(December 1, 1940- April 9, 2011) Photo credits: The Estate of Jerry Lawson (Jerry Lawson) Before Xbox, PlayStation, or even Atari, you had to buy a...

Self-made Millionaire at the age of 15

April 5, 2019

Wally Amos was the first black talent agent and entrepreneur who founded Famous Amos cookies.

April 7, 2019

Inventors

Black Firsts

Dr. Percy Lavon Julian, the Chemist Who Defied Boundaries and Changed Medicine

tellersuntold - February 17, 2025

Introduction Black History Month is a time to celebrate the contributions of African Americans who have shaped our world. While figures like Martin Luther King...

Celebrating Black History: The Legacy of James Edward Maceo West and His Revolutionary Electret Microphone

February 6, 2025

Marie Van Brittan Brown: The Trailblazing Inventor Behind the First Home Security System

October 24, 2024

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African-American Firsts

Claudette Colvin Refused to Give Up Her Seat on the Bus before Rosa Parks

Black History Nonso Nwagbo - April 12, 2021

Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939 (age 81), in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. She is an activist who was a pioneer in the...

The First Black-American To Earn A Bachelor’s Degree From An American College

Black Firsts tellersuntold - January 14, 2020

Alexander Lucius Twilight was the first Black-American known to have earned a bachelor's degree from an American college or university. He was also the...

Willa Brown: The First Black American Woman to Earn Both a Pilot’s License and a Commercial License

Black Firsts tellersuntold - April 4, 2023

Introduction Years after relocating to Chicago, I learned about Bessie Coleman, the first black woman to obtain a pilot's license in the United States in...

Muriel Tramis: The First Black Woman Video Game Designer

Black Firsts tellersuntold - March 23, 2023

Men controlled the video gaming industry in the 1980s. The first black woman to design a video game was Muriel Tramis, a French-Caribbean woman...

Frank “Sugar Chile” Robinson: A Child Prodigy

Black Firsts tellersuntold - June 28, 2022

Frank "Sugar Chile" Robinson is an American jazz pianist and singer. He became famous as a child prodigy in the mid–1940s, and this little...

Jesse Owens: the Buckeye Bullet!