His first invention was the flip cellphone, which he created for Kinishiwa a few years after relocating to Japan for the company back in 1993. When he and Whitley’s child turned four, they moved back to the States, where Wayne was a key part in the creation of Apple’s partnership with Microsoft. He’d eventually become the first African-American chief engineer of the company and responsible for helping to create the MAX OS X system. You can thank Dwayne for these iPhone X features.

Having moved back to the States when Dwayne took a position at Apple in ‘97, Whitley worked at the California African-American Museum for 10+ years. She became a consulting curator for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art. Later she’d go on to be one of the most sought after museum curators of our time and played an integral role in establishing the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

After marrying Lt. Martin Kendall and traveling to Africa, Denise finally settled on opening a textile firm where she and Kendall traveled to various countries, selling the fabrics they’d found from different parts of the world to their international clients for home furnishings and such. Rihanna wore one of the fabrics Denise found to the Met Gala in 2015. 

Upon completing her law degree at Hillman Law, Freddie became one of the youngest Black woman assistant district attorney’s in the state of Virginia working specifically for incarcerated youth. After her post as assistant district attorney, Freddie became a member of the Washington, D.C., Congress and eventually moved on to be part of President Obama’s cabinet in the Department of Justice. She and Auntie Maxine Waters are working on creating a symposium on ways African-Americans can learn the judicial system and counteract the many laws 45 is doing away with. 

She and Spencer got married and moved to Atlanta, where Kim completed her residency at Emory University Hospital specializing in cardiology. She’d moved on to be an adjunct professor at Emory University as well and eventually opened her own practice. Kim would also appear on seasons one and two of Married to Medicine.

Staying in Virginia after co-creating a video game with Dwayne for Kinishiwa, Ron eventually became a key investor and consulting partner of Ben’s Chili Bowl in D.C. He’d later go on to invest in multiple Black-owned night clubs and restaurants around the world, including Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster and Amy Ruth’s, which are both located in Harlem, New York.
He and Freddie have been on-again, off-again since 1993.

Graduating Magna Cum Laude from Hillman, Lena received a dual degree in journalism and mathematics. She’d go on to change how local news would be produced as one of the first women to become a one (wo)man band. Lena began writing, editing, producing and socializing her own news stories. Later, she became a key supporter and journalist on topics such as racial injustice and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. In 2001, she created her own television network for African-American women called Lean On Network.

Having worked in corporate America for a few years and delving into owning her own temp agency, Jalessa created one of the first Black-owned holistic job training and readiness programs. Her facility aided homeless and uneducated youth in everything from gaining housing and financial education to the process of applying, interviewing and receiving jobs.

Click above for a look at the newest fictional HBCU TV series to hit the scene, The Quad, coming back in the Winter 2018.

#TrumpBlackHistory: 13 HBCUs Worth Preserving