Great Black Innovators History Posters Series
for the social studies, history, and language arts classrooms.

Benjamin Banneker, the Sable Astronomer
b. 11-9-1731; Baltimore Co., MD
d. 10-9-1806

The son and grandson of former slaves, Benjamin Banneker, known as the “Sable Astronomer”, compiled the ephemeris (information table) for annual almanacs published 1792 through 1797, predicting solar and lunar eclipses.

Banneker also provided assistance in the planning of the Federal District, which is now Washington, DC, by making sure the astronomical clock was keeping accurate time.

• more Benjamin Banneker curriculum resources

Mary McLeod Bethune Carl Van Vechten photograph

Mary McLeod Bethune
b. 7-10-1875; Mayesville, SC
d. 5-18-1955; Daytona Beach, FL
Bethune encouraged people to “Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.”

Mary McLeod Bethune, daughter of former slaves, was a tireless educator best remembered as a the founder of the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in 1904. The school evolved into the Bethune-Cookman University.

* The Mary McLeod Bethune poster in the Great Black Innovators series is no long available - here is a photographic image from another source.

George Washington Carver Print

George Washington Carver
b. c.1865; Missouri
d. 1-5-1943

• more George Washington Carver posters

Great Black Innovators - Charles Drew Poster

Charles Drew
b. 6-3-1904; Washington, DC
d. 4-1-1950

Charles Drew was a medical researcher in the field of blood transfusions.

• more Charles Drew posters
• more health care posters

Katherine Dunham, Print

Katherine Dunham
b. 6-22-1909; Joliet, IL
d. 5-21-2006; NYC

Katherine Dunham is a noted dancer and choreographer who brought the dance styles of black people of the Caribbean and the United States to the attention of America at large. Born in Chicago, she attended the university there and majored in anthropology. She did a year of field work in the west Indies. This helped give her the insight she needed to develop innovative dance forms expressing Caribbean cultural styles. She choreographed and performed in a number of stage productions and films during the 1930s and '40s. She also founded the first black dance troupe – the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. But she is most proud of the Perfoming Arts Training Center, which she founded in East St. Louis, Illinois, in 1967 – and where, in her later years, she continues to touch and offer her guidance. This oasis in the middle of the poverty-stricken city has offered hope and a way out for countless numbers of troubled youth. It is here where her legacy continues, and where many young lives are changed. (published before 2006)

• women and music posters
• Katherine Dunham books at Amazon.com
• Eartha Kitt began her career in the Katherine Dunham company.

Great Black Innovators - Matthew Henson Poster

Great Black Innovators -
Matthew Henson
b. 8-8-1866; Maryland
d. 3-9-1955

In April 1909, Matthew Henson and Lt. Robert Peary became the first people to reach the North Pole. Henson was first hired by Peary in 1887 as a servant on an expedition. He eventually rose to the rank of field assistant. Four years later, in 1891, Henson and Peary set out on the first of several trips to the cold, forbidding ice of the Artic. On their sixth and final trip, they finally made it to the North Pole. Following their triumph, Peary was made an admiral and received worldwide acclaim, while Henson was virtually ignored. Six years later, Henson was working as an attendant in a parking garage. It was only in 1954, a year before he died, that he was honored by President Dwight Eisenhower in a White House ceremony. Matthew Henson is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

• Explorer posters

Elijah McCoy

Great Black Innovators -
Elijah McCoy
b. 5-2-1843; Canada
d. 10-10-1929; Detroit, Michigan

Elijah McCoy, the son of slaves who escaped from Kentucky to Canada on the Underground Railroad, studied mechanical engineering in Scotland.

On return to the US, McCoy worked as a fireman and oiler for the Michigan Central Railroad, and in a home machine shop worked on improvements and inventions that included a folding ironing board and a sprinkler system. He received his first of nearly sixty patents in 1872 for “Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines”.

Shoes for Everyone: A Story About Jan Matzeliger

Jan Ernst Matzeliger
b. 9-15-1852; Paramaribo (formerly Dutch Guyana, now Suriname)
d. 8-24-1889; Lynn, MA

Jan Ernst Matzeliger created a machine that could attach the upper part of a shoe to the sole, making as many as 700 pairs of shoes a day compared to the 50 pair an individual crafts person could make a day.

• inventions posters

Madame C. J. Walker, Great Black Innovators Art Print

Madame C.J. Walker
b. 12-23-1867; Delta, Louisiana
d. 5-25-1919; Irvington, NY

Madame C. J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, was the daughter of ex-slaves. Yet, though she was born into poverty in 1867, she became a leading African American businessperson and the richest black woman of her time. Her childhood in rural Louisiana consisted of long hours in the cotton fields. Her family lived in a one-room shack. She married at age 14, and six years later her busband died of unknown causes. She eventually made her way to St. Louis. There, while experimenting with various chemicals, she discovered a mixture that supposedly stimulated hair growth. She began going door to door to well her new product. She also popularized the use of the modern hot comb, which allowed black women to straighten and style their thick hair. By combining her “Wonderful Hair Grower” and hot comb, she soon made a name for herself. She married a newspaperman named C. J. Walker. Although the marriage did not last, she chose to keep his name and was known from then on as Madam C.J. Walker. In the early 1900s, few avenues of opportunity were open to women. One that was, however, was women's cosmetics, and Madam Walker went into it with gusto. Her company grew rapidly. Her accomplishment are all the more remarkable because, as a black woman, she had to triumph over both racism and sexism.

• Harlem Renaissance Map poster
• Madame C.J. Walker-Amazon.com