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 Madam C. J. Walker has been listed in past editions of the Guinness Book of World Records as the first self-made American female millionaire, who neither inherited her money or married someone who was a millionaire. While it is impossible to document with a certainty that this is the case, at the time of her death Madam Walker's estate had an estimated value of $600,000 to $700,000 (equivalent to approximately $6 million to $7 million in today's dollars). The total sales of her company, the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, during the final year of her life reached more than $500,000 making the value of her company several times that amount. The combination of her personal assets (real estate, furnishings, jewelry, etc.) and the value of her business was well over $1 million.
 Mary McLeod Bethune founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls, now Bethune-Cookman College, in 1904, and served as president from 1904-1942 and from 1946-47. She was a leader in the Black women's club movement and served as president of the National Association of Colored Women. Bethune was also a delegate and advisor to national conferences on education, child welfare, and home ownership. She was Director of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration from 1936 to 1944 and served as consultant to the U.S. Secretary of War for selection of the first female officer candidates.
 Mary Violet Leontyne Price, a native of Laurel, Mississippi, decided on a singing career after graduation from the College of Education and Industrial Arts in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1948. Four years at the Juillard School of Music under the tutelage of Florence Page Kimball led to her 1952 debut on Broadway. Based on that performance, Ira Gershwin chose Price as Bess in a revival of “Porgy and Bess” that played New York City 1952-54 and then toured both nationally and internationally. In 1955, Price was chosen to sing the title role in a television production of Tosca, becoming the first black singer on a television opera production.
Rebecca Lee Crumpler challenged the prejudice that prevented African Americans from pursuing careers in medicine to become the first African American woman in the United States to earn an M.D. degree. Although little has survived to tell the story of Crumpler's life, she has secured her place in the historical record with her book of medical advice for women and children, published in 1883. In 1860, she was admitted to the New England Female Medical College. When she graduated in 1864, Crumpler was the first African American woman in the United States to earn an M.D. degree and the only African American woman to graduate from the New England Female Medical College.
 Alice Coachman was a pioneer for Black female athletes in sports. Growing up in the segregated South during the 1920s and '30s, Alice Coachman was denied access to public facilities and forced to run barefoot in the streets. Overcoming racial segregation, Coachman won 25 AAU track titles and numerous national championships at Tuskegee Institute, mostly in the long jump. Her greatest achievement came in 1948 in London when she became the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal. By breaking the race barrier for women, Coachman opened the door for the future black female track stars including some of the greats, like Wilma Rudolph, Florence Griffith Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
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