Stephen Bonga was part of a prosperous Minnesota fur trading family, the first African American residents of that state. Fluent in Native American languages, Stephen and his brothers traveled as translators and voyageurs throughout the upper Great Lakes region of the Midwest. Bonga was born … Read MoreStephen Bonga (1799-1884)
George Branham III is best known as the first African American to win a major Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) title and one of the very few men of color in professional bowling. Branham was born on November 21, 1962 in Detroit, Michigan. His father, George … Read MoreGeorge Branham, III (1962- )
Beginning in the 1920s during the large scale African American migration to Chicago and other major American cities, Brown-Mitcheson, a Marinette, Wisconsin lumber company, began to recruit black workers through the Chicago Defender to land it owned on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The company offered cut-over … Read MoreElmwood, Michigan (1926-1929)
WGPR-TV (Where God’s Presence Radiates) was the first television station in the United States owned and operated by African Americans. The station, located in Detroit, Michigan, was founded by William Venoid Banks. WGPR-TV marketed toward the urban audience in Detroit, Michigan, which in that market … Read MoreWGPR-TV (1975-1995)
Idlewild, Michigan, was one of the leading African American resorts in the era of Jim Crow segregation. White land developers marketed Idlewild as an all-Negro resort town in Lake County, Michigan, about 300 miles northwest of Chicago, Illinois and 250 miles north of Detroit, through … Read MoreIdlewild, Michigan (1912- )
Jill Elaine Brown became the first African American woman to serve as a pilot for a major U.S airline when she was hired by Texas international Airlines at the age of 28. Her passion for flying began as a teenager, leading her into the U.S. … Read MoreJill Elaine Brown
Benjamin Pelham was a powerful Detroit politician and journalist. He was the Wayne County accountant from 1906 until 1942 and the proprietor and editor of the first successful black newspaper in Detroit, the Plaindealer. Pelham, the youngest of six children born to Robert Pelham, a … Read MoreBenjamin Pelham (1862-1948)
Carole Anne-Marie Gist, the first African American woman to win the Miss USA title, was born on May 8, 1969 in Detroit, Michigan. Gist, the daughter of Joan Gist and David Turner, is of African American and Cherokee heritage. Her parents divorced when she was … Read MoreCarole Ann-Marie Gist (1969- )
In 1995, Lonnie Bristow, a board-certified doctor of internal medicine, became the first African American President of the American Medical Association (AMA) in its 148 year history. Bristow, the son of Lonnie Harlis Bristow, a Baptist minister, and Vivian Wines Bristow, a nurse, grew up … Read MoreLonnie Bristow (1930- )
William DeHart Hubbard was the first African American to win a gold medal at the Olympics as an individual, placing first in the running long jump. Hubbard was born on November 25, 1903, in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended Walnut Hills High School in that city. … Read MoreWilliam DeHart Hubbard (1903-1976)
