During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, whose most famous congregant was Illinois Senator Barack Obama, burst unto the national political scene when media outlets reported and aired segments of previous sermons. The segment which appeared most … Read More(2003) Rev. Jeremiah Wright, “Confusing God and Government”
Thomas Paul was the eldest of six sons born into a free Black family in Exeter, New Hampshire. Educated at a Baptist school in Hollis, New Hampshire, Paul pursued a career in the ministry as did three of his brothers. He enjoyed a reputation as … Read MoreThomas Paul, Sr. (1773-1831)
Early 19th Century abolitionist minister Nathaniel Paul was born into a free black family in Exeter, New Hampshire and was one of six Paul sons to enter the Baptist ministry. His elder brother, Thomas Paul, Sr., was the first pastor of the First African Baptist … Read MoreNathaniel Paul (ca. 1793-1839)
This bibliography lists sources for the history of African-Americans in the city of Portland and the state of Oregon, and less comprehensively, the Pacific Northwest and Far West. A list of Portland and West Coast African-American newspapers and periodicals and a brief list of selected … Read More(2010) History of African Americans in Portland & Oregon: A Selected Bibliography
Ella Sheppard, soprano, pianist and reformer, was the matriarch of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a social reformer, confidante of Frederick Douglass, and one of the most distinguished African American women of her generation. Sheppard was born a slave in 1851 on Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage plantation. … Read MoreElla Sheppard (1851-1915)
Morris Brown was born in Charleston, South Carolina on February 13, 1770. His family belonged to a sizeable African American population in the city who were mostly enslaved. Brown’s parents, however, were part the city’s tiny free black community. In the year of Brown’s birth, … Read MoreMorris Brown (1770-1849)
Maggie Porter was born in Lebanon, Tennessee around 1853. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Henry Frazier, a wealthy planter from Lebanon, took refuge in Nashville with his family and house slaves, among them a Mrs. Porter, his chief domestic servant, her … Read MoreMaggie Porter (1853-1942)
Fisk Jubilee Singer and preacher Isaac Dickerson was born enslaved in Wytheville, Virginia in 1852 and orphaned by the age of five. His earliest memory was his father’s sale to a slave trader in Richmond, Virginia. Young Isaac was treated kindly by his master, a … Read MoreIsaac Dickerson (1852-1900)
Fisk Jubilee Singer and educator America W. Robinson was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1855. Though America’s father was his master’s half brother, he enjoyed no special privileges; when his white relations ran into financial difficulty, they sold him to a Virginian named Elliott. An … Read MoreAmerica W. Robinson (ca. 1855-ca. 1920)
Willie O’Ree, the National Hockey League’s (NHL) first black player, is an African–Canadian, born on October 15, 1935, in Fredricton, New Brunswick. He began skating at an early age and quickly developed into one of the best players in eastern Canada. O’Ree joined the Quebec … Read MoreWillie O’Ree (1935- )
