Fifty years before the 19th Amendment was passed, Wyoming legislators enacted the Wyoming Women’s Suffrage Act in 1869. The bill granted women in the Wyoming Territory the right to vote, free from restrictions such as property ownership, monetary requirements, or marital status requirements. This meant … Read MoreBlack Women and the Wyoming Women’s Suffrage Act (1869- )
RuPaul Andre Charles is an actor, model, singer, and drag queen, who is best known by his first name, RuPaul. Charles was born on November 17, 1960, in San Diego, California. His father, Irving Andrew Charles, and his mother, Ernestine (Fontenette) Charles, divorced when he … Read MoreRuPaul Andre Charles (1960- )
Edwina Justus, also known as “Curlie,” is the first African American woman locomotive engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad. She was born on July 11, 1943 in Omaha, Nebraska to Lee Chaney and Caldonia Isaiah Chaney. As a young child she attended Brown Park Elementary … Read MoreEdwina “Curlie” Justus (1943- )
In the following article Wyoming historian Brigida R. Blasi explores the history of now nearly forgotten Dana, a small predominately black coal mining town about 150 miles west of Cheyenne. Here is her account. The town of Dana has largely been forgotten in the history … Read MoreDana, Wyoming, A Black Town in the Coal Mining West
Robert George ‘Bob’ Stanton is a retired career civil-service employee of the National Park Service. On August 4, 1997, he was sworn in as the agency’s 15th director. He made history as the first African American director and the first director to go through the … Read MoreRobert G. Stanton (1940- )
Jerome A. Holmes, is the first African American to serve as an United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Holmes was born in Washington D.C. on November 18, 1961. His parents were Ryland and Hattie Holmes. Holmes graduated from Wake Forest University in 1983 … Read MoreJerome A. Holmes (1961- )
Joel Woodson of Omaha, Nebraska was lynched by a mob in Green River, Wyoming on December 10, 1918 at the Union Pacific Railroad yard. He had come to Green River for work three months earlier, leaving his wife and family in Omaha. Woodson was an … Read MoreJoel Woodson (?-1918)
Wade Hampton was a Wyoming lynching victim. He was taken from the Rock Springs city jail by three men who attempted to hang him. When the hanging was unsuccessful, Hampton was shot to death on December 14, 1917, shortly after midnight. We know little about … Read MoreWade Hampton (?-1917)
Empire, Wyoming was an African American community founded in 1908 by Charles and Rosetta Speese along with three of Charles’ brothers—John, Joseph and Radford—and their families. John’s brother-in-law, Baseman Taylor, and relative, Otis Taylor, also joined the settlement. The families migrated from Nebraska. With the … Read MoreEmpire, Wyoming (1908-1930)
Joseph (Joe) Martin, an African American man, was lynched by a mob of three hundred white men in Laramie, Wyoming on August 29, 1904. The Cheyenne Daily Leader headline read, “Joe Martin Taken from Jail After Desperate Battle and Hanged to Telegraph Pole.” Martin was … Read MoreJoseph (Joe) Martin (?-1904)
