African American Firsts

The first African American US President (2009)

The first African American Attorney General (2009)

The first African American US Senator (1870)

The first African American US Vice President (2021)

The first African American Secretary of State (2001)

The first African American woman Secretary of State (2005)

The first African American woman (or woman of any race, for that matter) to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987)

The first African American to run for president of the United States (1968)

The first African American Nobel Laureate (1950)

The first African American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for literature (1993)

The first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950)

The first African American astronaut to go into space (1983)

The first African American Supreme Court Justice (1967)

The first African American to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (1958)

The first African American to win an Academy Award (1939)

The first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actress (2002)

The first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (1963)

The first African American man to win Wimbledon (1975)

The first African American to graduate from Harvard (1870)

The first African American millionaire (actually first woman self-made millionaire recorded in the US) (by 1917)

The first African American Olympic gold medalist (1908)

The first African American 4-star general in the US Marine Corps (2022)

The first African American to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963)

The first African American to be invited to dine at the White House (1901)

The first African American author to be published (1773)