8 African-American Trailblazers You Should Know

As a kid, Shirley Ann Jackson used to crawl under her front porch to study honeybees. She followed her love of science to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A., where she became the first African-American woman to attend the prestigious university. MIT wasn’t quite ready for her yet: She faced discrimination by staff and students, some of whom even refused to sit next to her. But Jackson kept her focus and, when she wasn’t working, volunteered in the children’s ward of a local hospital to put her troubles in perspective. In 1973, Jackson became the first black woman to earn a Ph.D., in physics, from MIT. She had studied subatomic particles, the building blocks of atoms; her work led to inventions such as the touch-tone telephone, solar cells, and caller ID.

When Martin Luther King, Jr., organized the Montgomery bus boycotts, this fellow Baptist minister was there to help. When racist terrorists damaged King’s house with a bomb to intimidate him, they bombed Abernathy’s house as well. When King was arrested for civil disobedience, Abernathy went to jail with him. The two men had a friendship forged by fire and strengthened by a common cause. They co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, with King as president and Abernathy as his vice president. They organized peaceful marches and sit-ins together and were rarely photographed apart. When King was shot by an assassin in 1968, Abernathy was at his side. He had to carry on the struggle without his best friend and greatest ally.

The honor of first female firefighter goes to Molly Williams, who took up the hose just over 200 years ago. Williams was a slave in New York City who became a member of the Oceanus Engine Company No. 11 in 1815. She fought fires while wearing a dress and apron, but she was as tough as the male firefighters, once dragging the water pumper during a blizzard to reach the site of a fire.

In 1988, American athlete Florence Griffith Joyner (sister-in-law of Jackie Joyner-Kersee) set a world record for the 100-meter (328-foot) race during the Olympic Trials quarterfinals, crossing the finish line in a blazingly fast 10.49 seconds. Then, she set another world record, for the 200-meter (656-foot) race, at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Those times still stand today, and no other athlete has even come close to matching them. Joyner broke records with flair, often showing up to the track sporting one-legged body suits and six-inch (1.5-cm)-long fingernails. But it was her fleet feet that earned her a place in the history books: Flo-Jo is considered the fastest woman of all time.

A black and openly gay man who refused to fight in World War II for religious reasons, Bayard Rustin got a triple dose of discrimination in the 1940s. Despite constant threats and several arrests, he was a tireless advocate for human rights and a pioneer in the civil rights movement, organizing protests against segregation. He was a seasoned organizer and civil rights strategist by the time he met Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 1950s. Rustin advised King to rely on the same nonviolent strategies as Indian activist Mohandas Gandhi. Rustin was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington and one of King’s finest hours, the “I Have a Dream” speech.

In 1949, Shirley Chisholm joined the Democratic Party club in her Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A., neighborhood, where two-thirds of the community was black but were represented by white politicians. When she questioned the party leadership and pushed them to recognize the issues of black voters, they tried to quiet her by giving her an important title as a member of the board of directors. When Chisholm still refused to go along with their actions, they kicked her out. It was the beginning of a career Chisholm would spend questioning those in power. She entered politics, campaigning for the rights of women and minorities. Her outspoken approach won her respect. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to Congress, and in 1972, she even ran for president—the first African-American woman in history to do so.