Alexander Crummell

Alexander Crummell (1819-1898) was born in New York City was happy to be known as the boy whose father told his master he would no longer serve as a slave. Alexander's father hired private tutors to ensure his son's academic success. He was a scholar college professor preacher and an advocate for the emigration of Blacks to America. Crummell left the U.S. in 1847 to work as a missionary for the Episcopal Church, then as a professor in Liberia. In 1873 he returned to Washington, D.C., where he was appointed "Missionary at Large of Colored People." In 1880 he established Saint Luke's Church to fulfill his vision that the Black church should be a place of worship and social services.

Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was a natural politician who cultivated the good will of whites and blacks in the south. Appointed the principal of Tuskegee Institute, Washington set out to make Tuskegee a different type of school than a standard liberal arts college. All students were expected to work to pay their tuition. Washington's gospel of "self help" appealed to many people. His industrial school graduates were sober hardworking and successful farmers, carpenters, and bricklayers. He was successful in teaching students a skilled trade.

Charles Drew

Charles Drew perfected the techniques for separating and preserving blood. His techniques helped save thousands of American and Allied soldiers' lives during the Second World War. Active in the war himself, Dr. Drew was a surgical consultant for the U.S. Army and also worked with the American Red Cross. At the time of his death in 1950, he was honored for outstanding achievements in the field of blood research. Doctors today continue to utilize the blood plasma preservation techniques created by Drew.

Elizabeth Duncan Koontz

Elizabeth Duncan Koontz was an educational leader who devoted her life's work to building a better quality of life for children through schooling and the support of women, their primary caregivers. Koontz gained firsthand experience teaching in the classrooms of North Carolina for a number of years before becoming the first black president of the National Education Association in 1965. In later years, she served the US. Department of Labor in the Women's Bureau. Her advocacy established a role model that endures today, as new generations continue to work for the betterment of society through a focus on early education. (Notable African American Women.)

Garret A. Morgan

Garret A. Morgan was a progressive business man and scientific inventor in Cleveland, Ohio during the early 1900s. One of his best know patented inventions was a smoke protector/safety hood which is known to have saved the lives of trapped workersin a waterworks tunnel. Another Morgan invention was an automatic traffic signal that was patented in 1923 and later sold to General Electric. Today African American successors of Morgan carry on his legacy taking leadership roles in all field of science and research, including medicine, botany biology ecology physics and astronomy.