Willie O'Ree

       Willie O'Ree was born October 15, 1935 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. A graduate of the New Brunswick Amateur Hockey Association, O'Ree who was known for his speed and checking abilities throughout his career was a threat every time he touched the ice. Following his stint in the NBAHA, O'Ree joined the York County Hockey League's Fredericton Merchants a team with whom he played only six games with before joining the New Brunswick Junior Hockey League's Fredericton Jr. Capitals. The Fredericton, New Brunswick native spent parts of two seasons with the Jr. Capitals in 1951-52 and 1952-53 before joining the Fredericton Capitals of the New Brunswick Senior Hockey League for parts of two seasons in 1952-53 and 1953-54. As a member of the Capitals, O'Ree led his team to the 1954 Allan Cup tournament before joining the Quebec Junior Hockey League's Quebec Frontenacs in 1954-55 and leading them to the 1955 Memorial Cup tournament.  After only one season in Quebec, O'Ree joined the Ontario Hockey Association Junior 'A' Hockey League's Kitchener Canucks in 1955-56 and set a career high in goals with 30 before joining the Quebec Hockey League's Quebec Aces in 1956-57. As a member of the Aces O'Ree and his teammates battled for the Edinburgh Trophy, which was a Challenge Series between, the Western Hockey League and the Quebec Hockey League form 1953 to 1956.

          In 1957-58 O'Ree spent the majority of the seasons with the Aces while playing a handful of games with the American Hockey League's Springfield Indians before he made his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins later that season.

O'Ree's first NHL game was marked with historic content as he became the first black person to play in the NHL before returning to the Aces in 1958-59. After a stop in Kingston of the Eastern Professional Hockey League, O'Ree rejoined the Bruins in 1960-61 where he played in 43 games, scoring his first NHL goal against the Montreal Canadiens. Even though he spent the majority of the season with Boston, O'Ree also spent some time with the EPHL's Hull-Ottawa Canadians before the Bruins traded him to the Montreal Canadiens during the off-season.

           Having never played a game for Montreal, O'Ree was dealt to the Western Hockey League's Los Angeles Blades after having begun the season in the EPHL. O'Ree went on to play six seasons with Los Angeles establishing a career high in goals with 38 during the 1964-65 season before he was traded to the WHL's San Diego Gulls in the summer of 1967. O'Ree spent seven seasons in San Diego establishing a career high in points with 79 in 1968-69 and earning WHL Second Team All-Star honors before he was selected by the Los Angeles Sharks in the 1972 WHA General Player Draft. While in San Diego O'Ree played the better part of the 1972-73 season with the AHL's New Haven Nighthawks. Following his 13 years in the Western Hockey League, O'Ree joined the Southern California Senior Hockey League's San Diego Charms, a team with whom he spent the next two seasons with before retiring from the game for two years in 1976-77 and 1977-78. O'Ree returned to the ice in 1978-79 as a member of the Pacific Hockey League's San Diego Hawks before calling it a career at the end of the season.

Ella Baker

 Ella Baker is on an active civil rights leader in the 1930's and fought for civil rights for five decades, working alongside W.E.B Dubois, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King, Jr. She was a tireless fighter for social equality for African-Americans in the United States. She even mentored well-known civil rights activist, Rosa Parks. Baker's work--supporting local branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working behind the scenes to establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and mentoring college students through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)--helped move the Civil Rights Movement forward. Ella Baker is quoted as saying, “You didn’t see me on television; you didn’t see news stories about me. The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come. My theory is, strong people don’t need strong leaders.”

John Lee Love

John Lee Love's invention was a very simple and portable pencil sharpener. The same kind of pencil sharpener that many artists use or that can be found in an office or school room. John Lee Love's pencil sharpener was patented on November 23, 1897 (U.S. Patent # 594,114).

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery and found a means of escape with the help of her abolitionist neighbors. In 1849, she fled her slave life in Maryland and found respite in Philadelphia. There she formulated a plan to liberate the rest of her family by way of the Underground Railroad, a system that involved moving slaves from one safe house to another under rigid secrecy. She was able to free her family and numerous other slaves throughout the years, taking them as far as Canada and helping them find safe jobs. Later, she worked as a nurse during the Civil War and was a proponent of both women’s suffrage and the abolitionist movement.

The Tuskegee Airmen

By the beginning of World War II, African Americans were putting increased pressure on the government to make conditions more equal for blacks in the armed forces. Still reluctant to integrate the military, the government took a step forward in 1941 by creating the first all-black military aviation program, at theTuskegee Institute in Alabama. The action received a great deal of criticism from black Americans who were outraged by their continued segregation.
In May 1943, the first group of Tuskegee-trained pilots was sent to North Africa to join the Allied forces. They were headed by Capt. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., who would later become the first African-American Air Force general. The accomplishments made by the 99th Fighter Squadron, especially in it's collaboration with the all-white 79th Fighter Group in October 1943, helped pave the way for integration in the Air Force.

Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson became the first black person to play in and win Wimbledon and the United States national tennis championship. She won both tournaments twice, in 1957 and 1958. In all, Gibson won 56 tournaments, including five Grand Slam singles events. She won the French women's singles championship in 1956 and the U.S. and British championships in both 1957 and 1958. She retired from competition in 1958. In 1971 she was named to the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame.

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 - Jan. 24, 1993) was the first African-American justice of the US Supreme Court. Marshall was on the team of lawyers in the historic Supreme Court trial concerning school desegregation, Brown v. Board of Education (1954). As a result of this trial, the "separate but equal" doctrine in public education was overthrown. After a successful career as a lawyer and judge fighting for civil rights and women's rights, Marshall was appointed to the high court in 1967 (by President Lyndon Baines Johnson). On the high court, Marshall continued his fight for human rights until he retired on June 27, 1991.

Maya Angelou

Before she was celebrated for her poems and autobiographical texts like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya was a nightclub singer and dancer who toured Europe. She settled in New York and became part of the burgeoning black writing scene in Harlem. After moving to Ghana to teach at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama, she met Malcolm X and collaborated with him on bringing equality and unity to America. She returned to the U.S. and was involved with the Civil Rights Movement, working closely with Martin Luther King Jr. She continues to inspire others and promote change through her writing and public speaking.

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson made history in 1947 when he broke baseball's color barrier to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. A talented player, Robinson won the National League Rookie of the Year award his first season, and helped the Dodgers to the National League championship - the first of his six trips to the World Series. In 1949 Robinson won the league MVP award, and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Despite his skill, Robinson faced a barrage of insults and threats because of his race. The courage and grace with which Robinson handled the abuses inspired a generation of African Americans to question the doctrine of "separate but equal" and helped pave the way for the Civil Rights Movement.

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was a boisterous writer who was part of the Harlem Renaissance, a social and cultural movement that explored the experiences of black people in America during the 1920's. She used her background in anthropology at Barnard College to write short stories and essays about African American folklore. Her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published in 1937, because some people disagreed with the way she wrote African American dialogue, her works were not initially as popular as they later became. She had influence on black female writers like Alice Walker.