What was the first Broadway play to be written by an African American woman?
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry.

Who is the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars trilogy?
James Earl Jones.

Who was the first black performer to have a television show?
Nat "King" Cole.

Who is renowned for the "I Have a Dream" speech made in 1963 during the March on Washington?
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Who saved his crew from the 1891 shipwreck in the Arctic ice pack?
William T. Shorey.

Who is known as the "King of Ragtime"?
Scott Joplin, who composed "The Entertainer," featured in the movie "The Sting." His opera Treemonish won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976, nearly 60 years after his death.

What was jazz great Louis Armstrong's nickname?
"Satchmo" (short for "Satchelmouth," a reference to the size of his mouth), or "Pops."

Whose life was depicted in the 1972 film, "The Lady Sings the Blues?"
Billie Holiday. She earned a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame in 1986.

What do Alice Coachman and Jesse Owens have in common?
Both earned Olympic Gold medals. Alice Coachman was the first African American to win the gold in the high jump. Jesse Owens earned four gold medals and set world records in the long jump and 100-meter dash.

Who opened a business in 1994 to provide croutons to McDonald's restaurants throughout the country?
George L. Johnson and David M. Moore opened Quality Croutons in Chicago, Illinois.

Who flew four space shuttle missions and served as mission commander on two of these flights?
African American astronaut Charles F. Bolden Jr. and U.S. Naval Academy graduate is also a brigadier general in the U.S. Marine Corps.

What is the name of the nation's oldest surviving African American newspaper?
The Indianapolis Recorder, which is owned by William G. Mays, president and CEO of Mays Chemical Co., Inc. He also runs the May Family Foundation, which focuses on grants for youth development and education.

What was the country's first black newspaper and who founded it?
Freedom's Journal was launched in New York 1827 by John Russwurm, one of the nation's first black college graduates.

Who helped lay out the blueprint for the development of Washington, D.C.?
Mathematician Benjamin Banneker.

Who was one of the single most influential African American poets?
Langston Hughes.

For her performance in what movie was Oprah Winfrey nominated for an Academy Award?
"The Color Purple." Oprah is one of the wealthiest women in America and is a significant figure in popular culture.

Who wrote a book on the history of nursing?
Mary Elizabeth Carnegie wrote The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing Worldwide, 1854-1994.

Who played in two Super Bowls during his time in the NFL before becoming a successful dentist?
John M. Williams


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True or False

Paul Robeson was the first African American to play Major League Baseball.
Answer: False. Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) was the first to play in the major leagues.

George Washington Carver was a research scientist.
Answer: True. He lived from 1864 to 1943. His discoveries include 325 products from peanuts; 108 applications from sweet potatoes; and 75 products from pecans; a rubber substitute; and over 500 dyes and pigments from 28 different plants.

Food from the Hood was a school group who made Italian salad dressing.
Answer: True. Thirty inner city high school students in Los Angeles, Calif., started their own business to produce and sell Straight Out of the Garden Creamy Italian salad dressing. Profits from the sales were dedicated to scholarships and invested back into the business.

Oprah Winfrey was the first black female millionaire.
Answer: False. Cosmetologist Sarah "Madam C.J." Walker was the first African American female millionaire.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the first black man to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Answer: False. Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunch received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for achieving a cease-fire and peace settlement in the Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine.

Oseola McCarty was a laundress who donated $150,000 to a university.
Answer: True. She saved her money and gave it to the University of Southern Mississippi. Her generosity was recognized by President Bill Clinton, who presented her with the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Duke Ellington was a famous cowboy.
Answer: False. Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was a musician who fused jazz, classical and gospel into more than 3,000 works.


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Did You Know...

The original "Real McCoy" was Elijah McCoy, who was an inventor of steam engine lubrications? He patented more than 50 inventions including tread for tires and the folding ironing table.

Jackie Robinson helped lead the Brooklyn Dodgers to six pennants and one Major League Baseball World Series?

H.J. Russell, founder of H.J. Russell & Co., was the builder of the Georgia Dome, Peachtree Towers and Atlanta City Hall? He was also a partner in the Atlanta Olympic Stadium.

Florence Griffith Joyner is known as the world's fastest woman? She won three gold and two silver medals in the 1988 Olympics.

Howard University is the largest and most comprehensive black university in the nation?

In 1924, groundbreaking black independent filmmaker Oscar Micheaux made Body and Soul, featuring the legendary Paul Robeson in his first acting role?

On February 12, 1909, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded by a multiracial group of activists? Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villiard, William English Walling and others led the Call to renew the struggle for civil and political liberty.

Today, African American businesses continue to be established at record pace? According to the 2002 U.S. Census, the number of black-owned firms increased 26 percent from 1992 to 1997 -- compared to a 7 percent increase for U.S. firms overall.

Dr. Arcelia Johnson-Fannin is the only female African American to have founded a school of pharmacy and the only female to have started two schools of pharmacy?


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