Mae C. Jemison is the first African American female astronaut. In 1992, she flew into space aboard the Endeavour, becoming the first African American woman in space.

An American lawyer and politician, Wilder served as the 66th Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African-American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction era, and the first elected African-American governor.

Philip Emeagwali, a Nigerian Computer Scientist who improved methods in Petroleum Recovery, might be best known for his work on The Connection Machine which won him the Gordon Bell Prize of 1989.

Lonnie George Johnson (born October 6, 1949) is an African American inventor, aerospace engineer, and entrepreneur whose work includes a U.S. Air Force-term of service and a twelve-year stint at NASA, where he worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He invented the Super Soaker water gun in 1990, which has been among the world's bestselling toys ever since.

African American inventor Marie Van Brittan Brown contributed to a safer society with her invention of the first home security system. Her invention was the first closed-circuit television security system and paved the way for modern home security systems used today.

Jackson developed the touch-tone telephone, caller ID, and fiber optic cable. Jackson, a theoretical physicist, was the first African American woman to earn a Ph. D. at MIT. In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed her as chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Carol Moseley-Braun was a U.S. Senator from Chicago, Illinois in 1993. Braun was the first African-American female elected to the U.S. Senate, the first African-American U.S. Senator from the Democratic Party, the first woman to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in an election, and the first female U.S. Senator from Illinois.

Bryant Gumbel was Co-Anchor of NBC Today Show for 15 years. Since 1995, he has hosted HBO's acclaimed investigative series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, which has been rated as "flat out TV's best sports program" by the Los Angeles Times and won him a Peabody Award in 2012.