The following are short descriptions of the women and men who have contributed to the shaping of African American history. These encyclopedia entries serve as a starting point for much more inclusive descriptions and discussions that appear in other sources. For additional information please consult the print or website sources cited in the entry.
Image Ownership: Public Domain Jermain Wesley Loguen was born into slavery on February 5, 1813, in Tennessee. His mother was owned by Loguen’s father and master. In 1834, Loguen escaped from bondage and fled to St. Catherine’s, Ontario, where he stayed there briefly before finding … Read MoreJermain Wesley Loguen (1813-1872)
Maggie Lena Mitchell was born in Richmond, Virginia on July 15, 1864. Walker’s mother, Elizabeth Draper, was an assistant cook and her father, Eccles Cuthbert, was an Irish-born newspaperman on the Van Lew estate. Her step-father, William Mitchell, was a butler on the estate. As … Read MoreMaggie Lena Walker (1864-1934)
Jack and his wife Sophy were enslaved in Middletown, Connecticut to Philip Mortimer (1710-1794), a wealthy Irish businessman. Philip Mortimer freed them in his will, but his son-in-law, George Starr, contested and succeeded in overturning the will. Mortimer’s will also intended to give Jack and … Read MoreJack Mortimer (1700’s)
The youngest of thirteen children, Anthony Burns was born into slavery in Virginia on May 31, 1834. His family was owned by John Suttle. His mother married three times. Burns’s father was her third husband, but he died when Anthony was very young. After John … Read MoreAnthony Burns (1834-1862)
Alexander Walters was born in 1858 into a slave family in Bardstown, Kentucky, the sixth of eight children. By the age of ten, Walters had shown such academic progress that he was awarded by the African Episcopal Zion Church a full scholarship to attend private … Read MoreBishop Alexander Walters (1858-1917)
Meta Warrick Fuller was a black female artist who specialized in sculpture. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1877, her career peaked during America’s Gilded Age, a time when more women were trained as artists than ever before. She attended the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial … Read MoreMeta Warrick Fuller (1877-1968)
A writer, an economist and an advocate for affirmative action, Andrew Felton Brimmer is best known as the first African American to hold a governorship on the United States Federal Reserve Bank. Born in Newellton, Louisiana on September 13, 1926, Brimmer moved to Bremerton, Washington … Read MoreAndrew F. Brimmer (1926-2012)
Born in Harlem, New York on January 23, 1935, Robert Parris Moses was an educator and an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. He was one of three children born to Gregory H. Moses, a janitor, and Louise Parris Moses, a homemaker. He graduated with … Read MoreRobert P. Moses (1935-2021)
Robert Purvis was born on August 4, 1810 in Charleston, South Carolina, the second of three sons to a wealthy cotton broker and a free woman of color. With the benefits of a financially successful family, Purvis began his opposition to slavery at a very … Read MoreRobert Purvis (1810-1898)
William Still was born in Burlington County, New Jersey in 1821, as the last of eighteen children of former slaves Levin and Charity Still. By 1844, Still moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he spent the majority of his life and where he was appointed secretary … Read MoreWilliam Still (1821-1902)
