Mati Diop is the first black female director in the Cannes competition after the postproduction on her film Atlantics in 2019.

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Kenneth Frazier is the first black man to lead a major pharmaceutical company after becoming the chairman and CEO of the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. in 2011.

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In 1969 Clarence “Skip” Ellis became the first black man to earn a doctorate degree in computer science after enrolling at MIT.

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Pat McGrath became the first black makeup artist to win a Founders award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 2017.

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Russell Wendell Simmons is the chair and CEO of Rush Communications, he co-founded the hip-hop music label Def Jam Recordings and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris.

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Clara Brown (c. 1800–1885) was a former slave from Virginia who became a philanthropist and aided settlement of former slaves during the time of Colorado’s Gold Rush.

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Zim Ugochukwu is the founder & former Chief Executive Officer of Travel Noire as of 2013.

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Nigerian-American, Ayoola Daramola, founded the Afro Emoji app which replaces standard emojis with a wide selection of emojis of Africans dressed in traditional attire in 2016.

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Janina Simmons is the first black woman set to graduate from U.S. Army Ranger School as of 2019.

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Nipsey Russell (1918 –  2005) was best known for his appearances on game shows from the 1960s through the 1990s, including Match Game, Password, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth, and Pyramid.

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