Student Historian

Ariana Westbrook is an undergraduate at the University of Washington.  She has grown up in the Pacific Northwest and now resides in Blaine, Washington.  She is especially interested in the history of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest.

Jefferson L. Edmonds (1845-1914)

Jefferson Lewis Edmonds was a prominent newspaper editor and political activist in late 19th Century Los Angeles.  Edmonds was born a slave and worked for 20 years in tobacco and cotton fields in antebellum Virginia.  Once freed in 1865 Edmonds relocated to Crawfordsville, Mississippi in … Read MoreJefferson L. Edmonds (1845-1914)

John Anthony Copeland Jr. (1836-1859)

John Anthony Copeland Jr. was born free in Raleigh, North Carolina on August 15, 1834, to John Anthony Copeland Sr., a slave, and Delilah Evans, a free woman.  Copeland spent much of his early life in Ohio and attended Oberlin College.  While residing in Oberlin, Ohio, Copeland … Read MoreJohn Anthony Copeland Jr. (1836-1859)