Their achievements and contributions have changed the American society as we it know

today

Benjamin Banneker mathematician and astronomer

From 1792 through 1797 Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician and amateur astronomer, calculated ephemerides (tables of the locations of stars and planets) for almanacs that were widely distributed and influential. Because of these works, Banneker became one of the most famous African Americans in early U.S. history.

George Washington Carvereducator, scientist

Carver revolutionized southern agriculture by introducing peanut, soybean, and sweet potato production to replenish nitrogen in the soil, which had been largely depleted by cotton growth. When southern farmers grew peanuts and soybeans and found a limited market for them, Carver set to work developing commercial applications for them, creating more than 300 peanut-based products, including milk, cheese, flour, ink, dyes, wood stains, soap, and cosmetics

Daniel Hale Williams Surgeon

Williams, Daniel Hale, 1858–1931, as surgeon of the South Side Dispensary in Chicago (1884–91), he became keenly aware of the lack of facilities for training African Americans like himself as doctors and nurses. As a result he organized the Provident Hospital, the first black hospital in the United States. In 1893, Williams performed the first successful closure of a wound of the heart and pericardium.

Percy Lavon Julianchemist

In addition to an extensive teaching career at such colleges as DePauw University, Percy Lavon Julian made significant discoveries in the private sector. In 1935 Julian developed physostigmine, a drug that is used in the treatment of glaucoma.

Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong and pianist Duke Ellington

Dorothy WestOne of the last living figures of the Harlem Renaissance movement

Oprah WinfreyCredited with

creating a more intimate confessional form of media communication, she is thought to have popularized and revolutionized the tabloid talk show genre

Morgan FreemanThe Oscar-winning co-

star of Million Dollar Baby

Morgan Freeman won the Academy Award as best supporting actor for his role as a world-weary ex-boxer in the 2004 film Million Dollar Baby.

Halle Berry and Denzel Washington

Actors Halle Berry, left, and Denzel Washington hold their Academy awards.

Nine months after their wins, 2002 has turned out to be a good year for African-American actors and themes in an industry perpetually rebuked for it's lack of racial diversity.

Danny GloverGlover has had a variety of film, stage, and television roles. He is best known for his role as Los Angeles police Sgt. Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon movie series, and his role as the abusive husband to Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie in The Color Purple.

Rap MusicRapping (also

known as emceeing, MCing, spitting, or just rhyming) is the rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes and wordplay, one of the elements of hip hop music and culture.

Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without accompaniment.

POLITICS

William Edward Burghardt Du BoisDu Bois was an early exponent of full equality for African Americans and a cofounder (1905) of the Niagara Movement, which became (1909) the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Thurgood Marshall

His presentation of the argument against the “separate but equal” doctrine achieved its greatest impact with the landmark decision handed down in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954).

Hiram RevelsIn 1870 Revels was elected as the first African American member of the United States Senate.

First African-American Representatives

The first black female U.S. Representative was Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman from New York, 1969–1983.

U.S. Representative: Joseph Rainey became a Congressman from South Carolina in 1870 and was reelected four more times.

Rosa ParksWhen she refused to give up her seat to a white man, the bus driver called police, and Parks was arrested and fined. The resulting bus boycott by African-Americans, led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., caused a national sensation. The boycott was a success and led to desegregation in Montgomery and elsewhere in the United States. Over time, Parks became a national icon of civil rights and African-American pride.

MLKMartin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The march builds momentum for civil rights legislation (Aug. 28). The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is attended by about 250,000 people, the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's capital.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity

Colin Powell

Powell was the first African American and

the youngest person to chair (1989–93) the Joint

Chiefs of Staff and the first African American to

serve (2001–5) as secretary of state.

Condoleezza RiceU.S. Secretary of State

Rice, Condoleezza,

U.S. government official and

educator.A political scientist

who has specialized in

Russian and E European studies

Clarence ThomasClarence

Thomas is sworn in to the

Supreme Court in Washington,

D.C., October 18, 1991

Barack Obama

U.S. senator from Illinois and a

Democratic candidate for

president in the elections of 2008