McDaniel (1895-1952) was the first Black person to win an Academy Award, receiving the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in "Gone with the Wind" (1939). Despite her groundbreaking achievement, she faced significant racial discrimination throughout her career: She was barred from the film's premiere at the whites-only Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta and was forced to sit at a segregated table in a side room during the Academy Awards ceremony.

Scott (1920-1981) was a child prodigy who became a virtuoso pianist, renowned for fusing classical music with jazz and her signature "swinging the classics" style. She was famous for playing two pianos simultaneously at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall. She broke racial barriers as the first Black woman to host her own TV show, The Hazel Scott Show, in 1950. The 15-minute program aired three times a week and featured Scott performing her signature style. However, the show was canceled after she was blacklisted for defending herself against communist allegations before the House Un-American Activities Committee. She was a committed civil rights activist and also notably married to U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

Extraordinary

Brown, (1918-1999) is considered the second African American woman to become a licensed architect in the U.S.

Orfeu Negro is a 1959 tragedy starring Marpessa Dawn. It is based on the Greek story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during Carnaval.

Decided June 12, 2967. In 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested and jailed for violating Virginia's Racial Integrity Act, which banned marriages between individuals classified as "white" and "colored." The Lovings first challenged the constitutionality of the Act in the Virginia Supreme Court. After the state court upheld the law, the Lovings appealed to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that Virginia's anti-miscegenation law violated the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Known as the "Queen Mother" and "Matriarch of Black Dance", Dunham (1909-2006) pioneered a new form of artistic expression by fusing her anthropological studies of Caribbean cultures with modern dance techniques, creating the Dunham Technique which is still widely taught today. She formed one of the first black ballet companies, the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, through which she showcased the beauty and power of the Dunham Technique's African diasporic dance movements. One of the company's celebrated works was the 1948 piece Caribbean Rhapsody, which featured a remarkable performance by the then 21-year-old Eartha Kitt. The company also achieved acclaim through Broadway and Hollywood performances that brought the Dunham Technique to global audiences.

Butler (1947-2006) was the the mother of Afrofuturism.

Starring Dorothy Dandridge and Sydney Potier.

An ensemble cast starring Halle Berry, Robin Givens, Eartha Kitt, Tisha Campbell, and Eddie Murphy.

A Box Office smash!

A member of the 1948 U.S. Olympic team and the first black woman to become the head coach of the U.S. Olympic Women’s Track & Field team.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark legislation that formally ended segregation and dismantled the Jim Crow system by banning discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in various aspects of American life, including employment, education, and public accommodations.

In 2001, Simmons became the first Black woman to lead an Ivy League Institution when she was sworn in as the 18th President of Brown University.

Slowe's legacy is deeply woven into the fabric of African American history. As one of the nine original founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated at Howard University in 1908, she helped lay the foundation for an organization that would empower generations of Black women. Slowe became the first African American to win a major athletic title when she won the American Tennis Association championship in 1917, and she served as the first Dean of Women at Howard University (the first African American to serve in such a position at any university in the US), dedicating her career to supporting young Black women in higher education.

Lewis (1844-1907) was a sculptor, known as Wildfire.

Hedgeman (1899-1990) was a civil rights activist, educator, politician, author, founding member of the National Organization for Women, and was the first woman member on the administrative planning committee for the 1963 March on Washington. She reportedly recruiter over 40,000 marchers from the National Council of Churches.