Model, Naomi Sims (1948 – 2009), was the first black woman on the cover of Ladies Home Journal in 1968.

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Elbert Frank Cox (1895-1969) was the first black person to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Cornell in 1925.

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Aileen Hernandez 1926 – 2017, was a union organizer, activist, president of NOW from 1970 – 1971, co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus and Black Women Organized for Political Action.

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Cuba Gooding Jr. was the youngest black male actor to win an Academy Award at the age of 29 for his role in Jerry Maguire in 1996.  

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Barbara Johns, 1935 – 1991, in 1951 led her classmates in a strike in Virginia to protest segregation in schools and her subsequent court case was folded into Brown v. Board of Education.

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Lois Alexander Lane founder Harlem Institute of Fashion.

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Dr. James E. West is black inventor who holds over 250 patents for the design of microphones and more.

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Sounder became the first film to feature black nominees for both Best Actor (Paul Winfield) and Best Actress ( Cicely Tyson) in 1972.  

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Roxie Roker portrayed Helen Willis on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons, half of the first interracial couple to be shown on regular prime time television from 1975 to 1985.

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Mark Dean is credited with developing the color PC monitor, the Industry Standard Architecture system bus and the first gigahertz chip.

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