Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818. Despite the challenges he faced, he managed to educate himself and escape to freedom in 1838. Douglass went on to become a prominent abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He is best known for his autobiography, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass".
2. Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland in 1822. She escaped to freedom in 1849 and went on to make 19 trips back to the South to help over 300 slaves escape. Tubman is known as the "Moses of her people" and is considered one of the most important figures in African-American history.
3. Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in Virginia in 1856. After the Civil War, he attended Hampton Institute, where he was educated in industrial arts. Washington went on to found the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a school that provided vocational training to African-Americans. He was a prominent leader of the African-American community and is considered one of the most influential African-Americans of his time.
4. George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Missouri in 1864. He showed a talent for art and science early on in his life, and he went on to attend Iowa State Agricultural College, where he studied botany. Carver became a renowned agricultural scientist and developed many uses for soybeans, peanuts, and other crops. He is considered one of the most important scientists of the 20th century.
5. Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was born into a farming family in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1913. Parks worked as a seamstress before becoming involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1955, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus. her actions sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a 381-day protest that resulted in the desegregation of public buses in Montgomery. Parks went on to become one of the leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement, and she is remembered as "the mother of the Civil Rights Movement"