Benjamin F. Hicks is a 19th-century African inventor in Virginia who was born into slavery to Lottie Ricks and an unidentified man in May 1846 in Courtland, Berlin-Ivor District, Southampton County, Commonwealth of Virginia. Three years following his birth in 1849, the state passed a law … Read MoreBenjamin F. Hicks (1846-1925)
Isadore Banks was a 59-year-old African American landowner who disappeared on June 4, 1954. Banks was born on July 15, 1895, in Arkansas. Much of Banks’ early life is unknown, but he joined the United States Army when he was 22 years old during World … Read MoreIsadore Banks (1895 – 1954)
Born into slavery about January 1830, John Brown was owned by a leading Southampton County, Virginia planter named Robert Ridley. When Ridley died in 1852, Brown’s wife (whose name is unknown), two daughters and one brother were sold and taken to Mississippi. He remarried about … Read MoreJohn Brown (1830-1900)
ENTRY SPONSOR: Quintard Taylor Henry Blair was an African-American inventor who, in 1834, became only the second black man to receive a United States patent for his mechanical corn planter. For years Blair was believed to be the first African American to receive a patent, but it … Read MoreHenry Blair (1807-1860)
Born a slave under the name “Toney” in 1791, Anthony Weston eventually became the patriarch of Charleston, South Carolina’s elite free black family, the Westons. Weston began his life as a biracial enslaved person who worked as a millwright. Eventually, however, he supervised the construction … Read MoreAnthony Weston (1791-?)
South Carolina Congressman George Washington Murray was born near Rembert, Sumter County, South Carolina, on September 22, 1853 to enslaved parents. He attended public schools, the University of South Carolina, and the State Normal Institute at Columbia, where he graduated in 1876. After graduating, Murray … Read MoreGeorge Washington Murray (1853-1926)
William Owen Bush was the eldest son of George and Isabella Bush. George Bush was a mixed-race settler who came with his large family to what is now the Tumwater, Washington area in 1845. The Bushes and their sons, William Owen, Joseph Tolbert, Rial Bailey, … Read MoreWilliam Owen Bush (1832-1907)
James Coody Johnson was an African Creek lawyer, politician and entrepreneur, and a leading voice for inclusion of African Americans both before and after Oklahoma statehood. Johnson was the son of Robert Johnson, the African Creek interpreter for the Seminole nation and Elizabeth Davis (Johnson), … Read MoreJames Coody Johnson (1864-1927)
John Baptist Rayner was born a slave in North Carolina to mixed race parents Kenneth Rayner and Mary Hicks in 1850. His father was a plantation owner and politician, and his mother was a slave. He was taken from his mother at birth and raised … Read MoreJohn B. Rayner (1850-1918)
As one of the earliest permanent American settlers on Puget Sound in 1845, George Bush played a vital role in the beginnings of Washington Territory. Bush’s story is even more remarkable because he was a man of mixed race who overcame prejudice and discrimination to … Read MoreGeorge Bush (ca. 1789-1863)
