| 1. |
Earl and Kultilda ____ introduced their only son early on to a sport he would later grow to dominate giving him a sawed-off putter to practice with as soon as he could stand up on his own.
At age 8, ____ won the first of six Optimist International Junior world Titles. After earning an incredible array of amateur titles and attending two years at Stanford University, where he won the NCAA title, ____ turned pro in the summer of 1966. In 1997, at age of 21, ____ became the youngest player ever to win the Masters and first person of African or Asian descent to win a major golf championship. After his first full year of playing, ESPN named him Male Athlete of the Year, and he was labeled the youngest player ever to hold the No. 1 ranking in pro golf. Woods' seemingly unlimited potential continued to amaze his fans when, at age 24, he became the youngest player ever to win all four major titles: PGA Championship, Masters, U.S. Open and the British Open. With a win at the Masters on April 8, 2001, ____ became the first player in history to sweep all four major tournaments in a row, further cementing his place in the history books and his status as the best golfer in the world.
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| 2. |
When entering elementary school, James Cleveland ____ gave his name as "J.C.," and the teacher wrote down "Jesse," a name that stuck for the rest of his life. ____ first displayed his outstanding track-and-field athleticism in high school in Cleveland, Ohio. At Ohio State University in 1935, he broke or equaled four world track records in one day, setting a new long-jump record that would stand for 25 years. In the 1936 Olympics in Berlin he won four gold medals, tying the Olympic record in the 100-meter sprint, breaking the Olympic record in the 200-meter run, running the final segment for the world-record-breaking U.S. 400-meter relay team, and breaking the listed world record for the long jump. As a black man, he dramatically foiled Adolph Hitler's intention to use the games to show Aryan racial superiority. For a time he held alone or shared the world records for all sprint distances recognized by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.
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| 3. |
After attending school for only a year and a half, ____ dropped out to help his ailing father tend to their tomato farm in Nassau. Moving back to Miami at the age of 15 to live with his brother and work as a drugstore messenger, ____ suffered his first sting of racial prejudice in the United States, which was markedly different from his island home. After a warning visit from the KKK, ____ fled to New York City answering an advertisement in the Amsterdam News from the American Negro Theatre then in search of actors. Having been laughed and booed off the stage at his first audition, he retreated to his apartment, imitating radio voices for several months, returned to the theatre and was granted free acting lessons in exchange for backstage chores. Kicking off his career alongside Harry Belafonte, one lead role led to another, and soon ____ was commanding the limited black roles available on the New York Stage earning praise from Civil Rights advocates for his portrayal of characters whose reserved dignity demanded respect. In 1958, ____ became the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
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| 4. |
Born January 17, 1942, as Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., ____ earned a reputation as a man dedicated to his goals and beliefs. As a teenager, he won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Olympic games and later earned the title of world heavyweight champion becoming internationally famous for his confidence both in and out of the boxing ring dominating the sport for a decade and a half. After an illustrious career, including three world heavyweight-boxing championships, ____ was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, probably brought on by repetitive trauma to his head. At the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, the world and his country honored ____ by choosing him to light the Olympic torch during the opening ceremonies. In 1999, ____ became the first boxer to ever appear on the cover of a Wheaties box! Despite Ali's publicly expressed disapproval over women participating in the sport of boxing, his daughter, Khaliah ____, chose to follow in the boxing footsteps of her champion father.
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| 5. |
In 1971, ____ began working in radio and television broadcasting in Nashville, and by 1976, was hosting the successful TV chat show, People Are Talking. Her road to success next led to her own morning show, A.M. Chicago, gaining her rave reviews and 100,000 more viewers than her competitor, Phil Donahue. Nationwide fame landed ____ a role in Steven Spielberg's 1985 film, The Color Purple, earning her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Launching the ____ Show in 1986 with a pledge to keep her production free of trashy tabloid topics, ____ attracted an audience of 10 million people with the show grossing $125 million by the end of its first year, of which ____ received $30 million. She soon gained ownership of the program from ABC under the control of her new production company, Harpo Productions ("Oprah" spelled backwards). In September of 2002, ____ was named the first recipient of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.
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| 6. |
Secretary of State ____ Luther ____ served as national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan and, under President George Bush, became the first African American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1989. In 2001 the U.S. Senate confirmed him as the 65th Secretary of State. During his early army career, ____ served two tours in Vietnam, being wounded in action during the first tour and receiving the Soldier's Medal during the second tour for pulling several men from a burning helicopter. For his part in the Persian Gulf War, General ____ was awarded a congressional gold medal. Having grown up in the South Bronx, Powell's position as the nation's foremost military leader and spokesman provides a unique opportunity to deliver a positive message to African American youth about their potential for success.
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| 7. |
____ was the first black U.S. baseball player in the major leagues. He played with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues before being signed by B. Rickey to a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team in 1945. Upon his advance to the majors in 1947, ____ endured with notable dignity the early opposition to his presence as a black player; an opposition that was quickly silenced by Robinson's immediate success as he led the league in stolen bases and was chosen rookie of the year. In 1949 he won the batting championship with a .342 average and was voted the league's most valuable player. ____ retired from the Dodgers team in 1956 with a career batting average of .311 and, in his later years, strongly supported the cause of civil rights for black Americans. ____ was elected to the Baseball hall of Fame in 1962 and in 1974 became the first black major league manager, taking over the reins of the Cleveland Indians.
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| 8. |
Singer, pianist, and composer born in Albany, Georgia, ____ lost his sight from glaucoma when he was six and attended a school for the blind where he learned to read and write music in Braille and play piano and organ. Orphaned at age 15, ____ left school and began playing music to earn a living, moving to Seattle, Washington in 1947. His early musical expressions resembled the swing style of Nat King Cole, but eventually evolved into rougher blues and gospel styles. Having a major influence on popular black music during his early years, ____ gradually reached out to influence white musicians and audiences as well. Greatly acceptable to mainstream Americans, ____ became virtually the chief image for promoting Pepsi-Cola and has been asked to perform at many national patriotic and political events.
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| 9. |
____, U.S. jurist and civil-rights advocate, studied law at Howard University. He went to work for the NAACP in 1936 and became its chief counsel in 1940. He won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, the most famous of which was Brown vs. Board of Education (1954), which outlawed segregation in public schools. Other successful cases established equal protection for blacks in housing, voting, employment, and graduate study. He served as U.S. solicitor general from 1965 to 1967 before becoming the first black Supreme Court justice in 1967. ____ was a steadfast liberal during his tenure on the Court, championing the rights of the individual, First Amendment freedoms and affirmative action. He retired in 1991.
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| 10. |
____, the first great trumpeter and soloist in jazz and its most popular public figure, was born in New Orleans where he first participated in marching, riverboat, and cabaret bands. A childhood nickname, Satchelmouth, was shortened to Satchmo and used throughout his life. In 1922 ____ moved to Chicago to join K. Oliver's Creole (Dixieland) Jazz Band, making his first records the following year. In 1925 he switched from cornet to trumpet and began recording under his own name with his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles, groups resembling the New Orleans bands. By the time of his 1928 "West End Blues," ____ had established the preeminence of the virtuoso soloist in jazz. He became something more than a jazz musician: solo attraction, bandleader, film actor, and international star. His later recordings and his role as musical ambassador to the world maintained his celebrity until the end of his life.
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| 11. |
____ developed a love for music early in life as a means of expression, perhaps because of a speech impediment; surprisingly discovering he could sing easily without stuttering. In the late 40's, ____ worked his way out of the cotton fields of Mississippi and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was dubbed ____ (short for "Blues Boy") and earned a reputation for being a first class blues man. Playing guitar and singing gospel songs on the street corner of Indianola city for passers by, ____ came to the realization that the simple modification of lyrics from "Lord" to "baby" transformed his gospel to blues. With hit singles like, "The Thrill is Gone," King's name became synonymous with blues music everywhere! Known as the "King of Blues," ____ shared a rank of music royalty with another Memphis legend, Elvis Presley, king of Rock & Roll. ____ forged a sound and style that was unique telling Time Magazine in 1969, "Blues is what I do best!"
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| 12. |
U.S. civil-rights leader and ordained Baptist minister born in Atlanta, ____, Jr. became an advocate of nonviolence philosophies while in college. In 1957 he formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and began lecturing nationwide, urging active nonviolence to achieve civil rights for blacks. Returning to Atlanta in 1960, ____ drew national attention when he was arrested for protesting segregation at a lunch counter, and presidential candidate J. F. Kennedy interceded to obtain his release. In 1963 ____ helped organize the March on Washington, an assembly of more than 200,000 protestors, at which he made his famous "I have a dream" speech. The march influenced the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and ____ was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. ____ was assassinated by J. E. Ray on April 4, 1968 while in Memphis, Tennessee supporting a strike by sanitation workers.
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| 13. |
A U.S. black civil-rights activist, ____ was born in Tuskegee, Alabama and worked as a seamstress in Montgomery, where she was active in the NAACP from 1943 to 1956. In 1955 ____ was arrested after refusing to give her seat on a public bus to a white man. The resultant boycott of the bus system organized by Martin Luther King and others brought the civil rights movement to new prominence. In 1957 ____ moved to Detroit, where she was a staff assistant to U.S. Rep. John Conyers. She was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.
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| 14. |
Born in Richmond, Virginia, ____ was recognized early as a tennis prodigy despite being restricted by segregation; and after a stellar career at UCLA and winning important amateur victories, including the U.S. Open in 1968, he turned professional. As the first black member of the U.S. Davis Cup team, ____ helped win five championships in 1963, 1968, 1969, 1970, and 1978. In 1975 he won the Wimbledon and World Championship Tennis singles events and received top world ranking and in 1985 became the first black male inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Off the court ____ was a critic of racial injustice, including South Africa's apartheid policy. In 1992 he revealed that he had been infected with the AIDS virus by a transfusion following surgery, and he thereafter devoted time to increasing public awareness of the disease. The U.S. Open is now played at ____ Stadium, which opened at the National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., in 1997.
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| 15. |
By the fifth grade, ____ was getting up in front of his class making everybody laugh, including his teacher. He was gifted with not only brilliance and humor, but great athletic prowess demonstrated on the basketball court, football and baseball fields, and running track. While studying physical education and playing right halfback for Temple University, ____ got his first job telling jokes at a coffee house in Philadelphia. Wild sound effects, a rubbery face and far-ranging characterizations popularized his comedy routine and earned him an appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He captured the first lead role for an African American when he starred in the adventure series, I Spy, winning three Emmy Awards and beginning a pattern of playing successful, educated African Americans in a medium dominated by negative images of African Americans. Serving as pitchman for Jell-O, Kodak, Del Monte, Ford Motor Company and other famous entities, ____ is one of the most recognizable people in America.
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| 16. |
____ started his life as a slave and ended it as a respected and world-renowned agricultural chemist. He did not obtain a high-school education until his late twenties and then earned a bachelors and masters degree from Iowa State Agricultural College. In 1896 he joined B. T. ____ at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama, where he became director of agricultural research soon promoting the planting of peanuts, soybeans, and legumes that he knew would help restore the fertility of southern U.S. soil depleted from cotton cropping. He worked intensively with the sweet potato and the peanut (then not even recognized as a crop), ultimately developing 118 derivative products from sweet potatoes and 300 from peanuts helping to liberate the South from its untenable cotton dependency. During World War II he devised 500 dyes to replace those no longer available from Europe. Despite international acclaim and extraordinary job offers, he remained at Tuskegee throughout his life, donating his life's savings in 1940 to establish the ____ Research Foundation at Tuskegee.
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| 17. |
____ was a resistance leader who, after 27 years of imprisonment for opposing apartheid, emerged to become the first president of a black, majority-ruled South Africa, serving from 1994 to 1999. Unlike the young leaders ____ grew up with, he was ready to try every possible technique to destroy apartheid peacefully. In 1991, ____ and F.W. de Klerk, the President of South Africa and leader of the white-dominated National party, led negotiations to establish a democratic government in South Africa, and their efforts later won them the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. On April 27, 1994, the first free elections open to all South African citizens were held, and ____ was elected president.
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| 18. |
____ Jordan's NBA career began in 1985, and he soon became identified as one of basketball's most exciting players as a guard for the Chicago Bulls. In addition to playing for the 1984 US Olympic team and the "dream team" of the 1992 Olympics (taking the gold both times), Jordan's claims to fame include his leading the Bulls to three consecutive NBA championships in the early nineties. ____ quickly grew to be thought of as quite possibly the best player ever to wear the uniform of an NBA team. Basketball notoriety won him commercial endorsements throughout the world, and he used his famous name and significant capital to launch a number of successful businesses. ____ shocked the basketball world by retiring from the game in 1993, after which he pursued a professional baseball career, but then rejoined the Bulls in 1995, leading them to victories again in 1996 and 97. In 1998 ____ led the Bulls to their sixth NBA title of the decade, then entered his second retirement from the NBA in 1999 only to astound and thrill his fans with a dramatic second return to the NBA at age 38 in 2001. ____ has, in his approach to life, set a shining example of personal excellence and, in the process, inspired the hopes and dreams of millions worldwide. He is, in the words of his coach, Phil Jackson, "A real-life hero."
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| 19. |
Born into slavery around 1820 in Maryland, ____ was a spy, nurse, feminist, and social reformer during a period of profound racial, social, and economic upheaval in the United States. One of the most famous opponents of slavery in the years before the U.S. Civil War, ____ had escaped from bondage in the South more than a decade before the war broke out, and over the course of some sixteen years, guided about three hundred other slaves to freedom in the North via a network of safe houses known as the "Underground Railroad." During the Civil War, ____ nursed the sick and wounded soldiers and taught newly freed blacks how to become self-sufficient. Believing that achieving freedom and equality for African Americans was closely linked to the struggle for women's rights, ____ became affiliated with various women's groups and enjoyed a long-lasting cordial relationship with suffragist pioneer, Susan B. Anthony.
During World War II, a liberty ship was christened the ____ in her honor. In 1978, the U.S. Postal Service issued a ____ commemorative stamp, the first in the Black Heritage USA series.
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| 20. |
____ knew from an early age he wanted to play professional baseball, so he spent most of his spare time playing sandlot baseball at a neighborhood park near his home. During Aaron's teenage years, professional baseball slowly began to integrate with the arrival of Jackie Robinson, the first black to play in the major leagues. ____ was recruited by the Black Bears to help win an exhibition game against a professional Negro League team, the Indianapolis Clowns, and ____ caught the attention of the Clowns' owner. Hank's career was kick-started by a $200- a-month offer to play for the Clowns in 1952, followed by an opportunity to play for the Milwaukee Braves that same year. He became one of the first black players to break the color line in the Deep South - a dangerous proposition in the last, desperate days of segregation that was legally enforced by Jim Crow laws. Enduring insults and racial slurs throughout his early career, Aaron's over-the-top talent carried him through the years to heights he never dreamed of setting astounding records leading to the historical moment in Atlanta on April 8, 1974, when he broke Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs. And the crowd went wild!
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| 21. |
U.S. educator and black-rights leader, ____ was born into slavery in Virginia and moved with his family to West Virginia after emancipation. From 1872 to 1876, he attended and joined the staff of the Hampton (Virginia) Normal and Agricultural Institute. In 1881 he was selected to head the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, a new teacher-training school for blacks, and he successfully transformed it into a thriving institution (later named Tuskegee University). ____ became perhaps the most prominent black leader of his time carrying his controversial conviction that blacks could best gain equality in the U.S. by improving their economic situation through education rather than by demanding equal rights. In 1895 ____ gave his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech.
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| 22. |
____, known for his involvement in the antislavery movement, was the first African American leader of national stature in United States history. In 1825 his masters sent him to Baltimore to live with Hugh Auld where ____ was cared for by Auld's mistress, a Northerner who, unacquainted with harsh techniques Southern slaveholders used to dominate their slaves, taught ____ the basics of reading and writing, fueling his self-education. In 1838 ____ was put to work in the Baltimore shipyards where he borrowed an African American sailor's protection papers, escaped to New York, and married a free African American woman from the South. After delivering a moving speech at an abolitionist meeting in Massachusetts, he was hired as a lecturer by the Antislavery society inspiring the writing of his autobiography published in 1845. A fugitive slave fearing capture, ____ fled to Britain, staying for two years and earning enough money to purchase his freedom upon return to America. During the Civil War, Douglass' main objective was seeking to protect the rights of blacks upon their release from slavery.
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