You may know some mentioned or you never even knew.

House Music

House music that you hear now was created by 3 black gay men being Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy. House Music is a genre of electric dance music characterized by a repetitive 4 by 4 beat and tempo of 120 to 130 beats per minute. The 3 men pioneered the music genre in New York City and Chicago which spread all over the world.  They laid the foundations for the modern DJaying, sampling music, remixes’ and EDM/Dance music you hear today.

Drag Queens

William Dorsey Swann was an American gay liberation activist born into slavery and was the first person in the United States to lead a queer resistance group and the first person to self-identify as a “Queen of Drag”.  Swann was also the first to lead the queer resistance a century before the stonewall.

Airbrush T-Shirt Designs

It seems this trend is pretty big right now in the streetwear fashion world, but you may not know it was created by Edwin Sacasa known as Phade, Rafael Avery known as Kasheme and Clyde Harewood known as Nike. The trio designed T-shirts for the biggest artists known as Jay-Z, Rakim and LL Cool J and they are one of the most influential designers in the HipHop fashion world.

Dapper Dan

If you listen to a lot of rap/hip-hop music you have probably heard his name dropped in many song lyrics. Dapper Dan is an American fashion designer and haberdasher from Harlem, New York. His boutique operated from 1982-1992 and is most associated with high fashion in the hip-hop world. He’s been known as the “Father of Logomania” taking the logos of designers and placing them all-over clothing like those you see today made by designers like Louis Vuitton.

The First Blood Bank

Charles Richard Drew was an American surgeon and medical researcher. Charles is known for inventing the process to preserve blood plasma for long term blood transfusions  and organizing the first blood bank.

Steam Train Technology

Elijah McCoy was one of the greatest Black Canadian inventors in Canada. Elijah McCoy invented the automatic oiling device in 1872 which revolutionized the steam train technology. During his lifetime he would patent more than 57 devices and was famous around the world as an inventor. His innovation added a new term into the English language.

And this is just a small list of it all!