#black firsts

When Althea Gibson won Wimbledon in 1957, she was the first black woman to do so. Her proud parents, Daniel and Annie Gibson, beamed at their home in New York as they held AP Radio photos showing their daughter in action, July 6, 1957. Mrs. Gibson said "We're so proud of her we don't know what to say."

“U.S Mint announced it has begun shipping out the first quarters featuring trailblazing American women, beginning with poet, writer and activist Maya Angelou, the first Black woman to appear on the quarter. “

Black Oscar Firsts: A Brief History of the Trailblazing Academy Award Winners in Each Category (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson) You might know about Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier or Halle Berry being the first Black recipients of Oscars in their respective acting categories, but have you ever wondered who were the first in all the others? Writing? Producing? Hair and Make-Up? Sound? Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is a bonus episode for Sunday, March 27 — the day the 94th…

September 4, 1941: Lt. Samuel Battle gets a kiss from his 4-year-old granddaughter, Yvonne, at City Hall, where he was sworn in as the city's first black parole commissioner.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011, marked the 100th anniversary of when Battle became the first black person appointed to the New York Police Department. The road was far from easy. His circuitous trip into the history books included stints as a houseboy at the Sagamore Hotel in Lake George and a $32-a-month redcap at Grand Central Terminal.

From 1949, Langston Hughes documented the life of Samuel Battle in lengthy interviews. However, his very voluminous 80,000-word manuscript was never published. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt praised Battle's exemplary "courage" and "remarkable perseverance." The manuscript fell into obscurity after Battle's death in 1966; only a year later Hughes also died. The journalist Arthur Browne rediscovered it decades later. Together with some other researched sources, this resulted in the biography One Righteous Man.

Dan Bankhead, 26, who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first black pitcher in major league baseball, stands with Dodgers manager Burt Shotton at Ebbets Field on August 26, 1947.

The New York Knicks hired Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, seen here on August 2, 1958, as the first African-American player with an official contract in the National Basketball Association.