12 Key Figures in Black History: Photos

John Mercer Langston was the first Black man to become a lawyer in Ohio when he passed the bar in 1854. In 1888, Langston ran for Congress, but widespread voter fraud and intimidation initially denied him the seat. After he contested the results, the U.S. House seated him on September 23, 1890, and he served until March 3, 1891. Generations later, Langston's great-nephew and namesake, Langston Hughes, emerged as a renowned poet of the Harlem Renaissance.

During the Reconstruction era, Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi became the first Black member of the U.S. Senate. He was elected by the Mississippi Legislature on January 25, 1870 to fill the Senate seat once held by Jefferson Davis and was seated February 25, 1870.

Born into slavery, George Washington Carver became the first African American to earn a bachelor of science degree in 1894. He went on to develop new methods to help poor Southern farmers increase their yields. Known as "The Peanut Man," Carver also created 300 products derived from peanuts, including cheese, milk, coffee, flour, ink, dyes, plastics, wood stains, soap, linoleum, medicinal oils and cosmetics.

Jack Johnson became the first Black man to win the world heavyweight boxing title in 1908. Despite facing racism and a widely criticized criminal conviction, Johnson held onto the belt until 1915.

Madam C.J. Walker was born in 1867 on a cotton plantation in Louisiana and became fabulously wealthy after developing a line of Black hair care products. She founded the Madam C.J. Walker Company in 1910. Walker also helped thousands of Black women gain financial independence as company sales agents and employees at the company’s headquarters in Indianapolis.

In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first African American performer to win an Academy Award for her portrayal of Mammy, a loyal enslaved housemaid, in Gone With the Wind. The NAACP criticized McDaniel's role in the film for perpetuating racist stereotypes, but the actor responded that she'd rather play a maid on screen than be one in real life.

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first Black player to compete in Major League Baseball in the modern era when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson endured racist abuse to become one of the greatest players in the game. In 1962, he became the first Black athlete inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Nine months before Rosa Parks, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on March 2, 1955, while riding a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Thurgood Marshall was the first African American justice appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, serving from 1967 to 1991. As a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Marshall argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education.

In 1968, Shirley Chisholm of New York became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1972, she made history again as the first Black woman from a major political party to run for president of the United States.

In 2001, Robert Johnson became the first Black billionaire when he sold the cable network he founded, Black Entertainment Television (BET), to Viacom. Johnson took out a $15,000 loan to launch BET in 1980. When he sold the channel, it reached 62.4 million homes.

In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Black president of the United States. His inauguration, attended by 1.8 million people, was hailed as a watershed moment in American history. In 2009, Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize.