Black and Education

In June of 1775, Revolutionary forces got word of a British plan to capture high areas around Boston in an effort to squash the Colonial uprising.  Colonial forces, made up of about 1,000 men from Connecticut and Massachusetts marched to an area on the Charlestown peninsula to lay claim to this area before British troops could get there. Colonial leaders hoped to fortify an area called Bunker Hill...

Biddy Mason was born, enslaved, in Hancock, Georgia in 1818.  Her owner, Robert Smith, later moved to Mississippi where he became acquainted with the Mormon religion. The mid-1800s were a tumultuous time in American politics and 1850 was an important year, in many ways.  Unbeknownst to Biddy Mason, decisions being made about California and Utah were about to have a significant impact on her life.

George Thomas Downing was born in 1819, in New York City.  His father was the well-known businessman, Thomas Downing.  Thomas Downing moved to New York, in the early 1800s, and eventually opened up what would become a very successful business—a restaurant called the Oyster House

In 1919 more than 20 different racially violent events took place throughout the United States, from May of 1919 to October of 1919.  The events were so violent that this time span became known as the “Red Summer.” NOTE: THE CONTENT OF THIS POST IS VERY GRAPHIC.

In the 1800s to early 1900s, there lived a man named Charles “Buddy” Bolden, whose impact on jazz has become legendary. He was born in 1877 and lived in New Orleans.  He became the leader of a band that is recognized as being the first band to play what became known as jazz music.

In some ways the beginnings of the African Methodist Episcopal Church can be found in the life of Richard Allen, but this is really a much larger story about people who chose to stand up and worship in a way that was seated in freedom and rooted in independence.

Benjamin Banneker was born on November 9, 1731 in what is today Baltimore County, Maryland. According to accounts his grandmother, Molly Welsh, was a white English woman who was sent to the American colonies as an indentured servant.   After serving her indentured time, she was able to obtain her own property—which was a remarkable thing for a woman to do in the late 1600s.  She then purchased ens...

Charles Burleigh Purvis was born in 1842 in Philadelphia, PA.  His father was the well-known abolitionist, Robert Purvis, and his mother was Harriet Forten.  She was the daughter of the well-known African-American activist and businessman, James Forten.  Yes, Charles Purvis was Jame Forten’s grandson.

Some 200,000 African Americans served in the Civil War as soldiers and sailors, but not much is known about the many men and women who provided intelligence to the Union, during the war.  Mary Touvestre was one such person.  Mary Touvestre was a free (formerly enslaved) housekeeper of a Confederate engineer, during the Civil War.  Before the war, the U.S. Navy had a significant naval base in Norfo...

On January 21, 1861 Jefferson Davis rose on the Senate floor to explain why the state of Mississippi decided to secede from the Union—it would be his last speech as a U.S. Senator.  After sharing some thoughts about nullification and secession and expressing his support for secession, even if a northern state decided to do so, he went on to explain: “It has been a conviction of pressing necessity,...

Many times we tend to see people the way they are when they are at the height of their fame, but you never know what a person went through to get where they are...and in Frederick Douglass's case, what he went through to get into a position to help others.  In 1834, on January 1st, Frederick made his way to the home of the man who was supposed to “break” him.  Edward Covey was a small man who beli...

In the summer of 1835 Arthur Bowen was on his way home in the evening, when he reached the front door of his owner’s residence.  Bowen was about eighteen years old and he was owned by Anna Thornton, who was the widow of William Thornton—the first Architect of the Capitol.  Dr. William Thornton was born in the British West Indies and his proposed design for the U.S. Capitol was accepted by George W...

Dr. Percy Julian was an American chemist whose work should be remembered.  I never knew about him growing up, but his contributions should be taught to children.

There have been only 10 African Americans to serve in the U.S. Senate throughout the entire history of the U.S. Congress.  Meet those individuals and find out a little more about them here.

What caused Harriet Tubman to fight back?  What political actions supported the existence of slavery?  This book explores the life of Harriet Tubman and some of the religious, political and social supports that made slavery exist for so long.  

Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Talbot County, Maryland.  His mother’s name was Harriet and she was forced to leave her children, by the man who owned them.  She was hired out to neighboring farms and her children would stay with her mother, until they were several years old.

Four young men from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College changed their world when they decided to stand up for their own rights.  Their names were Ezell Blair, Jr., Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Joseph McNeil.  They were freshmen at North Carolina A&T in the fall of 1959 and they became friends when they met that year.  One of the things that they had in common was that they shar...

In 1781 a slave ship, named the Zong (based out of Liverpool, England), was on a horrible trip to get human beings—to sell them in Jamaica.  The ship made it to Africa, along the coast of present-day Ghana, and then to Sao Tome (or St. Thomas, an island near present day Gabon and Equatorial Guinea).  Luke Collingwood was the captain of the ship and he decided to go with a “tight” packing method.

Michelle Howard was born in the year 1960 and graduated from high school in Aurora, Colorado.  She went on to the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland and graduated from there in 1982. She would go on to become the first female graduate of the United States Naval Academy to earn the title of admiral.

Fannie Lou Hamer was born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi to Jim and Ella Townsend. She worked on a farm as a sharecropper for 18 years and her parents, too, were sharecroppers.

Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2nd in Baltimore, Maryland in 1908. His father was a porter or waiter for a railroad company and his mother was an elementary school teacher. They were very involved in teaching their children and, reportedly, Thurgood’s father would take him down to the courthouse in Baltimore just to view court proceedings.  His mother, being a schoolteacher, oversaw her childr...

Charles Henry Langston was born in 1817 in Louisa County, VA. His mother’s name was Lucy Jane Langston and his father was a slaveowner named Robert Quarles. Robert Quarles had served in the Revolutionary War and was, as we have said, a slaveowner. He had a baby with Lucy Langston and, after the child was born, he freed both Lucy and their baby. The two, later on, had three additional children:

In May of 1902 the Peace of Vereeniging was signed between Boer forces and the British (putting an end to a set of wars between the two sides).  After a few years, the former Boer republics joined with the British territories and, in May of 1910, they formed the Union of South Africa.   The African National Congress was then created, just two years later, in 1912 to respond to the white-run govern...

Katherine Johnson was born on August 26, 1918 in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia and, by now, you may know that she grew up to be an integral part of the nation's space program as a valuable mathematician in NASA.  You may not know about the connection she shares with some members of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

(See our website for articles and pictures). Charles Young was a Buffalo Soldier, a pioneer in many ways, and one of the most celebrated African-American military men, at the time of his death.