99th Flying Training Squadron formed during World War II as the first flying squadron for Blacks aka “Tuskegee Airmen”.

In 2015, Abel Tesfaye (February 16, 1990), better known as The Weeknd, became the first artist to simultaneously hold the top three positions on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart with “Can’t Feel My Face”, “Earned It”, and “The Hills”.

Solána Imani Rowe (November 8, 1990), known professionally as SZA, is a singer and songwriter. Her clothing line Ctrl Fishing Co. uses 100% of its profits toward sustainability and saving the ocean.

Nicodemus, Kansas the oldest and only remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi. In 1877 it was the “largest colored colony in America”.

Rapper Kanye West (June 8, 1977) has all platinum albums and holds the record for having the most consecutive studio albums to debut at number one on the Billboard 200.

Tamar Braxton, born March 17, 1977, is a singer, songwriter, media personality and reality television personality. She began her career in 1990 as a founding member of The Braxtons, an R&B singing group formed with her sisters.

Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee, born March 20, 1957, is a film director, producer, writer, and actor.

Angie Thomas, born in 1988, is an American author best known for writing the YA novels The Hate U Give and On the Come Up. Thomas earned a BFA from Belhaven University, a private Christian college in Mississippi, where she was the first Black student to graduate in creative writing.