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We are highlighting and celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans.
Born in Albany, Georgia in 1923, Alice Coachman Davis was an extremely skilled high jump champion - winning ten consecutive national championships. Along with being a skilled jumper, she excelled in running as well, winning national championships in the 50-meter dash, 100-meter dash, and team relay. In 1948, at the Olympic Games in London, Coachman Davis was able to show the world her skills in jumping and broke the record by jumping over 1.68m. She went on to become the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal and it was presented to her by King George VI. Although Black women such as Serena Williams and Wilma Rudolph have dominated their sports and won Olympic gold medals, Alice Coachman Davis will always be remembered as the one to do it first.
Watch this short documentary about Alice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8GdDQocz2c
In 1950, just three years removed from Jackie Robinson cracking the color barrier in baseball, Althea Gibson was facing the same battle as she became the first Black athlete to compete in the U.S. National Tennis Championship. That served as her introduction to the pro-circuit but it wasn’t until several years later that she reached elite status as one of the top players in the world winning the French Open in 1956. In 1951 she became the first Black athlete to compete at Wimbledon and in 1957 she was the first to win it. In 1957 she was named the Athlete of the Year by the associated press - being the first Black female to do so. Despite her success on the court, Gibson was still forced to deal with the racism of segments of the tennis establishment directing open hostility towards her. Gibson would win a total of 56 singles and doubles tournaments including Grand Slam titles.
Watch this short documentary about Althea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l5fVhwbjGA
Ten years after the passing of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, the thoroughbred Aristides was the fastest horse to cross the finish line at Churchill Downs making him the winner of the first-ever Kentucky Derby. The Jockey riding Aristides was, Oliver Lewis, a Black man. The fact that an African-American won the first-ever Kentucky Derby should not be surprising given the fact that 13/15 jockeys in the race were of African descent. 15 of the first 28 winners of the Derby were Black. With many of them gaining their skills running stables for their former master, the early Black jockeys were able to gain wealth and Black status afforded to few African-Americans at the time. While its history has been forgotten by some, a look through the record books will show the profound Black influence on American’s longest-running sporting event.
Watch these documentaries about Black Jockeys:
While the history of sports is filled with great rivalries, perhaps the greatest of them all was that between Bill Russel and Wilt Chamberlain. While a cursory glance at each player’s stats may suggest that Wilt Chamberlain, one of the greatest offensive players the NBA has ever seen, had a clear edge, Bill Russell was the fiercest of competitors who had a penchant for winning. This dichotomy is perhaps best illustrated by the 1961-62 season where Wilt Chamberlain set an NBA record that still stands today by averaging over 50 points a game; however, it was Bill Russell who managed to take home the MVP award. The debate still rages today about who is the better player with Russell’s proponents pointing to his defensive prowess and the fact that Bill’s team defeated Wilt’s 7 of the 8 times they met in the playoffs while those who give Chamberlain the edge note his absurd stat lines and that he did not have as talented teammates.
While you may have never heard of Dr. Charles R. Drew, he’s likely helped save the life of someone you know. After graduating second in his class of 127 at medical school, Drew began his pioneering research on blood plasma discovering a technique that would allow it to be stored long term forming the foundation of the modern blood bank systems. In 1941 he headed the program “Blood for Britain” for which he developed techniques and procedures that allowed for massive quantities of blood plasma to be collected and shipped overseas to help the war effort. When America entered a war he was forced to resign from a similar program with the American Red Cross over the issue of segregating blood. Dr. Charles Drew was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP as a result of his work and would become the first African-American appointed to the American Board of Surgery.
Watch these documentaries about Dr. Charles Drew:
The Life and Legacy of Charles Drew, the African American Doctor who Pioneered Blood Banks
Originally a fireman on the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri, Woods moved to Illinois where he studied mechanical and electrical engineering. In 1885 Woods patented an invention that combined both the telephone and the telegraph which he called a “telegraphony.” The design allowed the telegraph station to send both telegraph and voice messages over one wire. He later went on to sell the rights to the device to the American Bell Telephone Company. Throughout his life, Woods would go on to obtain more than 50 patents for his inventions. Many of his inventions were improvements to other inventions such as the telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph, and the railroad.
Watch this documentary about Granville T. Woods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PB6pYrUrr8
Born in 1845 in Dorchester, Massachusetts as the daughter of freed slaves, Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African-American nurse in the United States. Mahoney attended one of the first integrated schools in the country in Boston and from a young age dreamt of becoming a nurse. However, at the time the entire medical field was heavily male-dominated leaving little room for a woman of color. To pursue her passion she started working as an untrained practical nurse before finding a job at a hospital for women and children. After 15 years at the hospital, Mahoney finally gained acceptance into a 16 month nursing school. Upon graduating she became the first African-American with a professional nurse’s license. She went on to not only become a highly respected private nurse but to pave the way for future African-American nurses by forming the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses.
At the age of 13, Mile Davis’ father bought him a trumpet and signed him up for lessons with a local musician - a move that may have been done to annoy his mother who wished him to learn piano and dislike the instrument. That act would go on to, as Davis himself once quipped when asked what he had done with his life, “change music five or six times.’ Davis’ career began in the 40s when he started to play with bebop pioneers, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. From then on Davis would play a major role in every development in jazz music from the 1940s to the 1980s. His bands helped introduce the world to artists who like John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones and Herbie Hancock who became stars in their own right while his 1959 album Kind of Blue remains the best selling jazz album of all time. He was fearless and innovative as the times change and always managed to stay relevant and creative even up until his final album.