You have 2 minutes to name figures in African American
history based on a picture and facts about their lives.
Guess letter by letter. If you don't know a name, try vowels.
George Washington Carver=Born into slavery, after the Civil War became a famous scientist, educator and inventor+Headed the Tuskegee Agriculture Department from 1896 until his death in 1943+Best known for developing peanuts, sweet potatoes and soybeans as alternatives to King Cotton
Shirley Chisolm=First African American woman elected to the U. S. House of Representatives+Campaigned to be the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1972, the first major party black candidate+Served 7 terms as a New York Congresswoman and became part of the Democratic Congressional leadership
Frederick Douglass=Born a slave in 1818 but became a famous orator, abolitionist and writer+Endured hardship to teach himself and other slaves to read and write+Spoke and wrote eloquently against slavery, showing that an ex-slave could be both intelligent and talented
W. E. B. DuBois=First African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University+Prominent sociologist and civil rights activist and one of the founders of the NAACP+Opposed Booker T. Washington's Atlantic Compromise, believing instead in equal civil rights and integration
Althea Gibson=First African American winner of a tennis Grand Slam event, winning the French Open, and Wimbledon and the U. S. Nationals twice each+Broke the national and world tennis color barrier and was ranked number 1 in 1957 and 1958+Won 10 consecutive ATA (all-black) championships before being allowed to compete against white players
Martin Luther King Jr.=Leader of the modern American Civil Rights Movement+Delivered the famous "I have a dream…" speech at the March on Washington in 1963+Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his efforts to end racial discrimination through non-violent civil disobedience+Led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955
Thurgood Marshall=First African American Supreme Court Justice, serving from 1967 to 1991+Won Brown vs. Board of Education where the Supreme Court struck down "separate but equal" racially segregated schools+As Chief Counsel for the NAACP won many of the most significant anti-discrimination cases of the 20th century
Barack Obama=Became the first African American President of the United States in 2008
Jesse Owens=Won 4 Gold Medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics dramatically refuting Hitler's idea of Aryan superiority
Rosa Parks=Civil Rights activist whose refusal to give up her bus seat for a white person sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott+The 382-day bus boycott to protest her arrest forced Montgomery, Alabama, to desegregate its buses+Became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor and the Congressional Gold Medal
Colin Powell=Became the first African American U. S. Secretary of State in 2001+Served as the first African American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993
Sidney Poitier=First African American winner of a Best Actor Oscar in 1963+Although the only major black actor in Hollywood at the time, topped the box office in 1967 (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night)
Jackie Robinson=First African American major league baseball player of the modern era+Broke major league baseball's color barrier when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947+First African American to win Major League Baseball's MVP award+First African American inducted into MLB's Hall of Fame
Harriet Tubman=Escaped from slavery in 1849 and then returned to help many more slaves escape to freedom+Came to be called "Moses" for leading more than 13 groups of 70 slaves to freedom using the Underground Railroad+Frederick Douglass wrote, "I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have."+Guided, gathered intelligence for, nursed and advised Union troops, even leading an assault
Booker T. Washington=Born a slave, after the Civil War rose to become an influential educator, orator and political advisor+Founder and president of Tuskegee University from 1881 until his death in 1915+Best known African American leader from about 1890 to 1910 whose Atlanta Compromise accepted racial discrimination in return in return for free basic education+First African American invited to dine at the White House
Malcolm X=As a leader of the Black Muslim Nation of Islam (NOI), opposed non-violent integration in favor of black separation and violence in self-defense+Broke with the NOI in 1964 and moderated his beliefs but was assassinated by NOI followers in 1965
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