In 1876 Edward Alexander Bouchet made history by becoming the first African American PhD physicist, and the sixth person of any race to receive a PhD in physics from an American university. Bouchet went on to educate and inspire others as a science teacher at a school for black students. He entered Yale in the fall of that year. Bouchet was not the first black student to enter Yale, but he was the first to graduate. He lived at home during his time at Yale, and was clearly devoted to his studies. In June 1874, he graduated sixth in a class of 124 students. He was the first black person to be nominated to Phi Beta Kappa.

Alexander Augusta, MD. First black physician appointed director of a U.S. hospital. Alexander Augusta earned his medical degree at Trinity Medical College in Toronto, Canada, and established a successful medical practice in Canada before relocating to the U.S. in 1862. Drafted to serve in the Civil War, Dr. Augusta became the first commissioned black surgeon in the U.S. Army. He later became the first black physician to direct a U.S. hospital — Freedman's Hospital in Washington D.C. After leaving Freedman's, Dr. Augusta continued in private practice and became a professor at Howard University Medical Department in Washington D.C.

Alice Augusta Ball was an African American chemist who developed the first successful treatment for those suffering from Hansen’s disease (leprosy). Ball was also the very first African American and the first woman to graduate with a M.S. degree in chemistry from the College of Hawaii (now known as the University of Hawaii)

Born in North Carolina in 1827, Revels attended Knox College in Illinois and later served as minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. He raised two black regiments during the Civil War and fought at the Battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi. The Mississippi state legislature sent him to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate during Reconstruction, and he quickly became an outspoken opponent of racial segregation. Revels resigned from the Senate after a year to accept the presidency of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, located in Claiborne County, Mississippi.

Octavius Valentine Catto was an American educator, intellectual, and civil rights activist in Philadelphia. He became principal of male students at the Institute for Colored Youth, where he had also been educated. He was a member of a number of other civic, literary, patriotic and political groups, including the, the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia Library Company, 4th Ward Black Political Club, and the Union League Association. Catto’s facile mind was constantly active in expanding intellectual horizons, and saw political activity as a means to foster betterment for his people. He was largely responsible for the adoption of the ‘Bill of Rights’ for equal access to the public transportation in the city as was legislated in the Commonwealth in 1867 at Catto’s urging and activism.