March 17, 2026 – PRESSADVANTAGE –
First Black Person, an educational reference documenting historic achievements by Black Americans across twelve fields, announced this month that the site has expanded to 37 researched profiles, with new additions spanning politics, aviation, invention, and military history. The site, available at First Black Person, now covers more than 250 years of documented American history, from 1770 through 2021.
The expansion reflects ongoing editorial work rather than a one-time publication event. Senior Editor Marcus Thompson described the archive as a living reference, one that grows as new research is completed and reviewed. “We started with the most documented figures and built outward from there,” Thompson said. “Some additions came quickly because the historical record is strong. Others required months of cross-referencing sources before the team was confident in the accuracy of the claim.”
The site’s earliest profile documents Crispus Attucks, who died in the Boston Massacre in 1770 and is recognized as the first American colonist killed in the events leading to the Revolutionary War. The most recent addition profiles Lloyd Austin, who in 2021 became the first Black Secretary of Defense in United States history. Between those two endpoints, the archive traces achievements across politics, sports, entertainment, business, civil rights, education, medicine, military service, space, aviation, invention, and law.
The civil rights and political profiles carry particular weight within the archive. Shirley Chisholm, who in 1968 became the first Black woman elected to Congress, is profiled alongside her 1972 presidential campaign, in which she became the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination. Thurgood Marshall’s profile covers his work as lead counsel in Brown v. Board of Education and his subsequent appointment as the first Black Justice on the United States Supreme Court in 1967. Barack Obama’s entry addresses his 2008 election as the first Black President of the United States.
The sports section is anchored by Jackie Robinson, whose 1947 entry into Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers remains one of the most documented integration milestones in American sport. His profile examines both the significance of the achievement and the documented hostility Robinson faced during his first seasons. The military section includes a profile of General Colin Powell, who became the first Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1989.
In aviation and space, Bessie Coleman and Mae Jemison represent separate eras of the same field. Coleman became the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license in 1921, doing so in France because no flight school in the United States would accept her. Jemison, a physician and engineer, became the first Black woman to travel to space in 1992 aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Both profiles trace the institutional barriers each woman navigated and the paths they opened for those who followed.
The invention category includes Garrett Morgan, whose development of the traffic signal and smoke hood are documented alongside the context of early 20th-century patent law and the barriers Black inventors faced in commercializing their work. Robert Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender, appears in the business section for his role in building one of the most influential Black-owned newspapers in American history.
Thompson noted that the site’s approach to sourcing sets it apart from reference aggregators that rely on single secondary sources. “We go back to primary sources when they exist. When they don’t, we document that uncertainty explicitly rather than presenting a contested claim as settled fact,” he said. The team uses the visual timeline as an internal consistency check, ensuring each profile’s dates and context align with surrounding entries.
The site carries no advertising and does not require registration. The editorial team has indicated that additional profiles in the fields of science, literature, and diplomacy are currently in research.
First Black Person is an independent educational reference dedicated to documenting historic achievements by Black Americans across politics, culture, science, and public life. The site is free to access and designed for students, educators, journalists, and general readers. Marcus Thompson serves as Senior Editor and is responsible for research standards, source verification, and editorial accuracy.
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For more information about First Black Person, contact the company here:
First Black Person
Marcus Thompson
editor@firstblackperson.com
