Illinois

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (1964), a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, began her career at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin before transitioning to public service roles including Chicago City Hall, Public Allies, the University of Chicago, and the University of Chicago Hospital. As the first Black First Lady of the United States (2009-2017), she launched signature initiatives focusing on childhood obesity prevention, education access, and support for military families, while later becoming a bestselling author and continuing her advocacy work after leaving the White House.

Cobb (1924-2017) was a cell biologist and cancer researcher whose work led to her discovery that methotrexate was effective in treating certain skin cancers, lung cancers, and childhood leukemia. Beyond her scientific achievements, she broke barriers in academia as one of the first African American women to earn a Ph.D. in cell physiology and served as a dean at Connecticut College and Douglass College before becoming president of California State University, Fullerton, making her one of the first African American women to lead a major U.S. university.

Bonds (1913-1972) was an incomparable composer, pianist, and educator. She profoundly influenced 20th-century classical music by infusing her orchestral and chamber works with elements of spirituals, calypso rhythms, and other musical traditions from the African diaspora.

Singer, Actress, and Host, McNair (1934-2007) was one of the first Black women to host a television show (1969-1971).

Larsen (1891-1964) was a nurse, librarian, novelist, key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, and the first black woman to graduate from the New York Public Library's Library School. She is best known for her two novels, "Quicksand" (1928) and "Passing" (1929), which explored complex themes of racial identity, mixed-race heritage, and the struggle for acceptance in both black and white communities. She also made history as the first Black woman to win a Guggenheim Fellowship for creative writing (1930).

Ahhh, "to be young, gifted, and Black"! Hansberry was a dynamic playwright and the first Black woman author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best-known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, has been considered one of the greatest plays of the 20th century.

Andrews (1901-1993) was a Harlem It Girl, Librarian, Hostess, and Cultural Icon. She helped organize the Civic Club Dinner of 1924 - the purported birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance - and she became the first Black librarian appointed to lead a New York Public Library branch (115th St. Branch, 1938).

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.

In 1991, Harlins was murdered, shot in the back of the head from a distance of three feet by a Korean grocery store owner in Los Angeles, California.

NASA Astronaut, Electrical Engineer, and the third black woman to travel into Space.

Davis (1929-2018) was the first Black ballerina to perform with the Paris Opera Ballet, a Broadway actress, member of the Katherine Dunham Company, and the first wife of Miles Davis.

Actress; Star Trek; Blacksploitation