Bet you didn’t learn this in school.
Nichelle Nichols had the first interracial kiss on an American TV series.
Nichelle played Lieutenant Uhura on the hit television series Star Trek.
She was the first African-American woman to play a lead role on a mainstream TV show who was not a stereotypical character. She almost left the series after the first year; however Martin Luther King Jr. convinced her not to quit.
Paramount Televsion
Rosa Parks was the first woman laid to rest at the State Capitol.
Rosa Parks, a civil rights pioneer and activist, died at 92 years old. Her body was flown to the Capitol Rotunda in D.C. to lie in honor, which is normally reserved for military leaders and politicians.
Bill Pugliano / Stringer / Getty Images
President Barack Obama is a two-time Grammy Winner.
Yup, that's right: He leads our country and he's a Grammy winner. In 2006 he won best spoken word album, Dreams from My Father. In 2008 he won best spoken word album for The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.
Pool / Getty Images
Nat “The Bush Doctor" Mathis was an inventor and Afro stylist pioneer.
During the '70s African-Americans started rockin' their natural locs. However, most salons and barbers didn't know how to style this look. Sound familiar? Nat was known in the D.C. streets as the Bush Doctor since he focused on how to treat the hair, not just cut it. Nat opened the city's first unisex salon when he was 23 years old. He also patented the "barbering vest."
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images