Music and Television
- Dubbed "Hip-Hop's First Godmother" by Billboard, singer and music producer Sylvia Robinson produced the first-ever commercially successful rap record: "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang. And along with her husband, she co-owned the first hip-hop label, Sugar Hill Records.
- Renowned singer and jazz pianist, Nat King Cole, was the first Black American to host a TV show: NBC's The Nat King Cole Show.
- Stevie Wonder is not only the first Black artist to win a Grammy for Album of the Year for 1973's Innervisions, but the first and only musician to win Album Of The Year with three consecutive studio albums.
- In 1981, Broadcast journalist Bryant Gumbel became the first Black person to host a network morning show when he joined NBC's Today Show.
- In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first Black person to win an Oscar for her supporting role in Gone With the Wind. 24 years later, Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win an Oscar for his leading role in Lilies of the Field.
26 Little-Known Black History Facts You May Not Have Learned In School
These span various topics that will inspire you to take your research beyond Black History Month.