Clara C. Frye was a nurse from Tampa, Florida, that converted her three-bedroom family home into a makeshift hospital for African American patients denied medical treatment due to the color of their skin. The dining room table donned the role of an operating table, with Frye's bedroom often serving as a recovery room for patients.

Alexander Thomas Augusta was a doctor who became the first of eight black officers in the Union army during the American Civil War. Augusta faced many racial prejudices in the Army by writing letters to newspapers and government officials in the hopes of achieving change. Augusta's most significant letter was written following his forceful removal from a Washington streetcar after refusing to give up his seat in the "whites only" section. The year following the incident, Congress desegregated all the streetcars in the nation's capital.

A native of Dublin, Georgia, Dr. Robert Ellerston Shurney was selected by President John F. Kennedy's administration for a career at NASA as one of the space program's first black aerospace engineers. During his long tenure at NASA, Shurney was lead engineer for the Apollo 15 Lunar Rover, creating the tires that provided good traction and traversal across the Moon's dusty surface. Shurney also contributed to the Saturn V rocket, the most powerful ever designed by the United States.

Bernard A. Harris is a former NASA astronaut who holds the title of the first African-American to walk in space.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham maintained a distinguished 20-year career with NASA as a real-life rocket scientist and astronaut. As a member of the STS-116 Discovery crew, Higginbotham embarked on a 12-day mission to continue the International Space Station's construction. After the Discovery left Earth's atmosphere, Higginbotham earned the title of the third African American woman to travel to space.

Nuruddin Farah is a Somali novelist famous for his deep imagination and creative use of words. In addition to being a novelist, Farah played an important role in mediating conversations of peace between armed groups in Somalia. Farah is currently a faculty member at Bard College in New York and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Ilhan identifies as a democratic socialist who supports broader access to student loan forgiveness programs, medicare for all and is opposed to the efforts to seal the U.S. -Mexico border. As a member of Congress, she has found herself in a group of like-minded people who work collectively to pass laws to better the racialized divide in the United States. In 2017, Time Magazine named Ilhan part of FIRSTS: Women Who Are Changing the World, an award given to women who break barriers in their respective disciplines.

Midwife, Women's Rights Activist, and Founder Of The First Women's Hospital In Somalia. Edna believed opening a hospital would allow her to tackle cases of interest, with the first maternity hospital completed in 2002 under the vow of improving local women's health and reducing the infant mortality rate in the area.

Madam C.J. Walker, the first self-made U.S. woman millionaire of any race, owned property in Idlewild. She made her fortune starting a line of hair products and straighteners that help ease the process of hair styling for African American women beyond braids and protective styles. As her business grew and succeeded, Madame C.J. Walker decided to apply her success to philanthropy giving to organizations that focused on the social well-being of Black Americans.