On November 15, 1866 Cathay Williams became the first African American woman to serve in the U.S. Army, and the only woman to serve in the U.S. Army as a Buffalo Soldier.
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In 1905 The Colored Orphanage and Old Folks Home was known as, "the only home for colored children in an area of seven states." The Lincoln Home was started by the Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in the city of Pueblo and became the only known Black orphanage in Colorado. Built in 1906, the home moved in 1914 to two small red-brick houses that were built closely together on 2714 North Grand Avenue, where it remained until the city’s segregated orphanage system ended in 1963.
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Previously I posted about Henrietta Wood. Here are other early women pioneers for reparations.
Belinda (Royal) Sutton was born in 1712 in Ghana. She was abandoned by her enslaver, who had offered emancipation upon his death or her transfer to his daughter. If she chose freedom he provided 30 pounds for three years so she wouldn’t be a public charge. In 1783, at 63 years old, Sutton filed a petition to the Massachusetts General Court requesting a pension from the estate of her former enslaver.
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Thomas Downing (1791–1866) was an American restaurateur and abolitionist active in New York City during the Victorian era who was nicknamed the "New York Oyster King". He was one of the wealthiest people in New York City at the time of his death, though he spent his life being prohibited from acquiring U.S. citizenship until the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed, the day before he died.
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In 1878, Henrietta Wood, a formerly “illegally” enslaved Black woman, was awarded $2,500 in reparations by an all-white jury — the most significant sum of its kind that a U.S. court had granted.
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Equal Justice Initiative founder and CEO Bryan Stevenson speaks with NBC News’ Lester Holt about the new sculpture park in Montgomery, Alabama. A new monument honors the lives of 10 million Black people who were enslaved in America.
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For civil rights attorney and renowned social justice activist Bryan Stevenson, it’s not enough to know the history of slavery and the centuries-old struggles of Black people in America. He wants people to see it. Feel it. Touch it.
A new park in Montgomery, Alabama, was conceived to do just that, as visitors of the breathtaking Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will be treated to “an immersive experience” along 17 acres above the Alabama River, which was a primary route to transport enslaved Africans during the slave trade.
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Born in the heart of DeWalt, Texas, in 1933, Nancy Stephenson Woods' journey reflects a profound legacy. Stop my the Fort Bend Museum next month to join in celebrating the life of a remarkable woman.
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Untold Stories of Black Life in Texas: Reframing Our Shared History, a presentation hosted by Fort Bend County Libraries. Journey through the impactful events that shaped early Black history in Texas.
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Photograph of the regular monthly hands on the George Ranch. Five cowboys on horseback - four of them African-American cowboys - watch over a calf nestled in the grass in front of them. The rest of the herd of cattle can be seen in the background.
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Solomon Carter Fuller, M.D., the first known Black psychiatrist in America and an early pioneer in the fight against Alzheimer's.
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Dr. Charles Prudhomme, physician, psychoanalyst, and the first Black Vice President of the American Psychiatric Association.
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Pauline Brown Humphrey was the first African American woman to own and operate a certified cosmetology school in Iowa and the first certified to teach cosmetology in the state.
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William Wells Brown (circa 1814-1884) was a formerly enslaved man and an abolitionist who documented Hoodoo practices of enslaved people in St. Louis in two of his books.
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Painting, An Obeah Practitioner at Work, Trinidad, 1836.
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Music is a form of prayer in New Orleans and across the sea in Haiti. It connects the living and the dead, the present with the past. Every year, in February and March, people all over the western hemisphere gather together to sing, dance, parade, and celebrate Carnival. The most famous Carnival celebration in the United States is New Orleans’ Mardi Gras.
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