Black History Guide
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic history is full of Black heroes, pioneers and trailblazers. Without their stories, the story of Team USA is incomplete. Explore them on your journey through the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum. Dive deeper into Team USA’s Black history on the USOPM Digital Museum.
U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame: Teresa Edwards
Teresa Edwards was the first women’s basketball player inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame. The four-time Olympic champion represented Team USA from 1984 until 2000, making history as the youngest and oldest basketball player to win Olympic gold during her career.
International Olympic Committee
Bill Baum
Introduction to the Games: Junius Kellogg
Junius Kellogg was a basketball pioneer in many ways. He was Manhattan College’s first Black basketball player and later joined the Harlem Globetrotters. When a car accident left him paralyzed, he turned to wheelchair basketball, first as a player and then as a coach. He was the first Black American wheelchair basketball coach, leading the Pan Am Jets to a national championship and later the U.S. Paralympic Team to gold at Tokyo 1964.
Manhattan Athletics
Bill Baum
Introduction to the Games: Ibtihaj Muhammad
2016 Olympic bronze medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad discovered the Peter Westbrook Foundation during her junior year in high school and began training with the club, inspired by its diversity and inclusion. The organization was founded in 1991 by six-time Olympian Peter Westbrook, who was the first Black American to medal in fencing. PWF is committed to supporting underserved communities in New York and has produced several Olympic athletes.
International Olympic Committee
Bill Baum
Introduction to the Games: Wilma Rudolph
Three-time Olympic champion Wilma Rudolph made history as the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games. Rudolph began training with Ed Temple, legendary coach of the Tennessee State University women’s track program, while still in high school and was one of six Tennessee State Tigerbelles to qualify for the 1956 Games.
International Olympic Committee
Bill Baum
Athlete Training: April Holmes
April Holmes was a track and field athlete at Norfolk State University, a historically-Black university. After losing her leg in a train accident, Holmes turned to Para track and field, making her Paralympic debut in 2004. She competed in three additional Paralympic Games, winning three medals.
Race against April in our track interactive!
Joe Kusumoto
Nic Lehoux
Athlete Training: Andre Shelby
U.S. Navy veteran Andre Shelby made history as Team USA’s first Black Paralympic archer. Seeded 12th at the Rio 2016 Games, Shelby went on to win the gold medal by a single point. Andre Shelby scored a ten in his last round to win gold. How does your score in our archery interactive compare?
World Archery
Nic Lehoux
Athlete Training: Ashleigh Johnson
Goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson, the first Black water polo player on the U.S. national team, helped Team USA win its second consecutive gold medal at Rio 2016. Since the Games, Johnson has stepped into being a role model for the sport, running a swim school in Miami with her sister to help attract other Black women to the sport.
Jeff Cable/USA Water Polo
Nic Lehoux
The Lab: Edwin Moses
Dr. Edwin Moses enjoyed a successful athlete career, dominating the 400-meter hurdles for a decade. After retiring, the Morehouse College alum, a historically-Black college, became a leader in the push for clean sport, serving as the chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Education Committee.
International Olympic Committee
Bill Baum
Parade of Nations: Rafer Johnson
A two-time Olympic medalist in the decathlon, Rafer Johnson became Team USA’s first Black flagbearer at Rome 1960. Later in life, while working on former U.S. attorney general Bobby Kennedy’s presidential campaign, he was involved in apprehending Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated Kennedy.
International Olympic Committee
Nic Lehoux
Summer Games: John Register
John Register has long combined military service and athletic excellence, participating in the Army’s World Class Athlete Program and winning silver at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. After retirement, Register remained committed to the military and Paralympic communities, founding the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s Paralympic Military Program.
John Register
Bill Baum
Summer Games: Eddie Tolan
Eddie Tolan was born in Denver in 1908, one of four children. Originally drafted to play football in college, Tolan’s stocky build, taped glasses, and chewing gum became the focus of press coverage during his illustrious career.
Michigan Sports Hall of Fame
Nic Lehoux
Winter Games: Vonetta Flowers
Former college sprinter and long jumper, Vonetta Flowers found later success in bobsled as a brakewoman. When she and Jill Bakken won the first women’s bobsled gold at Salt Lake City 2002, she also became Team USA’s first Black Olympic Winter champion.
International Olympic Committee/Stephen Munday/Getty Images
Nic Lehoux
The World Watches: Bonnie St. John
In 1984, Bonnie St. John made history as the first Black athlete, Olympic or Paralympic, to win a medal at the Winter Games. Following her skiing career, she graduated from Harvard, became a Rhodes Scholar, and worked for President Bill Clinton. St. John provided her voiceover talents to the USOPM and can be heard throughout the building, notably in the the World Watches where she and John Naber narrate the timeline exhibit.
Bonnie St. John
Nic Lehoux Nic Lehoux
The World Watches: Tommie Smith & John Carlos
Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ raised fists on the podium at Mexico City 1968 produced one of sports’ most powerful images, but it wasn’t without great sacrifice. Following their protest, Smith and Carlos were banned from the Olympic Village and expelled from the Games. Back at home, they were ostracized, monitored by the FBI, and even received death threats. Over the years, their act of courage has been recognized, culminating with their induction into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2019.
International Olympic Committee
Nic Lehoux
LeRoy Neiman: LeRoy T. Walker
Dr. LeRoy T. Walker graduated from Benedict College, a historically-Black college, and received degrees from Columbia and New York University. He returned to Benedict to begin a career in coaching, going on to coach at the Olympic level. At Montreal 1976, he made history as the first Black coach for a U.S. Olympic team. In 1992, he became the first Black president of the United States Olympic Committee, serving until 1996.
International Olympic Committee
Nic Lehoux
Medal Collection: George Poage
George Poage made history at many stages of his life. He was the first Black student to graduate from LaCrosse High School in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. He was the first Black athlete to win a race at a Big Ten track and field championship. And at St. Louis 1904, he became the first Black Olympic medalist, winning bronze in the 200- and 400-meter hurdles.
Public Domain
Bill Baum
To Take Part: Simone Manuel
Simone Manuel won an unexpected gold in the 100m freestyle at Rio 2016. In doing so, she set a new Olympic record and made history as the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal in the sport. Manuel followed up her success with another gold and two silvers in Rio.
International Olympic Committee
Nic Lehoux
Medal Ceremony: Benita Fitzgerald-Mosley
When Benita Fitzgerald-Mosley won the 100m hurdles at Los Angeles 1984, she became the first Black woman to do so as well as the first American woman to win a sprint hurdles event since 1932. Fitzgerald-Mosley is currently one of three athletes serving on the USOPM board of directors.
International Olympic Committee
Nic Lehoux
Explore these and other great stories on the USOPM Digital Museum!
usopm.org