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)
The fourth of seven children in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel, April 27, 1945 to an African American mother and a German immigrant father. By the time he was five, his parents divorced. His mother remarried in the late 1950s … Read MoreAugust Wilson (1945-2005)
Zilpha Elaw was born in 1790 to free black parents in Pennsylvania. One of twenty-two children, she was raised in a strong Christian home until age twelve, when her mother unexpectedly passed away and young Zilpha was sent to live with Pierson and Rebecca Mitchell, … Read MoreZilpha Elaw (1790-1873)
The legacy of architect Julian Francis Abele was brought into focus in the mid-1980s when in the midst of a student protest at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, his great grandniece reminded the campus community that her long unsung ancestor was responsible for the … Read MoreJulian F. Abele (1881-1950)
Jonathan Jasper Wright, the first African American to serve on a state Supreme Court, was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania and grew up in nearby Susquehanna County in the northeastern corner of the state. In 1858, Wright traveled to Ithaca, New York where he enrolled … Read MoreJonathan J. Wright (1840-1885)
Bayard Rustin was one of the most important, and yet least known, Civil Rights advocates in the twentieth century. He was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania on March 17, 1912 and raised by his maternal grandparents. His grandmother, Julia, was both a Quaker and an … Read MoreBayard Rustin (1912-1987)
After the Civil War Frances Ellen Watkins Harper worked among African Americans as a representative of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. From her new position Harper publicized the violence and intimidation in the South directed at the freedpeople. She argued African Americans must organize to … Read More(1875) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “The Great Problem to be Solved”
When James Lynch gave the speech that appears below, his great achievements lay in the future. Born in Baltimore in 1839, Lynch at the age of 24 went to South Carolina as one of the first A.M.E. missionaries to the freedmen and women. From 1866 … Read More(1865) James Lynch, “Colored Men Standing in the Way of their Own Race”
African Americans throughout the North held meetings and church services on January 1, 1863 to celebrate the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. Almost always the festivities revolved around a central speaker. One of those speeches was delivered by Rev. Jonathan C. Gibbs, pastor of the … Read More(1863) Rev. Jonathan C. Gibbs, “Freedom’s Joyful Day”
Walter R. Hundley, minister, sociologist, civil rights worker, and administrator, served in a number of important offices in Seattle government. Hundley was born in Philadelphia on March 8, 1929, and raised there in a black neighborhood which he recalled as being pretty rough. He graduated … Read MoreWalter R. Hundley (1929-2002)
