Today we celebrate jazz legend Duke Ellington

Today we celebrate inventor Sarah Boone for her improvements to the ironing board. Boone was one of the first African American females to receive a patent.

Today we share some history on the origin of the United Negro College Fund

On this day in Quiztory, Ray Charles' version of "Georgia On My Mind" was declared the state song of Georgia

Today we celebrate trailblazing attorney Charlotte E. Ray, the first black woman to practice law in the United States

Today we remember the life and legacy of prominent civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston

Today we share some background on a protest by the Afro American Society on the campus of Cornell University

Alice Walker became the first African American female to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel "The Color Purple"

The D.C. Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 abolished slavery in the nation's capital before President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation

Today we celebrate pioneering architect Norma Merrick Sklarek. Hailed as the "Rosa Parks of architecture," Sklarek was one of the first licensed African American female architects in the U.S.