Ruth White

17-year-old Ruth White was the youngest and first African-American woman to win the National Fencing Championship. She was selected to fence on the 1972 U.S. Olympic team.

Atoy Wilson

U.S. Figure Skating Championships, 1966 Berkeley, CaliforniaAtoy Wilson was the first African-American man to win a national figure skating title in the men's novice category of the U.S. National Championships. He also competed in the men's juniors in Philadelphia in 1968.

Cisero Murphy

U.S. National Billiards Championship, 1965 Burbank, California In 1965, Cisero Murphy became the first African-American National Billiards champion after the color bar to the World Invitational championships was dropped. He was the first and only player ever to win in his first championship match

Burl Toler

National Football League, September 19 1965 San Francisco, CaliforniaBurl Toler was named by NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle to be the first African-American football field judge in the NFL.

Donald Barksdale

In 1948 Summer Olympic Games, 1948 Berkeley, CaliforniaUCLA's Donald Barksdale, the first African American named to a U.S. Olympic basketball team, went on to win a gold

Martin Luther King Jr.

Let Freedom Ring!

The Rev. Martin Luther King changed the course of American history with his leadership of the civil rights movement. His philosophy of answering injustice with acts of nonviolent civil disobedience helped open white America's eyes to America's racial inequality. King's legendary speeches were equal parts logic and music — finely reasoned arguments firmly based on religious and philosophical principles, delivered in the ringing, rhythmic style of the Southern preacher. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He is also the first black american honored by a national Holiday .King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968.

I Have A Dream Video

Willie Thrower

NFL's first African-American quarterback when he appeared in a game for the Chicago Bears on Oct. 18, 1953; never appeared in another game and it would be 15 years before another African-American quarterback would take a snap in a pro game; cut by the Bears the next year and played in the Canadian Football League until a separated shoulder forced him to retire at age 27; led Michigan State to national championship in 1952. He died of a heart attack.

Grant Fuhr, 1981

The first black to have his name on the Stanley Cup and to be inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Integral member of the 1980s Edmonton Oilers.

Black Hockey League (called"Black Ice")

(1895-1925) We form our own hockey league ,because many believed blacks could not endure cold, possessed ankles too weak to effectively skate, and lacked the intelligence for this organized sport, these men defied the defined myths