Who was the first African-American to appear on a U.S. commemorative coin?

The first coin to feature an African-American was the Commemorative Booker T. Washington Memorial Half Dollar. And, just like earlier commemorative coins, the Booker T. Washington coins had some of the flaws that had occurred with other memorial coins. Authorized in 1946, the coins were struck for five years across three different mint facilities, in an attempt to maximize sales. Eventually, more than one million of these coins were distributed.

The artist Charles Keck, who had previously designed the Panama Pacific Gold Dollar, Vermont Half Dollar, and Lynchburg Half Dollar, was approached to create the designs for the Booker T. Washington coin. He proceeded, while another artist, Isaac Scott Hathaway, offered to prepare models free of charge based on a life mask of Booker T. Washington. Eventually, Hathaway’s obverse model was accepted by the Commission of Fine Arts, and Hathaway prepared a new reverse based on their feedback. Keck was still paid for his work; but, his models were not used.

The obverse design on the coin features a portrait of Washington, with inscriptions “United States of America”, “Booker T. Washington”, “Half Dollar”, “E Pluribus Unum”, and the date. On the reverse is an image of the Hall of Fame at New York University and a log cabin. The extensive inscriptions include “Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial”, “Liberty”, “From Slave Cabin to Hall of Fame”, “In God We Trust”, and “Franklin County VA”. From 1946-1951, the coins were made.