Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961. He is the first African American to be elected President of the United States. This historic win made him the forty-fourth U.S. President.
Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney in Chicago before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. In 2004, he was elected to be the junior United States Senator from Illinois.
He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School.
Benjamin Banneker was born in Maryland on November 9, 1731. He is often known as the “First African American Scientist.” He built a working wooden clock that kept accurate time and struck the hours for over 50 years. Banneker studied astronomy and he published an almanac. “Benjamin Banneker’s Almanac” was a top seller from Pennsylvania to Virginia and even into Kentucky from 1792 to 1797.
In 1791, Banneker helped survey the land which is now known as Washington, D.C.
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Althea Gibson was born in Silver, North Carolina on August 25, 1927. She became the first black person to win major titles in tennis. She attended Florida A& M University on a tennis scholarship. In 1957 and 1958, she won the championship at Wimbledon, England and the U.S. Open ranking her as the number one female tennis player both years. Later she became a successful professional golfer and was the first black woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association.