The People Who Paved the Way

Trailblazers

Pioneers, barrier-breakers, and history-makers who changed what's possible.

All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Gabby Douglas

Gabrielle Douglas became the first Black woman to win the Olympic all-around gold medal in gymnastics at the 2012 London Games. She was also part of the gold-medal winning “Fierce Five” team, making her the first American gymnast to win both individual all-around and team gold at the same Olympics. Douglas left her family in […]

Garrett A. Morgan

Science & Technology

Garrett Augustus Morgan was an inventor whose creations saved countless lives — yet whose contributions were often obscured because of the color of his skin. He invented the three-position traffic signal, which he patented in 1923 and later sold to General Electric for $40,000. He also invented a smoke hood — an early gas mask […]

General Benjamin O. Davis Sr.

Military & Service

Benjamin Oliver Davis Sr. became the first Black general in the United States Army on October 25, 1940 — a milestone achieved after 42 years of service in a military that systematically humiliated him at every rank. He endured being assigned to posts where he would supervise no white soldiers, being excluded from officers’ clubs, […]

George Washington Carver

Science & Technology

George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Diamond, Missouri, around 1864, and became one of the most important agricultural scientists in American history. His research at Tuskegee Institute revolutionized Southern agriculture by promoting alternatives to cotton — which had devastated the soil — and developing hundreds of products from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. […]

Gladys Knight

Music

Gladys Maria Knight — the Empress of Soul — has been performing since she was four years old, when she won the Ted Mack Amateur Hour television competition. Over seven decades later, she remains one of the most respected and beloved voices in American music, with hits that have soundtracked generations: “Midnight Train to Georgia,” […]

Gordon Parks

Arts & Culture

A self-taught photographer who became the first Black director in Hollywood — Gordon Parks used his camera as a weapon against poverty, racism, and injustice.

Granville T. Woods

Science & Technology

Granville Tailer Woods held over 60 patents and was known as the “Black Edison” — though Edison himself tried to claim credit for Woods’s inventions, losing in court twice. Woods’s most important innovation was the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph in 1887, which allowed moving trains to communicate with each other and with stations, dramatically reducing […]

Gwen Ifill

Media & Entertainment

Gwendolyn L. Ifill was the most trusted journalist in America and the first Black woman to host a nationally televised public affairs program when she became the anchor of PBS’s Washington Week in 1999. She later co-anchored the PBS NewsHour alongside Judy Woodruff, becoming one of the most authoritative voices in broadcast journalism. She moderated […]

Gwendolyn Brooks

Literature

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks became the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize — for her 1949 poetry collection Annie Allen — and spent the next six decades proving that poetry could be simultaneously literary and accessible, experimental and rooted in community. Her work gave voice to the ordinary heroism of Black life on Chicago’s […]

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Trailblazers

Gabby Douglas

Garrett A. Morgan

General Benjamin O. Davis Sr.

George Washington Carver

Gladys Knight

Gordon Parks

Granville T. Woods

Gwen Ifill

Gwendolyn Brooks

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