Shirley Chisholm

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Shirley Chisholm

Pioneering African-American politician Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) began her professional career as a teacher. She served as director of the Hamilton-Madison

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Democrat Congresswoman Robin Kelly represents Illinois’s 2nd District, which includes Kankakee County and parts of Cook and Will Counties. It includes Chicago’s south suburbs and Southeast Side. Kelly was first elected on April 9, 2013, when the state of Illinois held a special election to fill the

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Source: Black Past

McMillian, Marco (1979-2013)

Marco McMillian was known primarily as the first openly-gay African American male to seek mayoral office as a Democrat in his hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi. On February 26, 2013, McMillian was found dead the age of 34, having been beaten, dragged, and

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Source: Black Past

Davis, Artur (1967- )

Former Alabama Congressman Artur Genestre Davis was born on October 9, 1967 in Montgomery, Alabama. He was raised by his mother and grandmotehr and graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in Montgomery in 1986. He received his degree Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1990 and Cum Laude

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Source: Black Past

Oct

1967

Dett, R. Nathaniel (1882-1943)

From precocious five-year-old piano player in the 1890s to internationally known choral director, composer, concert pianist, and poet, R. Nathaniel Dett became champion for preservation of the black spiritual which he called authentic American folk music: He dedicated his life to finding a musical

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Source: Black Past

Aug

2011

The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed | An Online Reference Guide to African American History by Professor Quintard Taylor, University of Washington

2001 In January President-elect George W. Bush nominates Colin Powell to be Secretary of State. Condoleezza Rice is also appointed to the positon of National Security Advisor for the Bush Administration. This is the first time either post has been held by African Americans. 2001

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Source: Black Past

African American History and Women Timeline 1940-1949

During the 1940s and 1950s, many African Americans from the South migrated to the North to work in industry there, in what is called the Great

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Source: ThoughtCo

Coleman, Bonnie Watson (1945– )

Bonnie Watson Coleman has served as the U.S. House of Representatives for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District since January 3, 2015. The 12th District includes Princeton University and major parts of the Middlesex and Mercer Counties. Coleman is the first African American woman to represent

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Source: Black Past

George, Zelma (1903-1994)

Zelma Watson George, philanthropist, opera singer, and political activist was born December 8, 1903 in Hearne, Texas to Samuel E.J. Watson and Lena Thomas Watson. George’s father was a Baptist minister, and because of the requirements of his profession, moved frequently. In 1917 the family moved to

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Source: Black Past

Jul

1994

Braun, Carol Moseley (1947- )

Carol Moseley Braun was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 16, 1947. She attended the Chicago Public Schools and received a degree from the University of Illinois in 1969. She earned her degree from the University of Chicago Law School in

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Source: Black Past

Jan

2004

Williams, Vanessa (1963- )

Vanessa Lynn Williams was born in Tarrytown, New York on March 18, 1963. She is the daughter of Helen and the late Milton Williams who were music teachers. She has a younger brother, Christopher, who is also an actor. Williams was the first African American woman to win the Miss America title on

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Source: Black Past

Gist, Carole Ann-Marie (1969- )

Carole Anne-Marie Gist, the first African American woman to win the Miss USA title, was born on May 8, 1969 in Detroit, Michigan. Gist, the daughter of Joan Gist and David Turner, is of African American and Cherokee heritage. Her parents divorced when she was a young child. Gist graduated from

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Source: Black Past

Hollingsworth, Dorothy (1920- )

Dorothy Hollingsworth, a prominent educator and politician, achieved a number of “firsts” during her years in Seattle. The most important was becoming the first black woman in Washington State’s history to serve on a school board. Born in Bishopville, South Carolina on October

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Source: Black Past

Oct

1920

African American History and Women Timeline 2000-

[Previous] • (July) Venus Williams became the first African American to win the womens title at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson (1957-58) • Condoleezza Rice named as the next Secretary of State, the first African American woman to hold that position • Arkansas named a state holiday for Daisy Bates, th

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Source: ThoughtCo

Motley, Constance Baker (1921-2005)

Constance Baker Motley was born on September 14, 1921 in New Haven, Connecticut. She was the ninth child in a family of 12 children. Her parents were emigrants from the island of Nevis in the West Indies. Motley grew up attending New Haven’s integrated public schools and soon became an avid

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Source: Black Past

Sep

2005

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was a dancer and singer who later became a Civil Rights activist. Her birth name was Freda Josephine McDonald and she was born on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother used to be a dancer as well, but she gave up her aspirations in order to raise her children. Her father

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Source: Black History Resources

Jun

1906

Akuetteh, Cynthia Helen (1948- )

In 2014, Cynthia Akuetteh, career Senior Foreign Service officer, was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as ambassador to Gabon and the island nation of Sao Tomé & Principe. After U.S. Senate confirmation she arrived in Libreville, capital of Gabon, to take up her

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Source: Black Past

Grist, Reri (1932--)

Reri Grist is an internationally acclaimed lyric and coloratura soprano noted for her “silvery tone, flawless technique and stupendous acting.” Beginning her singing career as Consuelo in Leonard Bernstein’s musical “West Side Story” in 1957, she introduced the song

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Source: Black Past

Feb

1932

Mae Jemison

Mae Jemison is an American Physician and a former NASA Astronaut. Jemison is the first African American woman to travel in

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Source: Black History Resources

Oct

1956

Johnson, Gregory Lee (1945- )

On August 5, 1999 President William Clinton appointed Gregory Lee Johnson U.S. Ambassador to Swaziland. He served in that post from November 16, 1999 to October 18, 2001. Johnson began his career in the Foreign Service in 1968 and has served in Vietnam (1968-1971). His next posts were in Japan

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Source: Black Past

McHenry, Donald Franchot (1936 - )

Donald McHenry is a diplomat, scholar, corporate governor and educator who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (UN). Because the hospitals of his home town, East St. Louis, Illinois, where he would grow up, were segregated, McHenry was born in St. Louis, Missouri on October

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Source: Black Past

Oct

1936

Simmons, Ruth (1945- )

Ruth Simmons is the first African American to be named President of an Ivy League university. She is also the first African American woman to lead any major university in the United States. Simmons was sworn in as the 18th President of Brown University in autumn 2001 and the University’s first

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Source: Black Past

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American jazz icon of the 20th century. She was born on April 25, 1917 in Virginia to William and Temperance Fitzgerald. The couple separated soon after Ella’s birth, and Temperance moved to New York with her boyfriend, Joseph De Silva. She had a half sister named

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Source: Black History Resources

Jun

1996

Alice Coachman

Alice Coachman, becomes the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the high jump during the Summer Games in London

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Aug

1948

Hillary, Barbara (1931- )

Barbara Hillary is the first African American woman on record to reach both the North and South Poles. Born in New York City, New York on June 12, 1931 to Viola Jones Hillary and raised in Harlem, Hillary attended the New School University in New York, N.Y. where she earned both her Bachelor of

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Source: Black Past

Wanda L. Nesbitt (1956-- )

Wanda L. Nesbitt holds the rank of Career Minister in the U.S. Foreign Service. She joined the United States Foreign Service in 1981. She was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar by President George W. Bush and served in that capacity from 2001 to 2004. President Bush appointed her ambassador

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Source: Black Past

African American History and Women Timeline 1920-1929

[Previous] [Next] 1920s • Harlem Renaissance: also called the New Negro Movement, a blossoming of arts, culture, and social action in the African American community • 19th Amendment to the US Constitution became law, but practically this did not give the vote to Southern African American women, who,

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Source: ThoughtCo

Johnson, Hazel W. (1927-2011 )

Hazel Johnson was the first African American woman to become a general in the U.S. Army. She was appointed the Chief of the Army Nurse Corps in 1979. Johnson held a doctorate in education administration from Catholic University (1978) and had honorary degrees from Morgan State University, Villanova

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Source: Black Past

Aug

2011

African American History and Women Timeline 1860-1869

[Previous] [Next] Women and African American History: 1860-1869 • founded in 1832 and accepting male and female, white and black students, by 1860 Oberlin College had a student population that was one-third African American • Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, autobiography of Harriet Jacobs, wa

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Shirley Chisholm

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