The Social-Emotional Learning Hub For Black People
OUR HISTORY
We honor black people who have exemplified strong social-emotional skills in history
Vice President Kamala Harris
Vice President
Kamala Devi Harris born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th and current vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well as the first African American and first Asian…
Martin Luther King Jr.
Civil Rights Activist
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. An African American church leader and the son…
Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett
Researcher
Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Shanta Corbett (born January 26, 1986) is an American viral immunologist. She is an Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Shutzer Assistant Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute since June 2021. Appointed to the VRC in 2014,…
Malcom X
Civil Rights Activist
Malcolm X (Malik el-Shabazz, born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for black empowerment…
Rosa Parks
Civil Rights Activist
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the…
Sidney Poitier
Actor
Sidney Poitier (February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian and American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first African American actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive Golden Globe Awards, a competitive British Academy…
Harriet Tubman
American abolitionist
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. March 1822 – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as…
Beverly Johnson
Supermodel
Beverly Ann Johnson (born October 13, 1952) is an American model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. Johnson rose to fame when she became the first African-American model to appear on the cover of American Vogue in August 1974. In 1975, Johnson became the first black woman to appear on the cover…
Hattie McDaniel
Actress
Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893, October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She was the first black woman…
Wilma Rudolph
Track & Field Athlete
Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely and was often sick as a child at age 4, suffered from several ailments, including double pneumonia and scarlet fever. She contracted polio. Her left leg was paralyzed. She was fitted for a metal brace that she wore for several years to help her get…
Nelson Mandela
Activist & Political Leader
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (born Rolihlahla Mandela, 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black head of state and the first elected in…
Shirley Chisholm
Member of Congress
Shirley Anita Chisholm St. Hill; (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first African-American woman elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York’s 12th congressional district, a district centered on Bedford–Stuyvesant,[a] for seven terms from 1969…
Henrietta Lacks
“HeLa” Cell Source
Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant; August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951)[1] was an African-American woman[4] whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line[A] and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely…
Ruby Bridges
Civil Rights Activist
Don’t follow the path. Go where there is no path and begin the trail. When you start a new trail equipped with courage, strength, and conviction, the only thing that can stop you is you!” -Ruby Bridges. Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American civil…
Jesse Owens
Track & Field Athlete
James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as “perhaps the greatest and most famous…
Dorothy Height
Civil Rights Activist
Dorothy Irene Height (March 24, 1912 – April 20, 2010) was an African American civil rights and women’s rights activist.[1] She focused on the issues of African American women, including unemployment, illiteracy, and voter awareness.[2] Height is credited as the first leader in the civil rights movement to recognize inequality…
Bayard Rustin
Civil Rights Activist
“When an individual is protesting society’s refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.” – Bayard Rustin Rustin (born March 17, 1912, West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.-died August 24, 1987, New York, New York), was a gay civil rights organizer…
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