Robert F. Flemming Jr (July 1839 – February 23, 1919) was an African-American inventor and Civil War Union sailor. He was the first member of the USS Housatonic’s crew to spot the H.L. Hunley before it sank the USS Housatonic. The sinking of the USS Housatonic is remembered as the first time a submarine sank … Read more
Bessie Coleman became the first black woman to obtain an international pilot’s license in 1921. After studying French, she enrolled in the prestigious Ecole d’Aviation des Frères Caudron in Northern France. No school in America would educate a black student. Her brother John, who served in France during World War I, inspired her to fly … Read more
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American aviators in America, serving during a time when the American Army was segregated. Despite encountering discrimination both inside and outside the service, the 332nd Fighter Group and the 99th Pursuit Squadron were regarded as highly successful during World War II. During World War II, they flew over 15,000 … Read more
The amazing story of Sarah Rector is that of a girl that was born to freed slaves in 1902 and climbed the financial ladder to become the wealthiest Black girl in America when she was only 11. She lived with her family in Taft, a Black town in Oklahoma. Her family were members of the … Read more
Four African American sharecroppers were killed near Moore’s Ford, Georgia, on July 14, 1946, in what is now known as the “last mass lynching in America.” The murderers of George Dorsey, Mae Murray Dorsey, Roger Malcolm, and Dorothy Malcolm, however, were never apprehended. The event’s violence and public uproar mirrored growing African American resistance to … Read more
Ben Carson’s inspirational life story of how he rose from obscurity to graduate first in his class is a best-seller among African Americans and millions of Africans worldwide. He achieved cult status in the African-American community by becoming the first Black neurosurgeon to successfully separate a pair of Siamese twins who were conjoined at the … Read more
Dana Albert Dorsey began his career with a single lot on which he constructed homes, rented them, and re-invested his profits, repeating the process over and over. Dorsey, a carpenter by trade, built a real estate empire in a handful of years. Thanks to his various business activities, including banking, he would become Miami’s first … Read more