Bessie Blount

Bessie Blount 1914 to 2009 was a nurse, physical therapist, wartime inventor and forensic handwriting and document analyst. She invented and patented an “invalid feeder” kidney shaped vomit basin out of papier-mâché. She was also the first black woman to train at Scotland Yard in 1977.

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A. Leon Higginbotham

A. Leon Higginbotham was the seventh black Article III judge appointed in the United States, and the first black United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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Henry Ossawa Tanner

Henry Ossawa Tannerwas an American artist and the first black painter to gain international acclaim. His painting entitled Daniel in the Lions’ Den was accepted into the 1896 Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

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Jane Wright

Jane Wright, MD. became the first woman elected president of the New York Cancer Society after serving as associate the dean and head of cancer chemotherapy department at New York Medical College in New York City in 1967.

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Alexander Augusta

Alexander Augusta was the first black physician appointed the first commissioned black surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1863 and the first black physician to direct a U.S. hospital — Freedman’s Hospital in 1868.

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Marilyn Gaston

Marilyn Gaston, MD became the first black female director of an U.S. Public Health Service bureau after being appointed director of HHS’ Bureau of Primary Health Care in 1990.

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Naomi Osaka

The Haitian-Japanese player, Naomi Osaka, became the first person from Japan to win a Grand Slam title after she defeated Serena Williams at the 2018 U.S. Open.

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