He is the first African-American graduate of a military academy from Mississippi.

Henry O. Flipper - the first African-American graduate of West Point in 1877.

Merze Tate was the youngest and only African-American graduate in her class and was selected valedictorian.

She attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls, and became the school's first African-American graduate.

An African-American graduate of a public high school, Lee was valedictorian of his class, went on to college, earned a degree and entered the world of work.

In 1900, at the age of 18, he was the first African-American graduate of the University of Southern California Law School.

There he married Mary Patterson, an African-American graduate of Oberlin College.

He became the first African-American graduate from the University of Texas Medical School in 1953.

Anna Arnold Hedgeman - Civil rights leader and Hamline's first African-American graduate.

"That's important because Xavier is the No. 1 producer of African-American graduates in the natural sciences, and those students then go on to get admitted to medical school."