Thirteen of the 15 riders in the first Kentucky Derby were African-American. One of those riders was Isaac Burns Murphy. A rider from 1876-1895, Murphy carried a 44% victory rate. He was the first jockey elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and was dubbed one of the greatest race riders […]
African Commander Handsome Thamsanqa Matsane has become the first black officer to assume command of a submarine in Africa. In a ceremony held at Simon’s Town Naval Base in Cape Town, Commander Matsane took over command of the submarine SAS Queen Modjadji I. Matsane joined the South African Navy in 1998. He served on three […]
Louisiana-based musician Dave Bartholomew was a pioneer of the New Orleans sound. As a bandleader, songwriter and trumpeter, Bartholomew was the top man to partner Antoine “Fats” Domino and his award-winning sound. Bartholomew discovered Domino in 1949 and signed him to Imperial Records. The two music icons worked together for nearly 14 years, writing more […]
Patricia Stephens Due was a civil rights activist who was known to start the “jail-in” protest method. Due believed “history happens one person at a time.” Holding to that belief, she refused to pay her bail after she and other Florida A&M University students were arrested at Woolworths’ lunch counter in 1960. She spent 49 […]
The Rufus Buck Gang was a group of black and Creek Indian outlaws who ran through Oklahoma in 1895. The leader of the group, a man named Rufus Buck, had a deep-rooted hatred for white men. The rest of his crew was comprised of Lewis Davis, Sam Sampson, Maoma July and Lucky Davis. Young and […]
The Funky Four is a rap group that made music history. They were the first rap group to have a female rapper among its membership and the first of its kind to get signed to a record label, Enjoy Records, in 1979. A later incarnation, The Funky Four Plus One More, was also the first […]
Daisy Bates is synonymous with the legacy of Arkansas’ Little Rock Nine. One of only three women to later speak at the March on Washington, Bates was the chief advisor and spokesperson for the students who integrated Little Rock’s Central High School. Her city called her the “Lena Horne of Little Rock” because of her […]
Jourdan Anderson was a slave who was freed under the Emancipation Proclamation. Under gunfire, he and his wife, Amanda McGregor, escaped Colonel P.H. Anderson’s home in Tennessee and started a family in Ohio. In 1864, Jourdan Anderson received his free papers. A year later, the colonel sent a letter to Anderson asking him to come back […]
In March 1966, Donyale Luna became the first black model to grace the cover of British Vogue. Supermodel Beverly Johnson holds the history of being the first black woman on the U.S. edition of Vogue, but that was eight years after Luna’s photos were published. A beauty icon, Luna’s likeness was later copied as a mannequin […]
Captain Louis Freeman holds many African-American firsts, but he will go down in history as the first black pilot to be hired by a major American commercial carrier. Capt. Freeman was hired by Southwest Airlines in 1980. He was later made the first black chief pilot of any major airline in 1992. Capt. Freeman began […]
In 1958, a landmark civil rights case involving nine-year-old James Hanover Thompson and seven-year-old David “Fuzzy” Ezzelle Simpson sparked international outrage. The two boys from Monroe, North Carolina were accused of rape after being kissed on the cheek by a white girl in an innocent schoolyard game. The girl told her parents about the game, […]
Milton Crenchaw is the last living supervising squadron commander flight instructor of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. Crenchaw was part of the 66th Army Air Forces Flight Training Detachment and one of the first black pilots trained by the U.S. government. Crenchaw was surrounded by civil rights activism as a child. His father, Rev. Joseph C. […]
