• in 1977, K. Leroy Irvis of Pennsylvania became the first Black American to serve as a speaker of the house in any state legislature in the United States?
• in 1876, Edward Bouchet became the first black American to earn a Ph.D. from an American university?

Facts on topics related to Black American

African Americans

• by 1870, "New Departure" Democrats stopped opposing Reconstruction and civil rights for African Americans to improve their electoral fortunes?
• in the early 20th century, when education was segregated in the United States, the Calhoun Colored School (pictured) focused on vocational education for African Americans instead of classical education to protect the school from being closed down?
• the Louisiana State Rep. H. Lawrence Gibbs in 1956 authored legislation which outlawed social events and athletic contests including both African Americans and whites?
• the Black Seminoles are descendants of free African Americans and fugitive slaves traditionally allied with Seminole Indians in Florida and Oklahoma?
• the civil service of the Confederate States of America managed to cope with war work only because it employed African Americans?
• the Logan Fontenelle Housing Project in Omaha, Nebraska, along with restrictive covenants and redlining, were used to segregate African Americans in the Near North Side neighborhood?

African American

• African American economist Abram Lincoln Harris was a four-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in economics?
• African American actor Lorenzo Tucker, the star of the 1932 race film Veiled Aristocrats, was dubbed the "black Valentino" because of his striking good looks?
• African American artist James W. Washington, Jr. first gained visibility in 1938 working with the WPA in his native Mississippi, but was later associated with the Northwest School?
• African American civil rights activist Mel Boozer was the first openly gay person nominated for the office of Vice President of the United States?
• African American singer Cora Green performed the Yiddish tune Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen in the 1938 race film Swing!?
• black Baptist minister and former slave R. H. Boyd had so much success in religious publishing that it caused a split in his denomination?
• center George Gregory led the Columbia Lions in 1930–31 to its first title in what was to become the Ivy League, and was later named as the first African American All-American basketball player?
• Louisiana Judge Kernan "Skip" Hand was overruled in 2008 by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the exclusion of two blacks as jurors in a high-profile murder case?
• Rear Admiral Evelyn J. Fields is the first woman and first African American to be the director of the Office of NOAA Corps Operations and the NOAA Commissioned Corps?
• 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, site of the 1963 church bombing, was designed in 1911 by noted African American architect Wallace Rayfield?

Civil Rights Movement

• American educator Septima Poinsette Clark, known as the "Grandmother of the Civil Rights Movement," worked for educational and civil rights for African-Americans decades before the rise of national awareness of inequality in the 1960s?

Native American

• Native American activist Jay Morago was the first Governor of the Gila River Indian Community, Arizona?
• Native American actor and director James Young Deer and his wife were an "influential force" in the production of one-reel Westerns during the early silent film era?
• California Mule Deer have had their population controlled by humans starting in 12,000 BC by indigenous Native Americans?
• Canyon live oak acorns were a Native American staple food?
• Catherine Troeh, a Native American activist, often signed her letters "member of the Chinook Tribe Allottee 1865 Quinault reservation" as a reference to 80 acres of land granted to her by the U.S. federal government?
• Jemmy Button was an American Indian from Tierra del Fuego who was bought for a mother of pearl button in 1830 and taken on HMS Beagle to meet the King and Queen of England?
• Jesse Lowe, the first mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, is credited with naming the city after the local Native American Omaha Tribe?
• Resica Falls Scout Reservation contains a museum displaying 19th-century tannery village relics and local Native American artifacts going back to 500 BC?
• Tomotley, a Native American historic site in Monroe County, Tennessee, is currently submerged by an artificial lake?
• tusk shells are a class of marine mollusks that resemble elephants' tusks, and were used by the natives of the Pacific Northwest as wampum?