

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Arts & Literature

Langston Hughes

Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance

Made the language, music, and everyday experiences of Black communities central to his writing.

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Arts & Literature

Zora Neale Hurston

Literature and the preservation of folklore

Documented Black folklore and created fiction rooted in the speech and experiences of Black communities.

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Arts & Literature

Dr. Maya Angelou

Autobiography, poetry, and public voice

Published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, bringing her life story to a wide readership.

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Arts & Literature

Phillis Wheatley Peters

An early published African American poet

Published a poetry collection while enslaved, becoming the first African American to publish a book of poetry.

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Arts & Literature

Augusta Savage

Sculpture and community arts education

Created sculpture and helped train a generation of artists in Harlem.

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Arts & Literature

Jacob Lawrence

Telling Black history through painting

Created narrative paintings that explored African American history and everyday experience.

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Arts & Literature

Marian Anderson

A landmark concert at the Lincoln Memorial

Sang before a large integrated audience after being denied access to Constitution Hall because of race.

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Arts & Literature

Ella Fitzgerald

A defining voice in jazz

Became celebrated for vocal range, rhythmic precision, and improvisational scat singing.

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Arts & Literature

Duke Ellington

Composer and orchestra leader

Wrote and arranged a vast body of music while leading one of jazz’s most influential orchestras.

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Arts & Literature

Louis Armstrong

A transformative jazz soloist

Changed jazz through inventive trumpet playing, distinctive singing, and an emphasis on the individual soloist.

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Arts & Literature

Paul Robeson

Performance and international advocacy

Built an international career as a singer and actor while advocating for civil and human rights.

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Sports

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Sports and Civil Rights

Jackie Robinson

Integrated modern Major League Baseball

Became the first Black player in modern Major League Baseball when he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

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Sports

Althea Gibson

First Black champion at major international tennis tournaments

Became the first Black player to win a Grand Slam singles title and later won Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals.

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Sports

Jesse Owens

Four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics

Won Olympic gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4 × 100-meter relay.

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Sports

Wilma Rudolph

Three track gold medals at one Olympics

Became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games.

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Sports

Arthur Ashe

Grand Slam champion and advocate

Won the U.S. Open, Australian Open, and Wimbledon singles championships.

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Sports

Jack Johnson

First Black world heavyweight boxing champion

Won the world heavyweight championship by defeating Tommy Burns.

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