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Lieutenant General Frank E. Peterson (March 1932 – August 2015) For day 28 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Brigadier General Frank E. Peterson, an American soldier, aviator, and educator, and the first African American aviator in the Marine Corps and the first officer in the Marine Corps to be promoted to the rank of General. In 1952, Frank Peterson joined the Navy as an electronics technician. The inspiration to become a pilot came from the story of Jesse Brown, the first African American Naval Aviator, who was shot down and killed over North Korea. Peterson was accepted...

Dr. Shirley A. Jackson (August 1946 – present) For day 27 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, an American physicist, researcher and educator, and the first African American woman to earn a Doctorate degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and to hold the position of President at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  Shirley Jackson grew up in Washington D.C. and was one of a handful of African American students to graduate from her high school. She went on to MIT, and despite being valedictorian of her high school class, she was...

Dr. Charles Richard Drew (June 1904 – April 1950) For day 26 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Dr. Charles Richard Drew an American inventor, researcher and surgeon. Charles Drew grew up in the Foggy Bottom community of Washington D.C. After graduating high school, he went on to attend Amherst College in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. He joined the Omega Psi Phi fraternity as an off-campus member, since Amherst College fraternities did not admit African Americans at the time. After graduating college, he spent the next two years as a professor of Biology and Chemistry at the...

Jacob Lawrence (September 1917 – June 2000) For day 25 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Jacob Lawrence, an American artist and painter, who is best known for his works that portray African American life with a vivid style. Like many African Americans in the early 20th century, Jacob’s parents migrated from the south to the north to escape Jim Crow. His parents separated when he was 10 and his mother put him and his two siblings into foster care in Philadelphia. Eventually, after 3 years, they would be reunited with their mother in Harlem, New York City....

Dr. Patricia E. Bath (November 1942 – May 2019) For day 24 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Dr. Patricia E. Bath, an American ophthalmologist, inventor, educator and humanitarian. She is the first African American to serve as a resident of ophthalmology at New York University, the first African American woman to serve on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA medical center and the first African American woman to receive a patent for a medical purpose. Dr. Bath studied chemistry at Hunter College in New York City, and graduated in 1964. She went on to complete her...