William Sidney Pittman was a noted black architect and advocate for civil rights. Working in both Washington, D.C. and Dallas, Texas, Pittman made significant contributions to each city’s physical and cultural landscape while also paving the way for more African Americans to become architects. Pittman … Read MoreWilliam Sidney Pittman (1875-1958)
Fannie Barrier Williams was an educator, political activist, and women’s rights advocate who worked for advancement opportunities of African Americans. She called especially for social and educational reforms to improve the plight of black women in the Southern States of the U.S. Barrier was born … Read MoreFannie Barrier Williams (1855-1944)
Samuel Burris was a conductor on the Underground Railroad in the mid-nineteenth century best known for his own narrow escape from possible slavery while helping a fugitive slave. Born in Willow Grove, Kent County, Delaware in 1808, Burris was a free black man. He moved … Read MoreSamuel Burris (1808-1868)
Abolitionist and civil rights activist William Lambert was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1817, the son of a manumitted father and a freeborn mother. As a young man Lambert was educated by abolitionist Quakers. Twenty-three year old Lambert arrived in Detroit, Michigan in 1840 … Read MoreWilliam Lambert (1817-1890)
Charles W. Eagles, Winner of the 2010 Lillian Smith Book Award “Image Ownership: Public Domain” The Southern Regional Council (SRC) was formed in 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia. It evolved out of the earlier Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), which was established in 1919 to lessen … Read MoreThe Southern Regional Council (1944- )
An African American Baptist preacher, educator, author, and tireless advocate for African American advancement and uplift, Charles Octavius Boothe was one of the founders of Dexter Avenue-King Memorial Baptist Church (1877), Selma University (1878), and the Colored Baptist Missionary Convention for the State of Alabama … Read MoreCharles Octavius Boothe (1845-1924)
Austin Steward, author, businessman, abolitionist, and temperance leader, was born a slave in Prince William County, Virginia to Robert and Susan Steward sometime around 1793. By the age of seven he was working as a house slave on the plantation of Capt. William Helm. The … Read MoreAustin Steward (1793-1869)
After the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, open skirmishes took place between Southern slave catchers and Northern abolitionists who despised slavery and what they saw as its encroachments on the liberty and freedom of residents of the free states. Armed altercations and confrontations … Read MoreChristiana Riot of 1851
To escape enslavement on a plantation near Richmond, Virginia, Henry “Box” Brown in 1849 exploited maritime elements of the Underground Railroad. Brown’s moniker “Box” was a result of his squeezing himself into a box and having himself shipped 250 miles from Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia, … Read MoreHenry “Box” Brown (1816-1889)
Image Ownership: Public Domain The Kansas Emancipation League’s primary goal was “to bring about emancipation throughout the whole land.” It was initiated at the First Baptist Church in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1862. It also pledged to “support the war until its successful termination,” put an … Read MoreKansas Emancipation League (1862)
