Born on the Grest Farm in Liberty County, Georgia, on August 6, 1848, Susie Baker King Taylor was raised as an enslaved person. Her mother was a domestic servant for the Grest family. At the age of 7, Baker and her brother were sent to … Read MoreSusan Taylor (Susie) Baker King (1848-1912)
Born to a distinguished abolitionist family, Sarah Mapps Douglass was the only daughter of Robert Douglass, a baker, and Grace Bustill Douglass, a milliner. Like many educated women, Sarah Douglass became a teacher. She also was an active abolitionist and joined her mother as a … Read MoreSarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882)
Jeremiah Sanderson, born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, was an abolitionist leader on both the east and west coasts. He started his work at the young age of 19 as the secretary of the New Bedford Colored Citizens. After his service in New Bedford he began … Read MoreJeremiah Sanderson (1821-1875)
Frank Horne was a Harlem Renaissance poet and a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (FDR) “Black Cabinet.” Throughout his public career, including his years with the U.S. Housing Authority, Horne was an outspoken opponent of racial segregation in public and private housing. Horne was … Read MoreFrank Smith Horne (1899-1974)
Thyra J. Edwards, born in 1897, the granddaughter of runaway slaves, grew up in Houston, Texas and started her career there as a school teacher. Eventually she moved to Gary, Indiana and later Chicago, Illinois where she was employed as a social worker. Edwards would eventually become … Read MoreThyra J. Edwards (1897-1953)
Peter William Cassey was born in Philadelphia in 1831, the son of renowned African American abolitionist Joseph Cassey. Cassey learned political activism from his father. He also learned the barbering trade which he pursued after his arrival in San Francisco in 1863. In 1859 Cassey … Read MorePeter William Cassey (1831-?)
Robert Lloyd Smith, politician and businessman, was born on January 8, 1861, to free black parents in South Carolina, one of whom was a schoolteacher. Smith attended the public elementary schools in Charleston and in 1875 he entered the University of South Carolina and remained … Read MoreRobert Lloyd Smith (1861-1942)
Born in Virginia in 1854, Olivia A. Davidson, the daughter of an ex-slave and freeborn mother, was the seventh of ten children. The family moved from Virginia to southern Ohio in 1857, then moved to the northern part of the state in Albany and Athens … Read MoreOlivia A. Davidson (1854-1889)
Mary McLeod Bethune was a prominent educator, political leader, and social visionary whose early twentieth century activism for black women and civil rights laid the foundation for the modern civil rights era. Inspired by leaders such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Josephine St. Pierre-Ruffin, Bethune … Read MoreMary Jane McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)
Mary Church Terrell, a writer, suffragist, educator, and activist, co-founded the National Association of Colored Women and served as the organization’s first president. Known as “Mollie” to her family, Church, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee on September 23, 1863, lived a life of privilege … Read MoreMary Church Terrell (1863-1954)
