Black History Facts

1821 First Black to hold a patent – Thomas L. Jennings (Dry-Cleaning Process)
1862 First Black recognized U.S. Army Black Combat Unit – 1st South Carolina Volunteers
1868 First Black elected to the U.S. House of Representatives – John Willis Menard
1870 First Black elected to the U.S. Senate – Hiram Rhodes Revels (R-MS) & First Black to serve in the U.S. Congress – Hiram Rhodes Revels (R-MS)
1874 First Black president of a major college/university – Father Patrick Francis Healy, S.J. Georgetown College
1878 First Black baseball player in organized professional baseball – John W. “Bud” Fowler
1880 First Black to command a U.S. ship – Captain Michael Healy
1901 First Black invited to dine at the White House – Booker T. Washington
1902 First Black professional basketball player – Harry Lew
1902 First Black boxing champion – Joe Gans, a lightweight
1903 First full-length musical written and played by Blacks to be performed at a major Broadway house – “In Dahomey: A Negro Musical Comedy”
1904 First Black to participate in the Olympic Games & First Black to win a medal – George Poage (Two Bronze Medals)
1908 First Black heavyweight boxing champion – Jack Johnson
1908 First Black Olympic gold medal winner – John Taylor (track and Field Medley Relay Team)
1911 First Black intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established by Blacks at a historically black College – Omega Psi Phi, at Howard University
1916 First Black to play in a Rose Bowl game – Fritz Pollard, Brown University
1917 First Black woman to win a major sports title – Lucy Diggs Slowe, American Tennis Association
1920 First Black NFL Football Players – Fritz Pollard (Akron Pros) & Bobby Marshall (Rock Island Independents)
1921 First Black woman to become an aviation pilot – Bessie Coleman
1921 First Black NFL football coach – Fritz Pollard (Co-Head Coach, Akron Pros)
1927 First Black star in an international motion picture – Josephine Baker (La Sirène des tropiques)
1929 First Black sportscaster – Sherman “Jocko” Maxwell (WNJR, Newark, New Jersey)
1934 First Black elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat – Arthur W. Mitchell
1936 First Black women selected for the Olympic Games – Tidye Pickett and Louise Stokes.
1940 First Black Oscar winner – Hattie McDaniel (Best Supporting Actress “Gone with the Wind,” 1939)
1944 First Black Commissioned Officers in the U.S. Navy – The “Golden Thirteen”
1945 First Black member of the New York City Opera – Todd Duncan
1947 First Black Major League Baseball player of the modern era – Jackie Robinson (Brooklyn Dodgers)
1947 First Black artist to receive sole credit for a Billboard Charts No. 1 hit – Count Basie (“Open the Door, Richard”)
1948 First Black U.S. Navy aviator – Jesse L. Brown
1950 First Black to win the Nobel Peace Prize: Ralph Bunche
1950 First Black solo singer to have a No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts – Nat King Cole (“Mona Lisa”)
1951 First Black named to the College Football Hall of Fame – Duke Slater, University of Iowa
1952 First Black woman elected to a U.S. State Senate – Cora Brown, (Michigan)
1954 First Black U.S. Navy Diver – Carl Brashear
1954 First Black woman nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress – Dorothy Dandridge (Carmen Jones, 1954)
1955 First Black member of the Metropolitan Opera – Marian Anderson
1956 First Black Nationwide network TV show star – Nat King Cole (The Nat King Cole Show, NBC)
1957 First Black woman Wimbledon Tennis Champion – Althea Gibson
1959 First Black Grammy Award winners (Award’s inaugural year) – Ella Fitzgerald & Count Basie (Two awards each)
1959 First Black group to reach No. 1 (Billboard Hot 100) – The Platters (“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”)
1961 First Black to win the Heisman Trophy – Ernie Davis
1961 First Black delegate to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – Edith S. Sampson
1962 First Black to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame – Jackie Robinson
1962 First Black Attorney General of a state – Edward Brooke (Massachusetts)
1963 First Black named as Time magazine’s Man of the Year – Martin Luther King Jr.
1963 First Black group to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 – The Platters
1965 First Black U.S. Air Force General – Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr.
1966 First Black Cabinet Secretary – Robert C. Weaver (Dept. of Housing & Urban Development)
1967 First Black appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States – Thurgood Marshall
1967 First Black elected Mayor of Gary, Indiana – Richard Hatcher
1967 First Black elected Mayor Cleveland Ohio – Carl B. Stokes (Cleveland, Ohio)
1967 First Black elected Mayor of Washington, D.C. – Walter Washington
1969 First Black woman to appear on the Grand Ole Opry – Linda Martell
1971 First Black to win a Golden Globe Award – Gail Fisher (Mannix)
1973 First Black Bond Girl in a James Bond movie – Gloria Hendry
1974 First Black model on the cover of American Vogue magazine – Beverly Johnson
1975 First Black four-star general – Daniel James Jr.
1975 First Black to be named Super Bowl MVP in NFL – Franco Harris (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1977 First Black woman in U.S. Cabinet – Patricia Roberts Harris, Sec. Housing & Urban Development
1979 First Black head coach of an NCAA Division I A football program – Willie Jeffries (Wichita State)
1982 First Black U.S. Army four-star General – Roscoe Robinson Jr.
1983 First Black artist to have a video shown on MTV – Michael Jackson
1984 First Black coach to win NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship – John Thompson (Georgetown)
1985 First Black member of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels precision flying team – Donnie Cochran.
1987 First Black woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Aretha Franklin
1987 First Black Radio City Music Hall Rockette – Jennifer Jones
1988 First Black woman elected to a U.S. Judgeship & First Black appointed to a State Supreme Court – Juanita Kidd Stout
1989 First Black Mayor of New York City – David Dinkins
1990 First Black Miss USA – Carole Gist
1991 First Black nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director – John Singleton “Boyz n the Hood”
1992 First Black woman elected to U.S. Senate – Carol Moseley Braun
1992 First Black woman astronaut – Dr. Mae Jemison (Space Shuttle Endeavour)
1993 First Black appointed Surgeon General of the United States – Joycelyn Elders
1994 First Black to command the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels precision flying team – Donnie Cochran
1996 First Black U.S. Navy four-star admiral – J. Paul Reason
2000 First Black to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame – Charley Pride
2001 First Black Secretary of State – Colin Powell
2001 First Black woman National Security Advisor – Condoleezza Rice
2002 First Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress – Halle Berry
2005 First Black woman, and first woman, to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol – Rosa Parks
2007 First Black NFL coach to win a Super Bowl – Tony Dungy (Super Bowl XLI)
2008 First Black President of the United States – Barack Obama
2009 First Black United States Attorney General – Eric Holder
2012 First Black woman to take command of a navy missile destroyer – Monika Washington Stoker
2013 First Black U.S. Senator from the former Confederacy since Reconstruction – Tim Scott
2013 First Black United States Secretary of Homeland Security – Jeh Johnson
2017 First Black CEO of a Major League Baseball team – Derek Jeter
2020 First Black elected official to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda – John Lewis
2021 First Black & First Black woman Vice President – Kamala Harris
2021 First Black woman to become a full-time coach in the NFL – Jennifer King (Washington Football Team)