1977

Patricia Roberts Harris is confirmed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Carter, becoming the first Black woman to serve in any U.S. Cabinet.

Patricia Roberts Harris is confirmed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Carter, becoming the first Black woman to serve in any U.S. Cabinet, and later the first to head two separate Cabinet departments.

Andrew Young is confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under President Carter, becoming the first Black American to hold that cabinet-level position and bringing a focus on African affairs and human rights.

Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon" was selected as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the first novel by a Black author chosen since Richard Wright's "Native Son" in 1940. The novel won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a major step toward Morrison's 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Grandmaster Flash develops and codifies turntable techniques including the Quick Mix Theory, the Punch Phase, and backspinning, creating the technical vocabulary of DJing that underpins all subsequent hip-hop music.

Donna Summer releases I Feel Love, a pioneering electronic dance track that Brian Eno famously declared would change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.

Grandmaster Flash develops and codifies turntable techniques including the Quick Mix Theory, backspinning, and the Punch Phase, creating the technical vocabulary of DJing that underpins all subsequent hip-hop music.

ABC's Roots miniseries airs over eight consecutive nights to an estimated 130 million viewers for the finale, the largest audience in American television history at the time, transforming national conversations about slavery.

ABC's Roots miniseries, based on Alex Haley's novel, airs over eight consecutive nights to an estimated 130 million viewers for the finale, the largest audience in American television history at the time, transforming national conversations about slavery.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Andrew Young as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in 1977, making him the first Black American to hold that Cabinet-level position. Young used the role to champion African liberation movements and reshape U.S. policy toward the developing world, before later serving as mayor of Atlanta and helping bring the 1996 Olympics to the city.

Reggie Jackson hits three home runs on three consecutive pitches from three different pitchers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, one of the most iconic individual performances in baseball history, earning the nickname Mr. October.

Reggie Jackson hit three home runs on three consecutive pitches from three different pitchers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, clinching the championship for the New York Yankees. The performance, one of the greatest individual moments in baseball history, earned Jackson the nickname "Mr. October" and cemented his status as an icon of Black athletic greatness.

Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears rushes for 275 yards in a single game against the Minnesota Vikings, setting an NFL single-game rushing record and demonstrating the extraordinary ability that would make him NFL all-time rushing leader.

Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears rushes for 275 yards in a single game against the Minnesota Vikings, setting an NFL single-game rushing record and demonstrating the extraordinary ability that would make him NFL rushing leader.

June Jordan publishes her selected poems, cementing her reputation as one of the most politically engaged and technically innovative poets of the era, with work addressing race, gender, sexuality, and global justice.

Jordan's selected poems established her as one of the most versatile and politically engaged poets of the twentieth century, addressing race, gender, sexuality, and global justice simultaneously. Her later founding of Poetry for the People at UC Berkeley trained hundreds of young poets in activist craft.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Patricia Roberts Harris as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1977, making her the first Black woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet. When a senator questioned whether she could represent the poor, Harris's electrifying response — 'I am one of them' — became a defining moment in American political history. She later served as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

John T. Walker is consecrated as the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C., one of the highest-profile Black church leaders in America's oldest Protestant denomination, a position he uses to advocate for racial justice and the poor.

Becomes the first Black woman ordained an Episcopal priest.

Alex Haley's saga becomes one of the most-watched programs in US history.