Celebrating Black History Month: Tidye Pickett, first African American woman to participate in Summer Olympic Games

Tidye Pickett, born November 3, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, was the first African American woman to represent the United States at the Olympic games.  She and Louise Stokes were chosen to participate in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.  

Pickett competed in the 100-m dash and won, placing her third in the semi-finals. She qualified for the final, and placed sixth.  

Pickett and Stokes were selected to be in the 4x100 relay, but were left out of the finals.  It seems racism played a role in the omission from the games, but the ruling remains disputed. 

After the Olympics, Pickett became a school teacher and served as principal at an elementary school in East Chicago Heights, until her retirement in 1980.  She passed away in November 1986.

A brief history of Tidye Pickett

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Oscar De La Hoya, Mexican-American boxer extraordinaire

Oscar De La Hoya, born February 4, 1973 in East Los Angeles, California, is the first boxer in history to win world titles in six different weight divisions: Super featherweight, Lightweight, Light Welterweight, Welterweight, Light Middleweight, and Middleweight.

Over his career of 45 professional boxing fights, he won 39 times, with only 6 losses. 

De La Hoya took home the gold medal in the 1992 Olympic games, and he was named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year in 1995.  In 2008, he was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame.

Celebrating Black History Month: DeHart Hubbard, first African-American to win an individual Olympic gold medal 1924

DeHart Hubbard, born November 25, 1903, attended University of Michigan, where he was National Collegiate Athletic Association champion three times, for the outdoor long jump (1923 and 1925), and the 100-hard dash (1925).  He was the Big Ten Conference champion 7 times.

While he was attending college, he participated in the 1924 Summer Olympic Games in Paris and became the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal for any sport: the running long jump.

He founded the Cincinnati Tigers, a professional baseball team, which played in the Negro American League.

He has been inducted into the University of Michigan Hall of Honor and the National Track Hall of Fame.

Hubbard passed away in 1976.