Mary Ellen Pleasant was a self-made millionaire and leading abolitionist who rose to fame and suffered infamy in San Francisco.

McKinley Thompson Jr broke the color barrier as the first black American to work for a major auto manufacturer when Ford Motor Company hired him in 1956.

Dr. Kassandra Ford is a postdoctoral researcher who studies the evolution of electric fishes from South America and Africa. She is also an avid birder.

Dr. Mamie Parker has been a professional fish and wildlife biologist whose conservation work has protected various fish, birds, and other wildlife species.

Christian Cooper is a board member of the National Audubon Society, who, on May 25, 2020, filmed a racist incident he endured in Central Park while birding.

J. Drew Lanham is an avid birder, Master Teacher, and Certified Wildlife Biologist who teaches wildlife ecology at Clemson University.

Brianna Amingwa is an avid birder and the education supervisor at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, the first urban wildlife refuge in the U.S.

Tolga Aktas is a conservation biologist, environmental photojournalist, and writer whose primary interests are wildlife biology, ecology, rewilding, and conservation.

Timothy Joe is an award-winning self-taught painter from Greensboro, Alabama. He became an avid birder in 2018 when his family partnered with Alabama Audubon to offer birding tours on their 200-acre farm.

Danielle Belleny is a wildlife biologist who co-organized the first annual #BlackBirdersWeek to highlight the efforts of black wildlife enthusiasts and amplify black birders.

Alex Troutman is a wildlife biologist and birder who has worked with endangered species and encourages future generations to pursue a career in biology.

Corina Newsome is a wildlife conservationist who connects people with nature through birds and communicates ways humans can help conserve them.

Nicole Jackson is a lover of nature and the outdoors and sees bird watching as a means of connecting with self and community. She is one of the co-organizers of #BlackBirdersWeek.

Tykee James has been a member of the birding community since his late teens, and he helped organize the first #BlackBirdersWeek in 2020.

During the Jim Crow segregation era, a coveted spa city named Hot Springs was home to black employees who served in white bathhouses and helped stoke the city's fame.

Robert Smalls was born into slavery in 1839 but escaped with his family and a crew of other enslaved persons during the American Civil War. He eventually became a sea captain, a politician, businessman, and publisher.

Ann Petry left a pharmaceutical career in Connecticut to become a New York writer. She eventually made history when her first novel, The Street—published in 1946—sold more than one million copies.

Although various media have recounted the sinking of the Titanic over several decades, most accounts neglect to feature the only black family that sailed aboard her in second-class accommodations.

Paul Cuffee spearheaded the first back-to-Africa movement in the U.S. at the turn of the nineteenth century and became the first free black American to meet with a sitting president at the White House.

The discovery of gold in California brought white enslavers and the enslaved, immigrants from foreign nations, and many freeborn blacks from the Northeast who mined for the precious metal with varying degrees of success.

Wilma Rudolph, a track and field athlete, made history in 1960 by becoming the first American woman to compete in a single Olympics and win three gold medals.

Mellody Hobson is co-CEO of Ariel Investments, a well-respected Chicago money-management firm. In 2020, she made history by being named chairwoman of Starbucks Corporation.

Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet and the U.S. poet laureate appointed to the 2017 and 2018 terms by the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden.

General Charles Q. Brown made history as the first black American to lead a U.S. branch of the military when he became the 22nd chief of staff of the Air Force on August 6, 2020.

Award-winning portrait artist Amy Sherald waited tables until she was 38 before painting became a career. In 2018, the National Portrait Gallery unveiled her official portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama.