Trailblazers

Sammy Davis Jr.

Media & Entertainment

Samuel George Davis Jr. was the greatest entertainer of the twentieth century — a singer, dancer, actor, comedian, and impressionist whose talent was so transcendent that he broke through racial barriers in nightclubs, on Broadway, in Hollywood, and on television at a time when Black performers were expected to entertain white audiences and then leave […]

Satchel Paige

Sports

Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige was the most dominant pitcher in the history of the Negro Leagues and one of the greatest athletes America has ever produced — yet he was barred from Major League Baseball until he was 42 years old. When he finally got his chance in 1948, signing with the Cleveland Indians, he […]

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Septima Clark

Education

The mother of the civil rights movement's Citizenship Schools — Septima Clark taught thousands of Black Southerners to read so they could register to vote, building the movement's grassroots foundation.

Serena Williams

Sports

The greatest tennis player of all time — Serena Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, redefined athleticism, and proved that a Black girl from Compton could dominate the most exclusive sport in the world.

Sha’Carri Richardson

Sports

Sha’Carri Richardson runs with fire — literally, her signature orange hair streaming behind her as she blazes down the track with a style and power that has captivated the world. She became the fastest woman in America and proved that setbacks are temporary when she won the 100-meter gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, […]

Sheila Johnson

Business & Entrepreneurship

Sheila Crump Johnson became the first Black female billionaire in America when BET — the cable network she co-founded with her then-husband Robert Johnson — was sold to Viacom in 2001 for $3 billion. But her story didn’t end with BET. She went on to build Salamander Hotels & Resorts, a luxury hospitality brand, and […]

Shirley Ann Jackson

Science & Technology

The first African American woman to earn a doctorate from MIT — Shirley Ann Jackson's research in theoretical physics led to breakthroughs that made caller ID, portable fax machines, and fiber optic technology possible.

Shirley Chisholm

Politics & Law

The first Black woman elected to the United States Congress and the first woman and African American to seek a major party nomination for President — Shirley Chisholm was unbought and unbossed.

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Shirley Raines

Civil Rights & Activism

Shirley Raines was the founder of Beauty 2 the Streetz, a nonprofit organization that provides haircuts, manicures, meals, and love to the homeless population of Los Angeles’s Skid Row. Every week, Raines and her volunteers set up salon stations on the sidewalk and offered unhoused people not just basic services but dignity — washing hair, […]

Shonda Rhimes

Media & Entertainment

Shonda Lynn Rhimes is the most powerful showrunner in television history — a writer and producer whose shows have dominated prime-time television for two decades and who single-handedly changed what mainstream American audiences would watch, accept, and celebrate. Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Bridgerton, and Inventing Anna represent a body of […]

Sidney Poitier

Arts & Culture

Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1964 for “Lilies of the Field.” In an era when Hollywood offered Black actors only stereotypes, Poitier demanded and embodied dignity — on screen and off. Born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, Poitier moved to New York […]

Simone Biles

Sports

The most decorated gymnast of all time — Simone Biles has won 37 World and Olympic medals, performed skills no woman has ever attempted, and showed the world that protecting your mental health is the ultimate act of strength.

Simone Manuel

Sports

Simone Manuel became the first Black woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming when she touched the wall first in the 100-meter freestyle at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She tied for gold with a time of 52.70 — an Olympic record. Growing up in Sugar Land, Texas, Manuel was acutely aware that […]

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Music

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the godmother of rock and roll — a gospel singer and guitarist whose performances in the 1930s and 40s laid the groundwork for Chuck Berry, Elvis, and Little Richard. She was shredding on an electric guitar before the instrument was common in popular music. Her 1944 hit Strange Things Happening Every […]

Sojourner Truth

Civil Rights & Activism

Born into slavery and freed in 1826, Sojourner Truth became one of the most powerful voices for abolition and women's rights — her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech remains one of the most quoted in American history.

Spike Lee

Media & Entertainment

Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee has spent four decades forcing American cinema to reckon with race, class, and identity — on his own terms, with his own money when necessary. His 1989 masterpiece Do the Right Thing remains one of the most important American films ever made, a searing portrait of racial tension in Brooklyn that […]

Stacey Abrams

Politics & Law

The architect of one of the most significant voter registration campaigns in American history — Stacey Abrams helped flip Georgia blue in 2020 by registering 800,000 new voters and fighting voter suppression with data, strategy, and relentless organizing.

Stephen Curry

Sports

Wardell Stephen Curry II changed basketball forever. Before Curry, the three-point shot was a complementary weapon; after Curry, it became the foundation of modern basketball strategy. His shooting range — accurate from well beyond 30 feet — forced every team in the NBA to reimagine how the game is played. He is the greatest shooter […]

Stevie Wonder

Music

Stevie Wonder signed with Motown at 11 and created some of the most innovative, joyful, and socially conscious music of the twentieth century. Blind from shortly after birth, he mastered piano, harmonica, and drums before adolescence. The albums between 1972-1976 — Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life — […]

Surya Bonaly

Sports

Surya Bonaly is a French figure skater of Guadeloupean descent who became one of the most technically gifted and electrifying athletes in the history of the sport — and one of the most unfairly treated. A five-time European champion and nine-time French national champion, Bonaly was the only figure skater in Olympic history to land […]

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone

Sports

Sydney Michelle McLaughlin-Levrone doesn’t just break world records — she shatters her own, again and again, in a sport where hundredths of a second separate greatness from immortality. She is the world record holder in the 400-meter hurdles, a race she has redefined with a combination of speed, technique, and composure that makes the impossible […]