P.B.S. Pinchback

P.B.S. Pinchback was the 1st black man to serve as a state governor of Louisiana, 1872

Grace Jones

Grace Jones 5/19/48 Jamaica. Singer, songwriter, lyricist, model, record producer, and actress.

Jaki Shelton Green is the 1st black woman to be named North Carolina’s Poet Laureate, 2018

Emlen Tunnell was the 1st black player for the New York Giants and the first black to be in the NFL’s Hall of Fame, 1967

Sharon Pratt Kelly was the 1st black woman to serve as mayor of a major American city, Washington, D.C. 1991.

Colin Powell was the nation’s 1st black secretary of state, serving from 2001 to 2004 under President George W. Bush

Amy Sherald 1st black woman artist commissioned for U.S. 1st lady portrait to be displayed in Smithsonian. 2018

Bill Russell was the 1st black coach in National Basketball Association history, for the Boston Celtics, 1966

Carol Moseley Braun was the 1st black woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, Illinois, 1992

Thomas L. Jennings was the 1st black to hold a patent for a dry-cleaning process, 1821