Virgie M. Ammons invented the fireplace damper and received a patent for it 1975.

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Jacqueline Copeland-Carson, COO of AnitaB.org.

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Cheryl Boone Issacs was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, making her the third woman and first black person to hold the position in 2013.

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Deliah L. Beasley in 1925 was the first black woman to be published regularly in a major metropolitan newspaper, the Oakland Tribune in California.

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Fania Davis founded RJOY (Resorative Justice of Oakland Youth).

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Ruth Beckford In 1947 founded the first recreational modern dance department in the United States at the Oakland (California) Department of Parks and Recreation.

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Ida Louise Jackson In 1926 was the first black teacher or any gender to teach in the Oakland, California Public Schools.

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Ezola Foster became the first black person of any gender to be nominated for Vice President in 2000, the Reform Party with Pat Buchanan. She was the second woman to be so nominated.

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Henrietta Lacks (HeLa) was a black woman with cervical cancer whose cells were used without her knowledge for research in 1951 when she entered the hospital and died the same year. Her family was unaware of the research until 1975. Her tombstone, dedicated in 2010 reads in part: “her immortal cells will continue to help mankind […]

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Marilyn French Hubbard is the founder and first president of the National Association of Black Women Entrepreneurs.

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