Local African American History

Frederick Douglass was born in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1818.

The Frederick Douglass School was founded in 1865 and was the first African American school in the city.

Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1942.

Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1967, becoming the first African American mayor of a major city in the United States.

Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1917.

Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1939 for her role in the film Gone with the Wind.

James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York, in 1924.

Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967, becoming the first African American justice.

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1961.

Barack Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008, becoming the first African American president.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929.

Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work on sustainable development, democracy, and peace.

Sidney Poitier was born in Miami, Florida, in 1927.

Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.

Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1942.