Running Back Ernie Davis was the first African-American player to win the Heisman Trophy, doing so in the year 1961. In one of sports greatest tragedies, Davis passed away two years later from leukemia. He was 23.
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Toni Morrison, was the first African American woman to win a nobel prize in literature in 1993
Anthony Ervin is the first swimmer of African American descent to win a gold medal. Ervin is of African American and Native American descent on his father's side, and Jewish American on his mother's side.
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Arthur Ashe is an African American and the first and only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon. He is also the only black man to win the singles title at the US Open and the Australian Open.
Sidney Poitier was the first African-American to win a Best Actor award for his performance in "Lilies of the Field" (1963).