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Black History

dr marilyn gaston smiles down at the camera while standing with her arms crossed, she wears a red suit jacket, gold hoop earrings, a gold necklace, and a gold bracelet, her short hair is styled with loose curls, and her makeup includes soft red lipstick, in the background on the right is dr gayle porter who also has short hair and is smiling while looking away from the camera

Meet 8 Black Medical Pioneers Who Changed Health Care For Good

Charles Drew, Mary Mahoney, and James McNune Smith are among the African American pioneers in the medical profession.

By Colin McEvoy

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Civil Rights Movement

preview for Martin Luther King Jr. - Call to Activism

Martin Luther King Jr. - Call to Activism

a statute of four men standing side by side in front of a college building

How the Greensboro Four Began the Sit-In Movement

By Colin McEvoy

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks: Timeline of Her Life, Montgomery Bus Boycott and Death

By Sara Kettler

Little Rock Nine Photo Courtesy U.S. Army/Wikimedia Commons

The Lasting Impact of the Little Rock Nine

By Biography.com Editors

Birmingham Chlldren's Crusade

The Birmingham Children's Crusade of 1963

Black Sports History

Rachel and Jackie Robinson

How Jackie Robinson's Wife Helped Him Break Baseball's Color Barrier

Wilma Rudolph

How Wilma Rudolph Overcame Early Health Problems to Launch a Record-Breaking Career

pele

10 Things You May Not Know About Pelé

Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor an American cyclist who won the world 1 mile (1.6 km) track cycling championship in 1899 - Image ID: FG6KJC (RM)

Major Taylor: The Story Behind America's First Black Sports Superstar

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lonnie johnson holding a super soaker and its us patent while sitting on the grass outside his home, june 1992

How Lonnie Johnson Invented the Super Soaker

The engineer tuned toy inventor gamed up the idea for the water gun while preparing for a NASA mission.

By Jordan Zakarin

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Trivia You Should Know

martin luther king jr

Little Known Facts About Black History

By Biography.com Editors

sidney poitier

10 Black Actors and Actresses Who've Won Oscars

Bessie Coleman

10 Black Pioneers in Aviation Who Broke Barriers

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin and 11 Other Black Singers Who Got Their Start in Church

By Clarence Haynes

carter g woodson

Carter G. Woodson & the First Black History Month

Legal Figures

ketanji brown jackson

Ketanji Brown Jackson

Mildred Loving

Mildred Loving

Linda Brown Smith, left, of Topeka, Kansas, listens to Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director of the NAACP, during ceremonies observing the 25th anniversay of the U.S. Supreme Court's desegregation ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in Columbus, S.C., May 1979. It was Brown's father who initiated the class-action suit in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., which led to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 landmark decision against school segregation. (AP Photo)

Linda Brown

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall

Scientists

black and white drawing of granville t woods

Granville T. Woods

ada lovelace

Ada Lovelace

James West

James West

black and white photo of madam cj walker

Madam C.J. Walker

Abolitionists

black and white photo of harriet tubman

Harriet Tubman

frederick douglass posing for camera in a suit

Frederick Douglass

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth

Nat Turner

Nat Turner

Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi

How Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi Created the Black Lives Matter Movement

What started off as a hashtag on a Facebook post has become a national rallying cry for equality.

By Jordan Zakarin

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Politics

Kamala Harris

10 Things You May Not Know About Kamala Harris

Nelson Mandela, delivering a speech in Afrikaans at the KKNK, Vryheid van Oudtshoorn

14 Inspiring Nelson Mandela Quotes

By Rachel Chang

shirley chisholm

Shirley Chisholm and the 9 Other First Black Women in Congress

jesse jackson shaking supporters' hands

Black Politicians Who Ran for President of the US

Breakthroughs

clarence lester sits in the open cockpit of a world war ii fighter plane, while an engineer works on the front of the plane

This Tuskegee Airman Broke Military Barriers and Survived a Plane Ejection

By Colin McEvoy

George Washington Carver

How George Washington Carver Went From Enslaved to Educational Pioneer

By Barbara Maranzani

nasa space scientist and mathematician katherine johnson poses for a portrait at work at nasa langley research center in 1966 in hampton virginia

10 Black Female Pioneers in Science

daniel hale williams

Daniel Hale Williams Performed Open Heart Surgery

By Jordan Zakarin

black and white photo of madam cj walker

10 Black Inventors Who Changed Your Life

Arts & Entertainment

Louis Armstrong Harlem Renaissance figures

9 Key Figures of the Harlem Renaissance

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou: The Meaning Behind Her Poem "Still I Rise"

By Sara Kettler

Jean-Michel Basquiat paints in 1983 in St. Moritz, Switzerland

10 Black Visual Artists Who Broke Barriers

Nina Simone

How Nina Simone Used Her Performances For Activism

By Barbara Maranzani

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Moments in Black History

This is an image

Booker T. Washington - Mini Biography

W.E.B. Du Bois

How W.E.B. Du Bois Helped Create the NAACP

Malcolm X (C), standing behind tux-clad Muhammad Ali (L), who is surrounded by jubilant fans after he beat Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship of the world.

The True Story Behind 'One Night in Miami'

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” Speech May Not Have Contained That Famous Phrase

By Rachel Chang

Famous Black People

Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey

ruby bridges sitting in front of a painting in a blue dress

Ruby Bridges

Medgar Evers

Medgar Evers

Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens

stephen curry photo via getty images

Stephen Curry

Gymnastics - Artistic - Olympics: Day 11TOKYO, JAPAN - AUGUST 03: Simone Biles of Team United States poses with the bronze medal following the Women's Balance Beam Final on day eleven of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on August 03, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Simone Biles

Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry

Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah

Spike Lee

Spike Lee

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 27: Shonda Rhimes attends ABC News, Yahoo! News, Univision Pre-White House Correspondents Dinner cocktail reception at Washington Hilton on April 27, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Yahoo! News)

Shonda Rhimes

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai

More Black History

oprah winfrey smiles for a camera at premiere event

Oprah Winfrey

nat sweetwater clifton holding basketbal

The Man Behind the First All-Black Basketball Team

viola davis standing on a stage with a purple backdrop, holding a grammy award and speaking into a microphone at the grammy awards ceremony

10 Milestones on Viola Davis’ Road to EGOT Glory

beyonce standing on a stage, holding a grammy award trophy, while speaking into a microphone and accepting her award

2023 Grammy Awards: Six Winners Who Made History

pele in a white shirt

Pelé

representative deb haaland

Deb Haaland

Henry "Box" Brown

Henry "Box" Brown

michael jackson history tourmichael jackson poses at a press conference before a date on his history world tour in 1996

Michael Jackson

Editorial ImagesImagesCreativeEditorialVideoCreativeEditorialJohnson & Others At 1982 Pride MarchPortrait of American gay liberation activist Marsha P Johnson (1945 - 1992) (center left, in dark outfit and black hair), along with unidentified others, on the corner of Christopher Street and 7th Avenue during the Pride March (later the LGBT Pride March), New York, New York, June 27, 1982. (Photo by Barbara Alper/Getty Images)

Marsha P. Johnson

Historian Carter G. Woodson (Original Caption) Carter Goodwin Woodson (1875-1950), African-American historian, is shown in a head and shoulders portrait.

Carter G. Woodson

Louis Vuitton : Photocall - Paris Fashion Week - Womenswear F/W 2022-2023 PARIS, FRANCE - MARCH 07: Venus Williams attends the Louis Vuitton Womenswear Fall/Winter 2022/2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on March 07, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images For Louis Vuitton)

Venus Williams

American-born cabaret singer Josephine Baker (1906 - 1975) applies makeup with a powder puff in her dressing room before a performance at the Strand Theatre. A Western Union telegram from jazz singer Sophie Tucker is attached to the mirror. Baker has her hair pulled back into a fall and wears an evening dress, matching long satin gloves and a jeweled choker.

How Josephine Baker Upended Sexual Stereotypes While Advocating For Civil Rights