Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in March 1860, Charles Henry Harvey was the youngest of nineteen children of Albert and Elsy (Brewer) Harvey. Albert and Elsy were married on Valentine’s Day in 1839 in Halifax County, North Carolina, where their first child, Jesse, was born a … Read MoreCharles Harvey (1860-1937)
On July 18, 1988, Charles Z. Smith became the first African American to serve on the Washington Supreme Court. He was appointed to the court by Washington’s then Governor Booth Gardner and was subsequently elected to his position on the court for a two-year term … Read MoreCharles Z. Smith (1927-2016)
John S. Rock was born to free black parents in Salem, New Jersey in 1825. He attended public schools in New Jersey until he was 19 and then worked as a teacher between 1844 and 1848. During this period Rock began his medical studies with … Read MoreJohn S. Rock (1825-1866)
John Carter Leftwich was born on June 6, 1867 in Forkland, Alabama. The first son of Frances Edge and Lloyd Leftwich, one of Alabama’s last black Reconstruction Era state senators, John graduated from Selma University in 1890. As a young man, Leftwich held a deep … Read MoreJohn C. Leftwich (1867-1923)
Pio Pico was the last governor of Mexican California. He was of African, Indian, and Spanish ancestry. He was born in San Gabriel in 1801 and resided there until his father’s death in 1819; he then moved to San Diego. It is not clear how … Read MorePio de Jesus Pico (1801-1894)
Formerly enslaved Anthony D. Allen found his way to Hawaii and made his home there in the early 1800s. Allen was born in 1774 either in Albany or Schenectady in New York to a mother who was probably a slave and a father who was … Read MoreAnthony D. Allen (1774-1835)
Although George L. Brown was born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, he played a significant roll in Colorado politics for nearly twenty-five years. Following his graduation from the University of Kansas with a degree in journalism in 1950, Brown moved to Denver where he worked … Read MoreGeorge L. Brown (1926-2005)
Revels Cayton, born in Seattle, Washington, was the son of Horace and Susie Cayton, and the grandson of U.S. Senator Hiram Revels. As a highly respected labor leader, he served as secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco District Council of the Maritime Federation of the Pacific … Read MoreRevels Cayton (1907-1995)
David Fagen was the most celebrated of the handful of African American soldiers who defected to the Filipino revolutionary army led by Emilio Aguinaldo during the Filipino American War of 1899-1902. Fagen was born in Tampa, Florida around 1875. Details of his life remain sketchy. … Read MoreDavid Fagen (1875-?)
Francis J. Grimke was born a slave in Charleston, South Carolina on November 4, 1850. After the war he and his older brother, Archibald, went north to Lincoln University. Francis graduated from Lincoln in 1870. After working briefly at Lincoln, Grimke attended Princeton Theological Seminary … Read More(1918) Rev. Francis J. Grimke, “Victory for the Allies and the United States a Ground of Rejoicing, of Thanksgiving”
