John Jacob “Rifle Jack” Peterson

John Jacob “Rifle Jack” Peterson was a Revolutionary war era patriot of African and Kitchewan descent whose quick thinking helped repel British forces in Croton, New York. His actions threw…

Salem Poor (1747–1802) was an enslaved African-American man who purchased his freedom in 1769, became a soldier in 1775, and rose to fame as a war hero during the American…

In the American Revolution, gaining freedom was the strongest motive for Black enslaved people who joined the Patriot or British armies. It is estimated that 20,000 African Americans joined the…

Lemuel Haynes (July 18, 1753 – September 28, 1833) was an American clergyman. A veteran of the American Revolution, Haynes was the first black man in the United States to…

“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” is the title now given to a speech by Frederick Douglass delivered on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester,…

DeFord Bailey (December 14, 1899 – July 2, 1982) was an American country music and blues star from the 1920s until 1941. He was the first performer to be introduced…

Elizabeth Thorn Scott Flood (1828–1867) was a 19th-century African American educator and activist in California. Scott Flood was a “colored school” teacher in Sacramento, California and later fought for equal…

Susie Revels Cayton (1870 – 1943) was a writer, editor, activist, and leader in the Black community in Seattle at the start of the 20th century. Susie Sumner Revels was…