Famous Firsts
These African Americans made history.
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Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) |
Bessie Coleman was a pilot. She was the first African American woman to fly a plane. She was also the first African American to earn an international pilot's license. She became a popular stunt pilot, performing thrilling and difficult tricks with her plane. |
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Marian Anderson (1897-1993) |
Marian Anderson was a singer. In 1955, she became the first African American to sing a solo at the Metropolitan Opera. That is an opera house in New York City. A solo is sung by one person alone. |
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Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) |
Thurgood Marshall was the first African American justice on to the United States Supreme Court. Before that, he had been a lawyer. He had successfully argued many important cases. One of the most famous was Brown v. Board of Education (1954). That case ended segregation in schools. That was the practice of sending children of different races to separate schools. |
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Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) |
Jackie Robinson was a baseball player. He was the first African American to play on a Major League Baseball team. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson started in 1947 and played for 10 years. He helped his team win many games. |
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Mae Jemison ( b. 1956) |
Mae Jemison used to be an astronaut. In 1992, she became the first African American woman to go into space. She flew on the space shuttle Endeavour. She was in space for eight days. Today she owns her own company, which teaches people about technology. |
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Barack Obama (b. 1961) |
Barack Obama was the first African American to win a major party's nomination for president. He had been a U.S. Senator from Illinois. He then went on to become elected the first African American President of the United States in 2008. |
©2010, 2011 Weekly Reader Corporation. Portions of this article first appeared in Weekly Reader Edition 2, February 5, 2010.
Photo Credits: Bessie Coleman, Marian Anderson, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Barack Obama: AP Images; Mae Jemison: NASA
cool info
that was really cool information about african americans!
Mae Jemison
Mae Jemison is a big role model for all of us. She acomplished a big dream that I have. I have a dream that I could be the first person to walk on Mars. I want to be just like her!
Black History Material
I would like to personally thank you for the wonderful teaching materials that have been produced. I taught in Bedford Styvesant, Brookly in the 1970s where my class was 100% black. I learned a lot in Freeport, NY where my class was about one half black. I am now teaching in a private school in Ocala, FL where there are few African Americans in the school. My third grade class loves to learn and I will be using this material to help them understand how far and how difficult it was for African Americans to become pioneers in their fields.
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