She was born Carol Diahann Johnson in Bronx, New York in 1935. While still a baby, her family moved to Harlem. She attended Music & Art High School and was a classmate of future movie and television star Billy Dee Williams. While in school, she excelled in singing, dance and modeling. At the age of 15, she became a model for Ebony Magazine. She grew to be six feet in height. After high school, she attended New York University and majored in sociology.

When she was 18 years old, she became a contestant and won $1000 on a television game show. With her new found fame, she was booked at local nightclubs as a singer. She began having offers for roles on Broadway and in the movies. Her first Broadway musical was “House of Flowers” in 1958. She was soon able to pick up small roles on television shows.

In 1961, she starred in the movie “Paris Blues,” starring Paul Newman, Louis Armstrong, Joanne Woodward and Sidney Poitier. The following year, she starred in the Broadway hit “No Strings” and became the first African-American woman to win a Tony Award for Best Actress. In 1968, she became the first black woman to ever star in her own television series. The show “Julia” was about a single mother whose husband had been killed in the Vietnam war and her life as a nurse at a hospital. The show was one of the top ten shows in America in 1968 and the first not depicting a black woman as a domestic worker. She won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy in 1968 for her role.

She continued her work as an actress after the show. She made numerous appearances on shows with Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, and Ed Sullivan. She earned an Oscar nomination for her leading role in the 1974 movie “Claudine.” She had a major role in the hit show “Dynasty” in the 1980s and she was nominated for another Emmy on the television show “A Different World.” She was the voice on “The Legend of Tarzan” and appeared on “Grey’s Anatomy.” She was twice nominated for the NAACP Image Award for her work on Showtime’s “Soul Food.”

Carroll passed away in 2019. She worked on Broadway as well as television and movies. Her groundbreaking work, breaking the stereotypes of black woman being servants in entertainment, makes her a great American.

Charlie Sifford was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1922. From an early age, Sifford worked as a caddy to help support his family. While caddying, he learned the sport of golf and began playing with the help of white golfer Clayton Heafner. By the age of 13, he could shoot for par on most courses that he attempted. He realized that this was the career that he wanted to pursue. However, an incident on the golf course with a white man in Charlotte forced Charlie and his family to flee and move to Philadelphia.

Sifford began playing in the Negro circuit. He became so impressive of a player that he became a golf coach and professional to big band leader and singer Billy Eckstine. Sifford became one of the top black golfers in the nation during the 1950s, capturing six Negro National Open titles in the 1950s. Many other prominent black professional athletes began to encourage him, including Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe.

During the Civil Rights Movement, the PGA came under increasing pressure to remove its “Caucasian Only” clause from it rules. In 1948, Bill Spider and Teddy Rhodes qualified for a PGA-sponsored open in California, but were blocked from entry. In 1952, Sifford used an invitation intended for boxing great Joe Louis to enter the Phoenix Open. In 1957, Sifford won the Long Beach Open, which was not a sanctioned PGA event but full of some of the best PGA golfers in the country.

In 1960, the State of California threatened legal action for not allowing blacks to play in PGA events in their state. The PGA had no choice but to allow Sifford into tournaments. By 1961, the PGA officially removed its “Caucasians Only” clause from their rules and Sifford official became a rookie of the PGA at the age of 38. Throughout the 1960s, Sifford was taunted and abused by onlookers. He was barred from many hotels, particularly in the south. Jackie Robinson gave him words of encouragement throughout the decade. In 1967, Sifford had his first PGA win at the Greater Hartford Open Invitational. In 1969, he had his second at the Los Angeles Open.

In all, Sifford competed in 422 PGA tournaments. In 1975, he won the Senior Championship and became the first African-American golfer to play the Masters. In 1992, Sifford wrote a book about his life called “Just Let Me Play.” In 2004, he was the first black golfer inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland. In 2014, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. His contribution to changing the sport of golf made him a great American.