28 African Americans with ties to the Bay Area who made history

Oakland native Ryan Coogler, director of Marvel's "Black Panther," broke records and made history with his vision of the superhero king of the fictional land Wakanda.

The film, which grossed $192 million in the U.S. during its opening weekend, became the fifth-highest-grossing debut ever, behind "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," ''Star Wars: The Last Jedi," ''Jurassic World" and "The Avengers." Its opening weekend became the largest-ever opening in February and ranked among the top-15 global debuts for a film. Now, it's up for an Academy Award.

It's nearly impossible to ignore Coogler's ties to the Bay Area in his work. Oakland is featured prominently as a setting in "Black Panther." And his directorial debut was "Fruitvale Station," about the 2009 fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle.

But there are a ton of African Americans with Bay Area ties who have made history, either in the Bay Area, the state of California, the U.S. or globally, who you might not know about.

There's Maya Angelou, for starters. The legendary author, born Marguerite Annie Johnson, moved to Oakland when she was a teenager and was the first African American woman to conduct a streetcar in San Francisco (check the slideshow above for an even cooler connection she has to SF).

How about Eloise Westbrook? She isn't well-known outside of the Bay Area, but she was a legendary housing rights activist for the African American community in the Hunter's Point-Bayview community in SF.

And then there are people like Bill Russell, who is known by Bay Area residents as a native son. He made history before leaving the Bay Area for Boston, though, when he lead the University of San Francisco to back-to-back NCAA national championships in basketball in the 1950s.

Regardless of their level of fame, there is a rich history of African Americans either being raised in the Bay or coming to the Bay and going on to make history. Check out the slideshow above to find out more about them.