Christina Proenza-Coles

Bust of John Chavis

In 1799 Revolutionary War veteran John Chavis attended what is today Washington & Lee University. In 1808 he opened a highly regarded school in Raleigh, NC for Black & white students. See Helen Orthow, John Chavis: African American Patriot, Preacher, Teacher, & Mentor 1763-1838.

Grainy black and white image of women in nurses uniforms as they observe and assist Dr. Evan’s surgery (South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia)

Undated portrait of Dr. Evans (Legacy Center Archives & Special Collections, College of Medicine, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA)

Dr. Matilda Evans performs surgery in the operating room of Taylor Lane Hospital which she founded in South Carolina in 1901.

Dr. Evans was a public heath pioneer & benefactor who treated Black & white patients. She was an advocate & practitioner of health care as a human right.

Portrait of a man coat, vest, and white tie gazing to toward the light.

Congressman George Henry White (b. 1852), son of a formerly enslaved mother, was an educator & lawyer as well as a U.S. Representative from North Carolina In 1900. White was the 1st member of Congress to introduce legislation making lynching a federal crime.

George Brown holding John Teter Jr., son of one of Brown's employees at the Cleveland Marine Steam Railways. Brown, an entrepreneur & carpenter, purchased substantial property & established key businesses as a founder of Punta Gorda. He paid his employees according to their skill rather than color.

"African Americans played a tremendous role in the establishment, history, & growth of Punta Gorda. Nearly half of the city’s original setters were African American. Despite Jim Crow norms, the pioneers created a society where shared prosperity & mutual respect prevailed." Blanchard House website

Three quarter portrait of an enslaved man dressed in coat, vest, and tie. The portrait was in the possession of the family for whom he labored as an enslaved overseer.

“Portrait of Frederick” c. 1840 now in the Mississippi Museum of Art.

After the Civil War, Frederick took the surname Baker and was ordained as a minister.

www.mississippifreepress.org/rare-portrai...

Oil on canvas portrait of a young man in 18th century clothing once identified as Barzillai Lew. Now the National Portrait Gallery lists both the sitter and the artist as "unknown."

Barzillai Lew (b. 1743) served with distinction during the American Revolutionary War. He purchased the freedom of his future wife, Dinah Bowman, for $400 in 1767. The 1790 census lists him as head in a household of 14 free people of color. Their house became a stop on the Underground Railroad.

So unrelentingly bad.

Etching of a mustachioed man in suit jacket, vest, and bow tie with the signature "Robt. B. Elliot" above text "Honorable Robert B. Elliot" and "Library of Congress"

During Reconstruction, South Carolina congressman Robert Elliot put his own life at risk to enact measures to litigate & suppress Klan terrorism. He delivered a powerful speech in 1875 in support of the Civil Rights Act that banned discrimination in public transit, accommodations, & schools.

Grainy black and white portrait of a young woman in hat and gloves.

In the 1880s, Florida Ruffin Ridley wrote for the Boston Globe, organized a national conference for Black women, & edited the newspaper, The Women’s Era. “We the women of the Women’s Era Club enter the field to work hand in hand with women, generally for humanity and humanity’s interests.”

A beautiful young woman gazes directly, meaningfully, at the viewer. She is not identified by name in the archive.

“Woman seated wearing a white cotton blouse and skirt with a dark fur stole around her shoulders” c. 1915 from the Missouri State Archives.

Studio portrait of three formally dressed women and two children. Houston Public Library, African American History Resource Center, Roett Family Collection.

The Roett family. Young Catherine Juanita Roett on the right became a pediatrician & opened a practice in 1952, shared an office with her father Rupert, a surgeon from Barbados who founded a Houston hospital. By 1956 she was faculty at Baylor College of Medicine & staff at Texas Children’s Hospital.

"Terrell and her fellow activists saw the need for a national organization to provide a network of women-led initiatives, among them voting rights and racial justice. Terrell...was among the principals in the 1953 Supreme Court case that desegregated restaurants and stores in Washington, DC."

Sepia portrait of a woman with drop earrings and an elaborate lace collar c. 1885. The photograph is in the Library of Congress.

In the 1890s Fannie Barrier Williams founded a hospital, cofounded the National Association for Colored Women, served on the Chicago Public Library board & in the Chicago Women's Club (despite threats). A champion of voting rights, she was asked to eulogize Susan B. Anthony.

Very yellow painting of a woman gazing at the viewer, her hands are clasped.

Marian Anderson (b. 1897 in Philadelphia) was a singer & international diplomat of democracy who inspired admirers worldwide. She is depicted here in a 1965 portrait by Harlem Renaissance modernist & abstract expressionist painter, Beauford Delaney (b. 1901 in Knoxville).

Lincoln University

Woman seated holding a fan in a formal portrait gazing at the viewer. Library of Congress.

Josephine Silone Yates was a professor of chemistry & among the 1st women in the US to head a university science department. She was also a journalist & editor & served as the president of the National Association of Colored Women in 1901.

Man in front of an early model car. See Christopher Nelson, The C. R. Patterson and Sons Company.

C. R. Patterson, formerly enslaved in Virginia, founded a vehicle production company in Ohio, “an industry leader in winter buggy design,” that operated for 3 generations (1865-1939). With his son, Frederick, at the helm, the prosperous company produced automobiles, trucks, & buses.

1898 portrait of a woman posed in formal clothes standing next to a chair.

Frances Harper (b. 1825) author & educator, advocated equal rights, women’s suffrage, education & abolition in her writing, lectures & civic work. At the 1866 inaugural meeting of the American Equal Rights Association she urged “justice is not fulfilled so long as woman is unequal before the law.”

1887 portrait of a man in jacket, waistcoat, & bow tie. The image is signed "Yours truly, Charles B. Ray." Schomburg Center, New York Public Library.

Charles Ray advocated for the rights of all Americans. He attended Wesleyan University in 1832, edited The Colored American in 1838, & supported the pro-abolition Liberty Party in the 1840s. “We are all alike constituents of the same government,” he argued, “and members of the same rising family.”

Black and white photo of Ralph Bunch smiling at the camera wearing a suit and tie.

Political scientist Ralph Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. He & Barack Obama descended from John Punch, an enslaved African who had a son with a European indentured servant in 1630s VA. The family bifurcated into the “white” Punches of VA (Obama’s mom's line) & the “colored” Bunches of NC.

Black and white photo of a bespectacled man gazing directly at the viewer.

“If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence.” 

Bayard Rustin

Title page that reads "A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts" by Rebecca Crumpler, M.D. with pub date 1883 & a purple stamp from the Surgeon Generals Office Library.

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler earned her degree in medicine in 1864. After the Civil War she joined the many Black professionals who moved South to work with formerly enslaved individuals. In 1883 she published A Book of Medical Discourses focusing on maternal health.

3,800 years ago in Peru flourished “one of the world's first great civilisations….the Caral people adapted to climate disaster without turning to war….a society built on trade, music, ritual and consensus….living in harmony with nature and relating to other cultures with respect.”

Sepia full length portrait of a woman standing in a beautiful gown in 1861. Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.

After buying her freedom in 1855, Elizabeth Keckley established a clothing business in Washington DC favored by the elite. During the Civil War she established an organization to assist formerly enslaved Americans. After Lincoln’s assassination she published a memoir to raise funds for his widow.

Black and white portrait of a woman in elegant dress, hat & veil. She is gazing directly at the viewer.

Mary Ellen Pleasant was an entrepreneur, civic leader & descendant of the enslaved. She used her fortune, acumen & connections to support anti-slavery & anti-discrimination causes throughout her life. Her suit against segregated public transport went to the California Supreme Court in 1866.

Portrait of Ignatius Sancho painted in 1768 by Thomas Gainsborough, arguably the greatest British painter of the 18th century. It’s housed in the National Gallery of Canada.

Ignatius Sancho was a British composer, author, & shopkeeper born on the Middle Passage. A politically active figure, his property allowed him to vote - but his 1780 best-selling posthumous book may have had the most profound impact on abolitionist politics in England.

Graduation portrait of a young man in coat & tie, Yale College class of 1874. Yale University Manuscripts & Archives Digital Images Database.

Dr. Edward Bouchet (b. 1852) was among the first Americans to earn a Ph.D. in physics in U.S. history. The son of a formerly enslaved father, Dr. Bouchet earned his doctorate from Yale in 1876.

Portrait of a woman in a white bonnet, gold necklace, & blue dress with white shawl collar. Watercolor on ivory painted circa 1812, made by Susan Ridley Sedgwick. Massachusetts Historical Society.

In 1780 Elizabeth Freeman challenged slavery in court & won. Her husband was killed fighting in the American Revolution. Her earnings as a midwife made her one of the few women of the era to pay taxes. Her case was among "the greatest attempts to put the ideals of inalienable rights into practice.”

Black and white phot of a mustachioed man in coat and tie.

Playbill that reads "Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal...Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite. There's lots of small text and an announcement for trampoline leaps.

Equestrian Pablo Fanque (born in England c. 1810) owned, operated, & performed in a widely popular circus. After John Lennon saw and purchased a vintage 1843 playbill for it that read, “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” he composed a Beatles song about it in 1967.