Byron Rustin - Unsung hero of the Civil Rights

The breathtaking courage of Harriet Tubman

The Hidden Life of Rosa Parks

Eyes on the Stars

The Nazi Olympics: African American Athletes

March from Selma to Montgomery | American Freedom Stories

U.S. Rep. John Lewis' Firsthand Account of Surviving "Bloody Sunday"

Ruby Bridges - Trailblazing as a Child in the Jim Crow South

Shirley Chisholm (1924 - 2005)

During the racially contentious period in the late '60s, she became the first Black woman elected to Congress. She represented New York's 12th District from 1969 to 1983, and in 1972, she became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Her campaign slogan was "Unbought and Unbossed". Ms. Chisolm paved the way for women like Kamala Harris to hold positions in politics today.

Jesse Owens (1913 - 1980)

Owens was a track-and-field athlete who set a world record in the long jump at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin—and went unrivaled for 25 years. He won four gold medals at the Olympics that year in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, along with the 100-meter relay and other events off the track. In 1976, Owens received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1990.

Bessie Coleman (1892 -1926)

Despite being the first licensed Black pilot in the world, Coleman wasn’t recognized as a pioneer in aviation until after her death. Though history has favored Amelia Earhart or the Wright brothers, Coleman—who went to flight school in France in 1919—paved the way for a new generation of diverse fliers like the Tuskegee airmen, Blackbirds, and Flying Hobos.

Henrietta Lacks (1920-1951)

After being diagnosed with cervical cancer at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951, a sample of Lacks's cancer cells were taken without her consent by a researcher. And though she succumbed to the disease at the age of 31 that same year, her cells would go on to advance medical research for years to come, as they had the unique ability to double every 20-24 hours. "They have been used to test the effects of radiation and poisons, to study the human genome, to learn more about how viruses work, and played a crucial role in the development of the polio vaccine," Johns Hopkins said.

Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992)

Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson is known to many as the leader of the gay liberation movement. She led an uprising after members of the LGBTQ community were harassed at at the Stonewall Inn by members of the NYPD in 1969. Johnson was a successful drag queen and used her influence to lift up others, creating the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in 1970, an organization that worked to find housing for homeless transgender youth.

Jo Ann Robinson (1912-1992)

As a professor at Alabama State College and president of Montgomery's Women's Political Council, Jo Ann Robinson made desegregating the city's buses her priority. And though she was already laying the foundation for a boycott, it was Rosa Park's arrest for refusing to give up her seat in the front of the bus that officially sparked Robinson to initiate action. What started as a one-day boycott turned into a months-long fight led by the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), with Martin Luther King Jr as its president. Robinson was a prominent leader behind the scenes of the MIA, largely contributing to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1956 ruling that segregated buses were unconstitutional.

Katherine Johnson (1918 -2020)

American mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecraft during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program. Her work helped send astronauts to the Moon. Her work along with other African American women mathematicians (Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson) is also depicted in the book and film titled Hidden Figures, 2016

Marian Anderson (1897-1993)

Anderson became the first African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. In addition, she worked as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United States Department of State, giving concerts all over the world. She participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, singing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Anderson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Congressional Gold Medal in 1977, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

Selma

12 Years a Slave

Harriet

Hidden Figures

Southside with You

42

Race

Loving