List of African-American firsts

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Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. African Americans (also known as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group in the United States. The first achievements by African Americans in various fields historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier".[1][2]

One commonly cited example is that of Jackie Robinson, who was the first African American of the modern era to become a Major League Baseball player, ending 60 years of segregated Negro Leagues.[3]

Contents

18th century
19th century: 1800s1810s1820s1830s1840s1850s1860s1870s1880s1890s
20th century: 1900s1910s1920s1930s1940s1950s1960s1970s1980s1990s
21st century: 2000s2010s
See also
Notes
References
External links

18th century

1730s–1770s

1738

1760

  • First known African-American published author: Jupiter Hammon (poem "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries", published as a broadside)[4]

1768

1773

1775

  • First African American to join the Freemasons: Prince Hall

1778

1780s–1790s

1783

  • First African American to formally practice medicine: James Derham, who did not hold an M.D. degree[10] (See also 1847 firsts)

1792

1793

1794

19th century

1800s

1804

1810s

1816

1820s

1821

1822

  • First African-American captain to sail a whaleship with an all-black crew: Absalom Boston[13]

1823

1827

1830s

1836

  • First African American elected to public office and to serve in a state legislature: Alexander Twilight, Vermont[14] (See also: 1823)

1837

1840s

1845

1847

1849

1850s

1851

1853

1854

1858

1860s

1861

1862

1863

1864

1865

1866

1868

1869

1870s

1870

1872

1874

1875

1876

1877

1878

1879

  • First African American to graduate from a formal nursing school: Mary Eliza Mahoney, Boston, Massachusetts.[52]

1880s

1880

1881

1882

  • First first fully state-supported four-year institution of higher learning for African-Americans: Virginia State University

1883

1884

1886

1890s

1891

1892

1895

1898

1899

20th century

1901

1902

  • First African-American professional basketball player: Harry Lew (New England Professional Basketball League)[66] (See also: 1950)
  • First African-American boxing champion, Joe Gans a lightweight

1903

  • First Broadway musical written by African Americans, and the first to star African Americans: In Dahomey
  • First African-American woman to found and become president of a bank: Maggie L. Walker, St. Luke Penny Savings Bank (since 1930 the Consolidated Bank & Trust Company), Richmond, Virginia[67]

1904

  • First Greek-letter fraternal organization established by African Americans: Sigma Pi Phi
  • First African American to participate in the Olympic Games, and first to win a medal: George Poage (two bronze medals)[68]

1906

1907

1908

1910s

1910

1911

1914

1915

1916

1917

1919

1920s

1920

1921

1924

1925

1927

1928

1929

1930s

1931

1932

1934

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

  • First African American to star in her own television program: Ethel Waters, The Ethel Waters Show, on NBC[99]

1940s

1940

1941

  • First African American to give a White House Command Performance: Josh White[103]

1942

1943

1944

1945

1947

1948

1949

1950s

1950

1951

1952

[141]

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960s

1960

  • First African-American U.S. presidential candidate: Rev. Clennon King, on the Independent Afro-American party
  • First African-American child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South: Ruby Bridges

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970s

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

  • First African-American woman elected officer of international labor union: Addie L. Wyatt
  • First African American appointed as a judge in Federal District Court in Virginia: Robert H. Cooley III (1939–1998), appointed to the Eastern District[178]

1977

1978

1979

1980s

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

  • First African American to win a delegate-awarding U.S. presidential primary/caucus: Jesse Jackson (Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Virginia and one of two separate Mississippi contests).
  • First African-American New York City Police Commissioner: Benjamin Ward

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990s

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

21st century

2000s

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010s

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

See also

Notes

  1. This claim is contested by the First Baptist Church, Petersburg, Virginia (1774) and the First Colored Baptist Church, renamed First African Baptist Church, Savannah, Georgia (1777).
  2. Because it was published in the U.K., the book is not the first African-American novel published in the United States. This credit goes to one of two disputed books: Harriet Wilson's Our Nig (1859), brought to light by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in 1982; or Julia C. Collins' The Curse of Caste; or The Slave Bride (1865), brought to light by William L. Andrews, an English literature professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Mitch Kachun, a history professor at Western Michigan University, in 2006. Andrews and Kachun document Our Nig as a novelized autobiography, and argue that The Curse of Caste is the first fully fictional novel by an African American to be published in the U.S.
  3. Founded earlier; not fully owned and operated by African Americans until 1863
  4. Revels, the Mississippi State Senate's Adams County representative, was elected by the U.S. Senate in January 1870 to fill an unexpired term.
  5. Rainey, a South Carolina state senator, was elected to fill the seat vacated by B. Franklin Whittemore. Rainey took his seat on December 12, 1870. John Willis Menard was actually the first African-American elected to the House (1868) but he was denied his seat.
  6. Douglass did not seek the nomination or campaign after being nominated.
  7. Parker graduated from Mount Holyoke when it was still a seminary.
  8. This was previously thought to be Sarah E. Goode (for the cabinet bed, Chicago, Illinois).[57]
  9. His son, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.
  10. Gravely was also the first African American to command a U.S. Navy warship (1962), and the first promoted to the rank of admiral (1971).
  11. L. Clifford Davis applied to the law school in 1946, and after several failed attempts was granted admission in September 1947, but was unable to enroll in classes. Hunt later enrolled on February 2, 1948.[119]
  12. While considered a network for regulatory reasons, CBS TV was viewable only locally in 1948. By 1956, CBS and other networks were viewable nationwide.
  13. Clifton was the first to sign an NBA contract and subsequently play, Cooper was the first to be drafted by an NBA team, and Lloyd was the first to play in an NBA regular-season game because his team's opening game was one day before the others.
  14. At that time, nominations were announced in November of the year of release, instead of early the following year.
  15. While two black players won Gold Gloves that year, only Mays is African-American. The other, Minnie Miñoso, is Afro-Cuban.
  16. In 1998, the award would be renamed the Oscar Robertson Trophy after its first recipient.
  17. Harris' milestone came a year after Marlon Green, who had been rejected as a Continental Airlines applicant in 1957, won the United States Supreme Court case "Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission v. Continental Airlines, Inc. 372 U.S. 714 no. 146" which found Green had been unlawfully discriminated against.[163]
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 The first Black superhero, Marvel's Black Panther, introduced in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966), is African, not African-American. This is also true of the first Black character to star in his own mainstream comic-book feature, Waku, Prince of the Bantu, who headlined one of four features in the multiple-character omnibus series Jungle Tales (September 1954 – September 1955), from Marvel's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics.
  19. At the time, the NCAA had not yet adopted its three-division system. Illinois State was in the NCAA University Division, which became Division I in 1973. The NCAA retroactively considers University Division members to have been Division I members.
  20. The NHL had fielded black players for more than 20 years, with the first being Willie O'Ree in 1958, but all previous black players were Black Canadians and not African Americans. In 1996, Mike Grier (Edmonton Oilers) became the first to have been both born and exclusively trained in the U.S., per Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. Cosmonaut Arnaldo Mendez was the first person of African descent in space, in 1980.
  22. Lewis Hamilton became the first black Formula One racer in 2006, but he is a British citizen of Grenadan ancestry, and not an African American. Ribbs did not compete in a race, but drove a Formula One car professionally in January 1986 as a tester for the BrabhamBMW at Estoril, Portugal.
  23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 Woods' mixed ancestry — ¼ Chinese, ¼ Thai, ¼ African-American, ⅛ white, and ⅛ Native American — also makes him the first Asian American to achieve this feat. He is also the first of only four golfers of primarily non-European descent to win a men's major, with the others being Vijay Singh (an Indian Fijian), Michael Campbell (a Māori from New Zealand), and Y.E. Yang (South Korean).
  24. Announced as Bobcats owner in December 2002, although team did not begin play until 2004.

References

Footnotes

  1. Juguo, Zhang (2001). W. E. B. Du Bois: The Quest for the Abolition of the Color Line. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-93087-1
  2. Herbst, Philip H (1997). The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States. Intercultural Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-877864-97-1
  3. Sailes, Gary Alan (1998). "Jackie Robinson: Breaking the Color Barrier in Team Sports". African Americans in Sport: Contemporary Themes, Transaction Publishers. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-7658-0440-2
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  5. He was of mixed race, one-quarter African and three-quarters European, and listed in the US Census as white.
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  29. Smith 2002, p. 134–135.
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  71. Potter 2002, p. 345–346.
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  109. Matt Baker at the Grand Comics Database. Archived from the original on April 24, 2015. Artist credits were not routinely given in comic books in the 1940s, so comprehensive credits are difficult if not impossible to ascertain.
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  117. Smith 2002, p. 700.
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  137. Smith 2003, p. 676.
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  157. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Presented May 4, 1959, for recordings made in 1958.
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  163. Colorado Anti-Discrimination Comm'n v. Continental Air Lines, Inc., 372 U.S., 714 (Supreme Court 1963-04-22).
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  173. Bell, Gregory S. (2002). "Joe Searles". In In the Black: A History of African Americans on Wall Street. John Wiley and Sons. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-471-21485-4. Retrieved January 30, 2009.
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  175. The earliest known humorous interracial kiss was in the story "Home Cooking" in Premier Magazine's satirical comic book Nuts #1 (March 1954), per its listing at the Grand Comics Database.
  176. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In the comedy All in the Family, at the last moment as a picture is taken, Sammy Davis, Jr., playing himself, chides the bigoted but celebrity-fawning Archie Bunker with a humorous kiss on the cheek.
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  179. Seabaugh, Cathy (February 1994). "BLK: Focused Coverage for African-American Gays & Lesbians". Chicago Outlines.
  180. Chestnut, Mark (June 1992). "BLK: Getting Glossy". Island Lifestyle.
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  189. Historic Listing of National Park Service Officials, USDI, NPS, May 1, 1991, by Harold Danz. Updates after publication by Public Affairs.
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Bibliography

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External links