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Born and raised in Poughkeepsie, but with a career in the five boroughs of New York City, Jane Matilda Bolin is best known for a particular “first” of groundbreaking magnitude. She holds the honor of being the first African American judge in the entire United States, joining the bench of New York City’s Domestic Relations Court in 1939. Her appointment by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, which came as some surprise to Bolin herself — summoned with her husband to an audience with the mayor at the 1939 World’s Fair, she was not informed of the mayor’s intentions in advance — made “news around the world.” Bolin’s story of legal service and general activism begins at home. Her father, Gaius C. Bolin was the first Black graduate of Williams College and had his own legal practice. Bolin was also the founding member of the local NAACP and later in life became the first Black president of the Dutchess County Barr Association. Jane Bolin would go on to continue her studies at Wellesley College, the p

In 1913, Green began his career as a postal carrier for the U.S. Postal Service in Bergen County, New Jersey. Five years later, he married Alma Duke from Richmond, Virginia. During the Great Migration, Alma moved from the South – like thousands of other Black Americans. Shortly after they married, the couple moved to Harlem in New York City, which was rapidly becoming the center of Black arts and culture – a period now known as “the Harlem Renaissance.” As African Americans began to increase their ownership of automobiles to travel for business and pleasure, they still were restricted by racial segregation. State laws in the South required separate facilities for African Americans and many motels and restaurants in northern states excluded them too. In an effort to help African Americans avoid humiliation and danger when traveling, Green created what was originally known as “The Negro Motorist Green Book.” The Green Book was a guide published in 1936 that provided African Americans a l

Gwendolyn Brooks was one of the most influential and most recognized poets of the 20th century. She was known for her craftsmanship of the written word. She was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 and one of the first poets recognized by the Library of Congress. Brooks was known for her generosity to younger poets and for using the power of her pen to work for social justice. Gwendolyn Brooks was born on June 17, 1917, in Topeka, Kansas, but her family moved to Chicago when Brooks was young. Her father was a janitor and her mother a schoolteacher; both parents were strong supporters of their child’s love for reading and for writing poetry. By the time Brooks was 17, her poems were often published by the Chicago Defender, the newspaper that served Chicago’s African American citizens. She attended junior college and worked with the Chicago chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1968, Brooks was named poet laureate fo

  Marsha P. Johnson was one of the most prominent figures of the gay rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s in New York City. Always sporting a smile, Johnson was an important advocate for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, those effected by H.I.V. and AIDS, and gay and transgender rights. Johnson enjoyed wearing clothes made for women and wore dresses starting at age five. Even though these clothes reflected her sense of self, she felt pressured to stop due to other children’s bullying and experienced assault at a young age. Immediately after graduating from Thomas A. Edison High School, Johnson moved to New York City with one bag of clothes and $15. Once in New York, Johnson returned to dressing in clothing made for women and adopted the full name Marsha P. Johnson; the “P” stood for “Pay It No Mind,” a phrase that became her motto. Johnson described herself as a gay person, a transvestite, and a drag queen and used she/her pronouns; the term “transgender” only became commonly used after her

On June 12, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down as unconstitutional 16 state bans on interracial marriage. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and black woman who had been jailed for being married to each other. Born Mildred Jeter, she’s mostly known by the name she took when she — a black woman living in segregated Virginia — dared to break the rules by marrying a white man named Richard Loving. The union landed the Loving’s in jail, and then before the U.S. Supreme Court, and finally in the history books; the court ruled in favor of the couple, overturning laws prohibiting interracial unions and changing the face of America. A 28-year-old Phil Hirschkop was just a few months out of law school when he overheard a professor discussing the Loving’s case. Hirschkop was convinced the Supreme Court was ready for change, too — but the right case had to come before the justices, free of any legal loopholes the state could seize

  Ethel Waters was an enormously popular jazz and blues singer from the 1920s until her death in 1977. She broke barriers in many cultural areas and created a path for Blacks to star on Broadway. Her quieter more interpretive style of presenting a song brought blues out of the jazz clubs and into the cultural mainstream. In 1950, Ethel Waters was the first black American performer to star in her own regular television show, Beulah, but it was the 1961 role in the “Good Night, Sweet Blues” episode of the television series Route 66 that earned her an Emmy award.   She was the first black so honored.   Acting was a second career after singing in four different genres—jazz, blues, pop, and gospel.   She performed on Broadway stages, the first black to receive top billing with white stars.   And finally, she claimed leading roles in Hollywood films, earning an Academy Award nomination for the film Pinky. Ethel Waters even conquered the publishing world, producing two autobiographies:   Hi