Despite that the global recognition of Africans and African-Americans has been relatively slower, their women continue to make history with their achievements.
Here are five of them:
1. Harriet Tubman
Even before they were able to receive an education, some black women were so instrumental in shaping the modern world.
Harriet Tubman is most remembered for her efforts to convey slaves to liberation through the Underground Railroad, a network of antislavery activists. She is known to have made around 13 voyages through the Underground Railroad, guiding dozens of slaves to freedom, and was never apprehended despite a $40,000 bounty for her arrest.
2. Madam C. J. Walker
She was born Sarah Breedlove to slave parents and is she is the "first African woman millionaire in America,", she made her fortune with a homemade line of hair care items for Black women. She was inspired to make her hair products after experiencing hair loss. She developed the first hot comb and/or the first hair-straightening formula for black women.
3. Katherine Johnson
He is one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist. As a NASA employee, Katherine Johnson performed orbital mechanics calculations that were crucial to the success of the first and subsequent American crewed space flights which made the American exploration of the moon possible.
She could also do difficult manual computations and contributed to the development of computers to carry out tasks.
4. Shirley Jackson
The invention of fibre-optic cables by Shirley Jackson, which connects communication systems all over the world, is her most impressive accomplishment.
At Bell Telephones, where she began her career, she contributed to the invention of touch-tone dialling and call-waiting.
The discoveries made by Shirley, the first African American woman to get a doctorate in particle physics, provide the basis for a lot of contemporary technology.
5. Valerie Thomas
The illusion transmitter, created in 1980 by NASA physicist Valerie Thomas, projects three-dimensional pictures onto a screen display using concave mirrors. The technique would pave the way for contemporary 3D films, and NASA is still using it today.