Calendar

Dr. Jessye (1895-1992) was a preeminent Conductor, Choral Director, founder of the Eva Jessye Choir, and the first Black woman to earn international distinction as a director of a professional choral group. She was the first musical director for the original production of Porgy and Bess and, devoted to Civil Rights, Jessye and the Eva Jessye Choir were appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King the official choir of the 1963 March on Washington.

Brown was the first black woman to hold both a private (1937) and commercial (1939) pilot’s license in the United States and one of the first woman to hold a commercial pilot's license and a master aviation mechanic's certificate (1935). She co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics where she trained thousands of pilots, nearly 200 of which became Tuskegee airmen. She was also the first black woman to run for Congress.

Johnson (1949) is a businesswoman and philanthropist who co-founded Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 1980, the first cable television network focused exclusively on Black audiences. BET revolutionized media representation by showcasing Black music, culture, and entertainment at a time when mainstream television largely excluded Black talent. The network launched the careers of countless Black artists, created original programming that reflected Black experiences, and provided news coverage focused on issues important to the Black community, eventually reaching over 88 million households. In 2001, BET was sold to Viacom for $2.9 billion, making Johnson the first Black woman billionaire. Beyond BET, she serves as CEO and founder of the Salamander Collection, a luxury hotel company, and made history as the first Black woman to have ownership stakes in three professional sports franchises as a partner in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NBA's Washington Wizards, NHL's Washington Capitals, and WNBA's Washington Mystics.

Keckley (1818) was born enslaved, she purchased her freedom for herself and her son for $1200, was a seamstress and confidant of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, and published her memoirs.

Wilkinson (1935-2018) was the first Black woman to join a major ballet company when she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1955.

Motivated by her childhood love for Star Wars and Star Trek, Dr. Brown (1969-2008) became an Astrophysicist in the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. She was also the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan's Department of Astronomy.

Civil Rights

Gilmore (1920-1990) was a midwife, cook, founder of The Club from Nowhere, and an unsung heroine of the Civil Rights Movement.

Tate (1905-1996) was an intrepid adventurer, educator, author, polyglot, and international diplomacy expert. She was the first Black woman from the United States to attend Oxford University, earning her B.Litt. degree in 1935. She later became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in government and international relations from Harvard's Radcliffe College in 1941. She joined Howard University's history department in 1942, where she served as professor until 1977. Her scholarly work included five books on diplomatic history, extensive research across Asia, the Pacific, and Africa, and service as an advisor to then General Eisenhower on disarmament in the late 1940s. Tate's legacy also includes significant philanthropic contributions, notably a $1 million donation to establish the Merze Tate Student Education Endowment Fund as well as endowments for two Medallion Scholarships at Western Michigan University.

Dr. Wheeler and her husband opened a hospital.

Fisher (1924-1995) challenged the legal basis of segregated classes at the graduate level in the United States in Sipuel v Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma (1948).

“My voice is what I think life is, my voice is beauty, my voice is America, my voice is my blackness, my voice is love, my voice is God.” Extraordinary spinto soprano and Prima Donna, Price (1927) is ...

Starring Tisha Campbell

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was established in 1909 and is one of America's oldest civil rights organizations. While founded by a multi-ethnic group of activists, it focused on combating discrimination and violence against Black Americans. Mary White Ovington, a founding member, documented the organization's inception in her article "How the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Began". Published in The Crisis, her firsthand account is considered one of the most important primary sources about the NAACP's founding. In it, she describes the events that led to "The Call."

Bass (1874-1969), is known as the first African American woman to own and operate a newspaper (The California Eagle) in the United States.

Cardwell (1894-1962) was a Musician, Educator, and founder of the extraordinary National Negro Opera Company (Pittsburg, 1941), and the Cardwell School of Music.