Lena Waithe born 1984, first Black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing in 2017.

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Kehinde Wiley born 1977 was the first Black male artist commissioned for a U.S. president portrait, displayed in the Smithsonian in 2018.

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Marsha P. Johnson, 1945 – 1992 was at the Stonewall uprising of 1969, a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, co-founded the advocacy organization S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), was known as the “mayor of Christopher Street“ and an AIDS activist with ACT UP.

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Sampson McCormick, born 1986, is the first LGBT comedian to perform at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2018.

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Sheryl Swoopes born 1971 was the first player signed with the WNBA and the first woman basketball player to have a Nike shoe named after her, the “Air Swoopes.”

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David Kato, 1964 – 2011 was a teacher and LGBT rights activist. He was known as the father of Uganda’s gay rights movement. He was murdered by being beaten to death after a publication outed him as Uganda’s first openly gay man and called for him to be hanged.

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Sapphire born in 1950 and is an author and poet. She wrote Push and had a cameo in the movie version of the book renamed Precious.

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Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) was a choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Ailey School in New York City; 1958.

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Lori Lightfoot born 1962, first Black woman and first openly gay person elected mayor of Chicago on April 2nd 2019.

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Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) was a civil rights activist who helped organize the March on Washington in 1963.

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