The FBA Legacy

Founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church — the first independent Black denomination in the United States.

Led the most significant slave rebellion in American history in Southampton County, Virginia.

Freed enslaved man who planned one of the most elaborate slave revolts in American history.

Blacksmith who organized a large slave rebellion in Virginia in 1800.

Enslaved man whose Supreme Court case became a landmark in the history of American slavery and citizenship.

First Black U.S. Senator, representing Mississippi during Reconstruction.

Second Black U.S. Senator and the first to serve a full term, representing Mississippi.

First Black American elected to public office and first dean of Howard University Law School.

First Black governor in U.S. history, serving as acting governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction.

Highest-ranking Black officer in the U.S. Army before World War I, forced into retirement to prevent his promotion to general.

Arctic explorer who co-discovered the North Pole with Robert Peary in 1909.

First female self-made millionaire in America, built a hair care empire and was a major philanthropist.

First Black heavyweight boxing champion of the world, whose victories and defiance of racial norms made him a lightning rod for racial violence.

Jamaican-born Black nationalist who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and inspired the Back-to-Africa movement.

Poet, novelist, and playwright who was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

Anthropologist and author whose novel 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' is a landmark of American literature.

Physician and medical researcher who pioneered blood banking and the large-scale use of blood plasma.

NAACP field secretary in Mississippi who was assassinated in his driveway in 1963.

First Black woman elected to Congress and first Black candidate for a major party's presidential nomination.

SNCC leader, Freedom Rider, and congressman who was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday.

Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party who built a multiracial coalition and was assassinated by the FBI and Chicago police.

Teenager who refused to give up her bus seat nine months before Rosa Parks, a forgotten pioneer of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Co-founder of SNCC and key strategist of the Nashville sit-ins and Freedom Rides.

NAACP chapter president who advocated armed self-defense and influenced the Black Power movement.

'Mother of the Movement' who developed citizenship schools that taught literacy and civic engagement across the South.

Voting rights activist whose beating on Bloody Sunday was photographed and broadcast worldwide, galvanizing support for the Voting Rights Act.

Detroit physician who defended his home against a white mob in 1925 in a landmark case argued by Clarence Darrow.

Inventor known as the 'Black Edison' who held more than 50 patents, including the multiplex telegraph.

Inventor and engineer who developed a longer-lasting carbon filament for the light bulb and worked with both Edison and Bell.

Surgeon who performed one of the first successful open-heart surgeries in 1893 and founded Provident Hospital.

First Black woman to earn a pilot's license, becoming an international aviation celebrity who inspired generations.