16 Incredible, Inspiring, And Unforgettable Stories About Black People Who Deserve To Be Talked About More

History can't forget about these incredible accomplishments.

While you probably know the stories of Black trailblazers and history makers like Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Muhammad Ali, there are so many incredible Black Americans whose stories aren't as widely shared.

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Here are 16 Black people whose fascinating stories you might not have heard before, but definitely should learn about:

1. Mary Ellen Pleasant became a multimillionaire.

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The beginning of Mary Ellen Pleasant's life is a bit unclear: Some sources believe she was born a slave in 1810s Georgia, while others think it's more likely she was born free in Philadelphia. At some point, she was indentured to a shop owner in Nantucket, where she learned the basics of running a business. 

After she married a wealthy free landowner, Pleasant worked diligently to help free slaves to the North. When her husband tragically died, she headed west to San Francisco, where she worked as a cook in wealthy people's homes until she saved enough to open her own boardinghouse. It is believed that she used the intel she gained from working among the wealthy to increase her own assets, investing her money in stocks, real estate, and burgeoning businesses. At her peak, Pleasant was worth over $30 million dollars.

Pleasant used her massive fortune to fight against segregation in California. She sued a streetcar company for not allowing Black people on their line and sued another that permitted segregation in the cars. Upon her death, she was known as the mother of civil rights in California.

2. Max Robinson was the first Black national news anchor.

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Max Robinson's 1959 TV news debut was a bit different than usual. Robinson appeared on a Portsmouth, Virginia TV station with a graphic reading "NEWS" over his face so audiences would not know he was Black.

One day, Robinson requested that the graphic be removed. While the station fired Robinson the next day, other stations took notice. He moved to Washington, DC and worked as a reporter, and he was later promoted to evening news anchor at the city's most popular station, making him the first Black anchor in a major city.

By 1978, ABC News noticed Robinson and hired him to co-anchor World News Tonight, making him the first Black national news anchor. He made a point of mentoring Black journalists through the duration of his career and was one of the 44 founders of the National Association of Black Journalists.

3. Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman in Congress.

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Shirley Chisholm truly paved the way for Black women in politics, like vice president Kamala Harris and Georgia politician Stacey Abrams. Harris even paid homage to Chisholm during her bid for the presidency.

Despite racial tensions in the late 1960s, Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to Congress, representing New York's 12th District for over a decade. In Congress, Chisholm was notorious for refusing to back down, even during her freshman term, when newly elected officials are expected to fly under the radar. Chisholm was also one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus. In 1972, she became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's nomination. 

Before her time in Congress, she served as an educational consultant for New York City's bureau of child welfare. A lifelong advocate for education, she fought for increases in federal funding for educational programs like extending daycare hours and backing a national school lunch bill.

4. Bayard Rustin helped MLK plan the March on Washington.

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Bayard Rustin was not only a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement, but overcame the prejudice he faced as an openly gay man during the Jim Crow era.

Rustin was one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s key allies and helped him organize the 1963 March on Washington after gaining notoriety for being a leader in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The first time Rustin and King met, King was surrounded by armed bodyguards. Rustin, who was a pacifist, convinced King that he should adopt nonviolence as a protest tactic, which later became a hallmark of King's leadership style. The two went on to be the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. While King was pressured to publicly avoid Rustin because of his sexuality, the two remained close.

Rustin wasn't afraid to be arrested for his beliefs, and he ended up in prison multiple times for his activism. Rustin was arrested for having sex with men, which was considered a form of mental illness at the time. He also served two years in federal prison for refusing to fight in World War II, which he said went against his beliefs as a Quaker.

5. Marsha P. Johnson was on the forefront of the fight for gay rights in the 1970s.

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Marsha P. Johnson is finally getting the credit she deserves in her fight for LGBTQ+ rights thanks to a recent Netflix documentary that highlights her achievements.

Famous for sporting flowers in her hair and telling people the P in her name stood for "Pay It No Mind," in reference to her gender, Johnson was at the forefront of the Gay Liberation Front. Johnson, who was transgender and referred to herself as a gay drag queen, was one of the first to resist police when they raided the Stonewall Inn in 1969. She marched in New York City's first Pride parade in 1970 and opened a shelter for LGTBQ+ youth with Sylvia Rivera, another trans activist. Johnson was also an outspoken advocate for sex workers and people with HIV/AIDS. 

In 1992, Johnson's body was found floating in the Hudson River. While her death was originally believed to be suicide, police later reopened the case. It remains open to this day.

6. Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the bus months before Rosa Parks.

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While you've likely heard the story of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus, you might not know that Claudette Colvin did the same thing nine months earlier.

On March 2, 1955, Colvin, who was 15 years old, was taking a public bus home from high school in Montgomery, Alabama (the same city as Rosa Parks). The bus driver ordered Colvin to give up her seat. Colvin refused, telling the driver that she had paid her fare and she had the right to retain her seat. She was arrested by two police officers.

Colvin later became a key witness in Browder v. Gayle, a federal lawsuit that ultimately ended segregation on public transportation in Alabama. Colvin later said that she believed Rosa Parks became the face of the movement instead of her because Parks had the right look. "They didn't think teenagers would be reliable," she told NPR. "Her skin texture was the kind that people associate with the middle class. She fit that profile."

7. Jesse L. Brown achieved a lifelong dream, becoming the first Black Navy pilot.

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When Jesse L. Brown's father took him to an air show, his life was forever changed. The 6-year-old was transfixed by all things flying and resolved to become a pilot.

While there were Black pilots at the time, there had never been a Black pilot admitted to the US military. Brown famously wrote a letter to president Franklin D. Roosevelt questioning him about why Black pilots were excluded from the military. In 1945, while Brown was attending Ohio State University, the Navy began recruiting new pilots, and an eager Brown applied. He was met with resistance, but the Navy had no choice but to admit him because he scored so highly on his entrance exams.

By 1948, Brown had completed his training and received his Naval Aviator Badge. The media began to take notice of Brown's achievement and he went on to become a beacon of Black excellence in the US military. During the 1950 outbreak of the Korean War, Brown's plane lost fuel and crashed. His wingman, Thomas Hudner, ended up crash-landing his own plane so he could attempt to save Brown. While Brown survived the crash, he lost so much blood that he ended up dying later that evening. His story went on to inspire many Black people to become military pilots.

8. Matthew Henson was the first person to reach the North Pole, but he didn't get the credit based on a technicality.

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After both of Matthew Henson's parents died when he was a young child, he was sent to live with his uncle. Henson struck out on his own when he was only 11, traveling by foot from Washington, DC to Baltimore, where he found work on a ship, becoming a cabin boy. On the water, Henson not only learned how life on a ship worked, but became close to the ship's captain, who taught him how to read and write. When the captain died, Henson headed back to land and took a job as a clerk in a furrier's shop, where he met Navy lieutenant Robert Edwin Peary, who hired Henson to his crew.

As one of Peary's crew members, Henson traveled to Greenland. The pair worked together for years. When Peary expressed interest in reaching the North Pole in 1908, Henson agreed to stand by his side. Knowing that other explorers had struggled with communicating with the native Inuit along the route, Henson learned their language so he could gain their trust.

The crew reached the North Pole, with Henson leading the charge. However, Peary was the first to touch land and planted the American flag, so he got the credit for the remarkable feat. This understandably was a source of tension between Peary and Henson, and the two were never able to repair their relationship.

9. Althea Gibson played both professional tennis and golf.

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When you think of the power players in the tennis world, you probably think of Venus and Serena Williams. But before the Williams sisters made their mark on the sport, Althea Gibson broke the color barrier, paving the way for Black people to reach the game's highest heights.

Born in Harlem, Gibson lived on a block where the police blocked the streets so children could play sports. There, she learned how to play tennis, and she won a citywide tournament by the age of 12. Her neighbors instantly took notice of her talents and raised money so Gibson could perfect her craft. While she was racking up trophies on the local and regional circuits, she was banned from national events because of her race. In 1950, she was finally granted permission to compete in the US National Championships.

In 1956, Gibson won the French Championships, becoming the first Black person to ever win a Grand Slam tournament. The following year, she became Wimbledon's first Black champion. By the time her tennis career concluded, Gibson had won 11 Grand Slam titles and was the highest-ranked woman in the sport. Once she retired from tennis, she took up golf. Gibson made it to the PGA Tour, but was forbidden from competing in many American country clubs because of her race.

10. Ethel Waters was the first Black woman to be nominated for an Emmy and only the second Black woman to be nominated for an Oscar.

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While Ethel Waters came up in the entertainment industry as a blues singer in the 1920s, she is best known for making history for her acting chops. 

Waters got her start on the vaudeville circuit, where she was told that she had to choose between performing in carnivals or making it as a blues singer. She chose singing, and performed jazz, swing, and pop music during the Harlem Renaissance. After gaining popularity as a recording artist, Waters was cast in several films and then moved to the stage, becoming the first Black woman to integrate Broadway. Although Waters was the highest-paid performer on Broadway, she often had a hard time finding roles, so she moved to Los Angeles.

After her cross-country move, Waters earned her own variety show on TV, becoming the first Black person to ever star in their own TV special. In 1950, she was cast in Belulah, becoming the first Black actress to ever star in her own network series. The show was also the first nationally broadcast weekly show starring a Black person. Waters was the first Black woman to be nominated for an Emmy, and only the second Black woman to be nominated for an Oscar.

11. Gordon Parks was a photographer, writer, director, and concert pianist.

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Known for the way his photography portrayed the Black experience in America, Gordon Parks forever changed the media, music, photography and film landscapes.

In the 1940s, Parks took a series of photographs that depicted the lives of poor Americans for a project sponsored by the federal government. These photos landed him a job at LIFE magazine, where he was the first Black person on staff. Parks went on to become one of Vogue's most prolific photographers, and later co-founded Essence magazine.

In addition to his photography and editorial work, Parks was a talented jazz pianist who also composed musical scores. He adapted his novel The Learning Tree (which was one of 15 books he authored!) into a film that he also directed, becoming the first Black person to direct a movie for a major studio. He is thought of as the father of the "blaxploitation" genre, which subverted the stereotypical way Black people were often portrayed in studio films during that era.

12. Jane Bolin graduated from Yale Law School and was the first Black woman to become a judge.

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Jane Bolin was a trailblazer for Black women in the legal field, making history as not only the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, but the first Black woman to join the New York City Bar Association, and the nation's first Black female judge.

Bolin, the daughter of an influential lawyer, was interested in the law from a young age. She knew she wanted a career in the social justice field, and upon graduating from Yale Law, was appointed a family court judge. As the first Black female judge, she garnered headlines around the nation.

Bolin was known for being a compassionate judge. She didn't wear judicial robes in order to make children feel comfortable in court, and ensured everyone who appeared before her was given equal treatment. She served on the bench for 40 years. “Everyone else makes a fuss about it, but I didn’t think about it, and I still don’t,” she told the New York Times. “I wasn’t concerned about (being) first, second or last. My work was my primary concern.”

13. Gil Scott-Heron inspired some of today's biggest performers.

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If you've ever heard the saying "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," it comes from a poem by Gil Scott-Heron, who is often referred to as the godfather of rap.

Scott-Heron was an influential poet, activist, musician, social critic and spoken-word performer in 1970s New York. While he was never a mainstream success, his work laid the foundation for rap as we know it today. He was known for infusing social and political commentary into his songs. Some of his most famous poems include "Whitey on the Moon," which points out the way the United States prioritized spending money on the space race over building out programs to benefit Black Americans, and "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," which juxtaposes American consumerism with protests and demonstrations.

Scott-Heron's influence pervades in pop culture today. Artists like Common, Drake, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, and LCD Soundsystem have sampled or referenced his work in their own music. 

14. Fritz Pollard was an NFL coach and player at the same time.

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Although Fritz Pollard didn't have the typical football player build (he was 5'9" and only weighed 165 pounds!), he became the first Black football player at Brown University, where he played fullback. During a 1916 trip to the Rose Bowl, the train porters refused to serve him because of his race.

Pollard served in the Army during World War I. Upon his return, he joined the Akron Pros, a team that was part of the league that later became the NFL. He was one of only two Black players in the league, and was subjected to racially-charged taunts from fans. Opposing players tried to purposely injure him, but Pollard was so quick that he was able to evade them. “I would just look at them and grin, and in the next minute run for an 80-yard touchdown," he once said. 

In 1921, Pollard was named a coach of the Pros, even though he was technically still a player. He was the first Black coach in NFL history. After leaving the Pros, Pollard went on to coach four other teams over seven years and founded an all-Black football team in Chicago to combat the NFL's silent agreement to ban Black players from the league. Pollard was posthumously inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005. 

15. Ella Baker inspired an entire generation to fight for civil rights.

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Ella Baker, known as the mother of the Civil Rights Movement, was an integral part of not one, not two, but three activist groups that fought for equal rights. 

As a young girl in North Carolina, Baker grew up hearing her grandmother's stories about slavery. These stories inspired her to become an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement. She became an organizer within the NAACP, and was a founding member of both the Southern Christian Leadership Conference alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She risked her life going into small Southern towns to register Black residents to vote, and was known for standing up against church traditions, refusing to play the role of the submissive woman. 

In addition to being on the frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement, Baker is remembered for mentoring young activists, motivating them to advocate for big change in their hometowns. Members of SNCC dubbed Baker "Fundi," a Swahili word for a person who teaches a skill to a new generation.

16. Maria P. Williams wrote, produced, directed and starred in her own movie.

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Before prolific Black women like Ava DuVernay and Shonda Rhimes made their mark on the film world, Maria P. Williams became the first Black woman to ever write, produce, and act in her own movie.

Williams started as a newspaper editor in the 1890s in Kansas City, which later inspired her to create her own newspaper, The Women's Voice in 1896. In 1916, Williams published a memoir, and donated a portion of the profits to groups dedicated to putting a stop to crimes against Black Americans. In the same year, she married Jesse L. Williams, who owned a movie theater that specialized in films for Black audiences. The pair went on to form their own production company, which inspired Williams to write her own movie.

In 1923, Williams penned The Flames of Wrath, a silent film that followed the investigation of a murder after a robbery. She starred in the movie as the prosecuting attorney. Williams was later found shot to death after answering a mysterious call asking her to help a friend's sick brother. Her murder remains unsolved to this day.

Do any other Black historical figures with incredible stories come to mind? Come tell us in the comments!

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