Black and Education

In December of 1863, Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and

Reconstruction which gave really an olive branch to Confederate states that

wished to rejoin the Union, even though the Civil War wasn’t quite over,

yet. This proclamation allowed for the consideration of readmission to

take place if ten percent of a state’s voters took an oath of loyalty to

the Union and if other conditions were met, namely the abolition of slavery

and respect for the laws of the United States.

On May 30, 1921 a young man named Dick Rowland, who was about 19 years old,

got on an elevator in the Drexel Building, on South Main St.

He entered the elevator and, in some way, came in contact with Sarah Page,

who was the elevator’s operator. She was about 17 years old. Sarah let

out a scream and a clerk in a nearby store heard her yell, Dick Rowland ran

from the scene, and the store clerk called the police.

Ernest Everett Just was a renown scientist who made important discoveries about the biology of a cell's surface.

If there were a few words that could sum up Mrs. Fanny Jackson-Coppin they would be, “excellence in education.”  Mrs. Jackson-Coppin spent decades as an educator and as a principal, at a time when women, especially women of color, weren’t given many opportunities to lead.  She stepped into leadership roles and was rarely challenged due to the remarkable commitment and professionalism she displayed.

Daniel Howard, a twenty-year-old African-American man, attended a political

rally on September 19, 1868. He was one of hundreds of African Americans

to attend this rally.

You see, earlier that month Democrats (along with some Republicans) in the

state’s legislature moved to remove ALL African-American lawmakers from

office that had been recently elected, earlier that year. They contended

that African Americans were not given the express right to hold office and

they, therefore, voted to unseat them.

James Armistead was born in the 1700s. He was enslaved by a man named

William Armistead in Virginia.

Virginia would turn out to be an important stage for what would effectively

be the last major conflict of the Revolutionary War.

James Weldon Johnson was born on June 17, 1871 to Helen and James Johnson.

His mother was a school teacher and his father...a waiter. Both of his

parents stressed the importance of education to their children.

In July of 1826 Sojourner Truth simply walked away from slavery, with her

youngest child. She didn't run...she didn't go very far...she simply

decided she wasn't going to be a slave anymore.

Some years earlier the New York state legislature passed two laws,

gradually emancipating slaves. The laws essentially provided that all

adult slaves would be set free on July 4, 1827 and any child, born after a

certain date, to an enslaved mother, would have to work for the mother's

owner until the age of 21—at which time the child would also be free.

"Fellow-Citizens—Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to

speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your

national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of

natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to

us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the

national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude

for the blessings, resulting from your independence to us?

William Henry Johnson was born in Winston Salem, North Carolina in 1892.

While still a teenager, Johnson moved to New York...he was an industrious

young man and found work as a soda mixer, in a coal yard, as a chauffeur,

and eventually as a redcap porter in Albany’s train station.

In April of 1917 the United States declared war on Germany and, just two

months later, William Henry Johnson volunteered to serve his country—he

enlisted on June 5, 1917.