First Black

The Gateways Music Festival Orchestra is slated to make history as the first all-Black classical symphony orchestra to perform at Carnegie Hall.

A Washington park has been renamed to honor Rosa Franklin; the state’s first Black woman senator.

William Tate IV has been appointed to become Louisiana State University’s president; making him the first Black person to assume the position in the school’s 161-year history.

For the first time in its 142-year history, The Art Institute of Chicago has a Black woman board chair.

For the first time in its 182-year history, Duke University has named a campus building after a trailblazing Black woman.

Aviator Madeline Swegle made history as the U.S. Navy’s first Black woman tactical air pilot.

A. Benjamin Spencer is the first Black dean in William & Mary Law School’s 241-year history.

Amber Johnson recently became the first Black woman to earn a doctorate in computer science at Purdue University.

Maryland native Kahlil Greene has made history by becoming Yale University’s first Black student president.

Janina Simmons is the first Black woman to graduate from U.S. Army Ranger School.

20-year-old Britney Deas has made history by becoming the University of South Florida’s first Black woman student body president.

Georgia native Lt. Andrea Lewis has made history by becoming the first Black woman pilot in the Georgia National Air Guard.