Ella Hill Hutch

Ella Hill Hutch, first black woman member of the Board of Supervisors, 1960.

First Black Women Flight Crew

Captain Tara Wright and first officer Mallory Cave were part of Alaska Airlines first Black women flight crew, 2018.

John Johnson was the 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion from 1908 to 1915.

Barrington Irving Jr. was the 1st black pilot to fly solo around the world, 2017.

Shirley Ann Jackson is the 1st black woman to have earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1973

Ava DuVernay was the first black woman to win best director at Sundance, 2012.

Laverne Cox was the 1st black transgender person to play a transgender series regular on broadcast TV as Cameron Wirth on CBS‘s Doubt, 2017.

William Grant Still was the 1st black composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera; the “Afro-American,” 1931.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was the 1st black person to be elected from New York to Congress, 1941.

Julie Dash directed the 1st feature film by a black woman to receive a general theatrical release, Daughters of the Dust, 1991.