The television show ‘The Proud Family’ centered around an all black family, which ran from 2001 to 2005. The show is still known as the only cartoon series on the network to have a black cast as its lead characters.

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Ruth Beckford, 1925 – 2019, toured with Katharine Dunham, founder of Oakland Dance Association.

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Richard Wright was the author of Native Son,  which was selected by the Book of the Month Club as its first book by a Black author in 1940.

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Daurene Lewis, 1943 – 2013, in 1984 was the first Black woman mayor in North America, in Canada.

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Arsenio Hall became the first black late-night talk show host with ‘The Arsenio Hall Show’ 1989 to 1994.

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Rose Fortune, 1774 – 1864, first woman police officer of any race, in Canada.

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Stephen Burrows was the first black designer to win the Coty Award for best women’s wear designer in 1977.

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Anne Cools born in 1943 was the first Black member of any gender of the Senate in Canada. She also ran one of the first domestic violence shelters in Canada.

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Robert Smalls, 1839 – 1915, was a businessman, publisher, and politician. He was born into slavery and freed himself, a crew and their families by commandeering a Confederate transport ship in 1862. After learning of Smalls’ escape President Abraham Lincoln accepted Black soldiers in the Union army.

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Bernadine Anderson was the first Black woman celebrity makeup artist. She did makeup for TV series “Roots” and for the films “Coming To America” and many more.

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