Black excellence is a celebration of Black achievement, leadership, service, creativity, and more. Whether it be in the world of politics, sports, education or the entertainment industry, Black history shows that excellence always overcomes adversity. Here are eight photos from history that display both Black excellence and squad goals long before squad goals existed.
Pictured left to right: Ralph Abernathy, James Forman, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Jesse Douglass and John Lewis marching from Selma to Montgomery protesting for Black voting rights.
Betty Shabazz, Dorothy Height, Shirley Chisholm, and Marian Anderson in 1975.
Poet Arna Bontemps, singer/actor/activist Paul Robeson, Broadway star Canada Lee, and poet Langston Hughes.
Actress Cicely Tyson, writer/activist James Baldwin, Dance of Harlem founder, Arthur Mitchell and entertainer/activist Harry Belafonte.
Civil rights activists James Farmer, Whitney M. Young, Jr. and Dorothy Height.
The Congressional Black Caucus. Front row: Barbara Jordan of Texas, Robert Nix, Sr., of Pennsylvania, Ralph Metcalfe of Illinois, Cardiss Collins of Illinois, Parren Mitchell of Maryland, Gus Hawkins of California, Shirley Chisholm of New York; (middle row) John Conyers, Jr., of Michigan, Charles Rangel of New York, Harold Ford, Sr., of Tennessee, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke of California, Walter Fauntroy of the District of Columbia; (back row) Ronald Dellums of California, Louis Stokes of Ohio, and Charles C. Diggs, Jr., of Michigan.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., NAACP leader Roy Wilkins and Thurgood Marshall.