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Bessie Coleman was born into poverty and picked cotton to help support her family. As WWI ended, her dream was to fly, but every flying school turned her down because of her gender and race.
African-Americans have contributed to American society in every walk of life, and one purpose of Black History Month is to call attention to some of those who may have escaped notice. Here are 10 brief biographies from the Profile America series produced by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Zora Neale Hurston was one of the great talents of the Harlem Renaissance - but had to work as a manicurist to support herself.
A century ago, bread bought at stores was hand-made, a time intensive process. That changed when a baker from Boston, Joseph Lee, invented the automatic bread-making machine.
Thousands of Americans owe their lives to the inventions of Garrett Morgan. The son of former slaves, Morgan invented the gas mask.
From the U.S. Census Bureau
Jane Bolin was the first African American woman to be appointed as a judge. She was sworn in to a 10-year term on New York City's Domestic Relations Court in 1939.
During her tenure, she made two major changes. One was the assignment of probation officers to cases without regard to race or religion. The other was that child care agencies receiving public funds had to accept children without regard to their ethnic background.
After she retired, she volunteered as a tutor in math and reading for children in the New York City school system.
There are 37-thousand judges in the U.S., about 30 percent of them women and 5 percent African-American.
This profile is adapted from Profile America, a radio series produced by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2004.
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