Born August 14, 2004, 13-year-old Marsai Martin is already pretty much an icon. Best known for her role as cutthroat Diane on “Black-ish,” you could also know Marsai as the little girl that sang her heart out to Beyonce’s “Love on Top” but couldn’t quite hit those high notes. (It’s adorable, you should find it and watch it, if you haven’t already seen it.)

Queen Laverne Cox was born in Mobile, Alabama (thank Heavens she got out of there) and was raised by her single mom and grandmother within the AME Zion Church (ME TOO GIRL! The AMEZ part.) Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 5 years, you know Laverne rose to fame through her role as Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black.

Born Rebecca Davis on February 8, 1831, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler grew up in Delaware under the care of her aunt, a woman who provided the sick and ailing with care. She is known for becoming the first African American woman physician in the US.

The world, specifically Milwaukee, Wisconsin, (I’m very confused by this. I don’t know where I thought Milwaukee was, but Wisconsin definitely wasn’t Wisconsin.) was blessed with the birth of Colin Rand Kaepernick on November 3, 1987. He was adopted while he was just a few weeks old. 

Sunday, September, 15, 1963 was supposed to begin like any other Sunday at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. But on this day, it would not.

As members of 16th Street Baptist Church, a predominately black church, were preparing for their morning worship service, a bomb detonated—killing four and injuring many more.

Born October 4, 1990, Dana Danelys De Los Santos, better known as Amara La Negra, is a South Florida born Dominican singer who proudly identifies as Afro-Latina. Growing up, her hero was Celia Cruz, a Cuban Afro-Latina and dynamic Latin music singer and the only woman Amara says she ever saw as a child that looked was a representation of herself. (There are, of course, many Afro-Latinos that have very successful careers and are very well known and established, many of them are undeniably lighter skinned than Amara.) 

If you don’t know who Joe Clark is, I’ll straight up tell you now that you’re doing something wrong in life. The man is a straight up LEGEND. Morgan Freeman portrayed this dude in the dramatized version of his life’s story, Lean on Me. MORGAN “VOICE FROM THE HEAVENS” FREEMAN! …I still think a lot about that scene in the movie where the girl runs up and says, “MISTAH CLARK! MISTAH CLARK! SOMEONE’S BEATING UP KID RAY!” And then you see “Kid” Ray and he’s like a full blown adult. Now, if you don’t know, you bout to learn today! 

Born November 22, 1942 Guion Bluford, Jr. a.k.a. Guy, was raised to value academic success. As a member of the U.S. Air Force ROTC program, he went to Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 1964 with a degree in aerospace engineering.

Born Oct. 23, 1989, Kye Allums is a former NCAA Division I college athlete. He is also the first college basketball player to openly play as a trans man (but not the first to play).

Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa around 1753. She was living her life and minding her own business when she was snatched from her home and thrown onto a slave ship. She was transported to Boston, Massachusetts where she was purchased to be the “personal servant” (which is what the internet said, so read: HOUSE SLAVE) to someone's wife.

Born on December 15, 1973 in Nice France, Surya Bonaly is best known for being the ONLY skater, male or female to perform a one foot backflip.

In the 1920s, Esther Jones was a singer and songwriter known for her “baby” voice style of singing (hence the nickname). She regularly performed at the Cotton Club in Harlem and it was here, in 1928, that Helen Kane saw Esther's act and decided to appropriate Ester’s mannerisms and make them her own, from the baby voice to the scatting.

On March 2, 1955, at the age of 15, Claudette was traveling home on a city bus when she was told by the bus driver to get up from her seat so a white passenger could sit down. She refused.