David Blackwell was a pioneer and a trailblazer. In this talk, I will share bits of his early life, to create context for the person he became. I will also briefly review some of his statistical and probability contributions. Professor Blackwell's early involvement in Statistics as a discipline provided clear evidence that everyone can make valuable contributions, no matter their societal labels. Surely, this rich heritage in Statistics has allowed us to rise above other disciplines to be a diverse community. Or has it? To help us address this question, I will review published data on the diversity of our community.