On this day in 1955, Mary McLeod Bethune died. She founded Bethune-Cookman College and spent a lifetime advocating for civil rights. Bethune left an amazing last will & testament, leaving “love,” “hope,” “a thirst for education,” and “respect for the uses of power.” www.cookman.edu/history/last...

Lemuel Haynes was a Revolutionary War veteran & the 1st Black (mixed-race) man to be ordained as a minister in the US. He argued for universal rights in his 1776 antislavery tract, Liberty Further Extended, challenging the pretense of a nation fighting for its own freedom while denying it to others.

Wifredo Lam (pictured right) was a widely celebrated 20th century artist. An Afro-Cuban painter of Chinese & Congolese ancestry, a descendant of slavery, a colleague of Pablo Picasso (pictured left), Henri Matisse, & Frida Kahlo, Lam viewed his world-renowned work as “an act of decolonization.”

In 1855 Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole went to the Crimean Peninsula to care for soldiers in wartime. She & Florence Nightingale were honored in London for their service. Seacole wrote "I am proud of [my] relationship to those poor mortals whom you once held enslaved & whose bodies America still owns."

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.

Portrait of the Artist's Mother by Henry Ossawa Tanner 1897. Sarah Tanner was the matriarch of an accomplished African American family including her husband, Bishop Benjamin Tanner, daughter Dr. Halle Tanner (1st woman licensed to practice medicine in AL) & son, renowned painter Henry Ossawa Tanner

In 1841 Mary Richardson married John Jones of North Carolina. They carried free papers when they settled in Chicago & Mr. Jones established a successful tailoring business. Active in abolitionist politics & voting rights campaigns, they hosted & dressed John Brown & crew en route to Harper’s Ferry.

Congressman Robert B. Elliot repeatedly put his own life at risk in his efforts to enact measures to litigate & suppress Klan terrorism. As a newspaper editor & then as a statesman he advocated fairness in courts, voting practices, schools, & public accommodations, & sought federal aid for schools.

Octavius Catto was a scholar, a National Guard officer, & a champion of education, baseball, & voting rights. He was slain by white rioters targeting Black voters in Philadelphia on Election Day 1871. His body was laid in state & his funeral was the city's largest since Lincoln's.

Jose Manuel Valdez was Peru’s highest ranked physician in 1835. Black doctors like him & others were “part of the scientific revolution that overtook the medical profession in Peru in the 2nd half of the 18C.” They pioneered public health & immunization programs that spurred Peru's economic growth.

Jarena Lee, b. 1783, preacher & women’s rights pioneer. She was an American Antislavery Society member & published an autobiography in 1836. Lee observed, “Why should it be thought impossible, heterodox, or improper for a woman to preach, seeing as the Savior died for the woman as well as the man?”

"In the early 1900s, a combination of big money, violence by white jockeys, & intimidation from the Klan was forcing the great African-American jockeys from racing." Winkfield then raced throughout Europe & won nearly every marquee race on the continent. www.americasbestracing.net/the-sport/20...

Since the dawn of US, enslaved people cared for, trained & raced horses & attended races. Anne Ritson observed in VA c. 1800 “From ev’ry quarter they can come/With gentle, simple, rich, & poor/The race-ground soon is covered o’er/Males, females, all, both black & white/Together at this sport unite.”

Austin Curtis Jones, an enslaved & extremely successful jockey, whom Edward Hotaling calls the US’s “1st truly great professional athlete” was granted freedom after hiding horses from British troops during the American Revolution.

Isaac Murphy, son of a formerly enslaved father who died fighting for the Union during the Civil War, was the 1st jockey to win 3 Kentucky Derbies in 1884, 1890, & 1891 & among the greatest jockeys in history. He won 44 percent of all the races he rode, a record still unmatched.

On left (standing) renowned trainer Ansel Williamson & champion jockey Edward Brown (below) both of whom were formerly enslaved. Brown “achieved great fame for his prowess as a jockey & following the Civil War became a respected trainer & owner of several Kentucky Derby winners.”

In 1875 Oliver Lewis won the first Kentucky Derby. Black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbies. In 2010 the Newtown Pike Extension in Lexington, Kentucky was named the Oliver Lewis Way.

"In the early 1900s, a combination of big money, violence by white jockeys, & intimidation from the Klan was forcing the great African-American jockeys from racing." Winkfield then raced throughout Europe & won nearly every marquee race on the continent. www.americasbestracing.net/the-sport/20...

Eliza Carpenter, born in Virginia in 1849, enslaved, ultimately owned her own stables where she bought, trained, & rode race horses. The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper mourned her passing & celebrated her extraordinary equestrian prowess in 1924.

Since the dawn of US, enslaved people cared for, trained & raced horses & attended races. Anne Ritson observed in VA c. 1800 “From ev’ry quarter they can come/With gentle, simple, rich, & poor/The race-ground soon is covered o’er/Males, females, all, both black & white/Together at this sport unite.”

Austin Curtis Jones, an enslaved & extremely successful jockey, whom Edward Hotaling calls the US’s “1st truly great professional athlete” was granted freedom after hiding horses from British troops during the American Revolution.

Isaac Murphy, son of a formerly enslaved father who died fighting for the Union during the Civil War, was the 1st jockey to win 3 Kentucky Derbies in 1884, 1890, & 1891 & among the greatest jockeys in history. He won 44 percent of all the races he rode, a record still unmatched.

When the Kentucky Derby was established in 1875, 13 of the 15 riders were Black. Black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 Derbies. Oscar Lewis, a 19-year-old rider from Kentucky, was the 1st jockey to win the Derby, riding a horse trained by formerly enslaved, renowned horseman Ansel Williamson.

On left (standing) renowned trainer Ansel Williamson & champion jockey Edward Brown (below) both of whom were formerly enslaved. Brown “achieved great fame for his prowess as a jockey & following the Civil War became a respected trainer & owner of several Kentucky Derby winners.”

On left (standing) renowned trainer Ansel Williamson & champion jockey Edward Brown (below) both of whom were formerly enslaved. Brown “achieved great fame for his prowess as a jockey & following the Civil War became a respected trainer & owner of several Kentucky Derby winners.”

In 1875 Oliver Lewis won the first Kentucky Derby. Black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbies. In 2010 the Newtown Pike Extension in Lexington, Kentucky was named the Oliver Lewis Way.

Dr. Solomon Fuller - grandson of Virginians who bought their freedom & moved to Liberia - earned his MD from Boston University in 1897 & was invited by Alois Alzheimer to do research at the University of Munich in 1904. He was among the 1st neurologists to work on the disease now called Alzheimers.

In 1952 Charlotta Bass was nominated for US Vice President. She advocated civil rights, women’s rights, & peace. A newspaper publisher, she challenged discrimination in housing, hiring & policing & championed the rights of all Americans. The Klan stalked her & sued her for libel & she won in court.

In 1935 Dr. Percy Julian invented glaucoma medicine, a milestone in the history of US chemistry. Descended from enslaved grandparents, he was valedictorian at his university but not allowed to live in the residence halls & became “one of the most important scientists of the 20th century.”

Rosa Castellanos (b. 1834 in Cuba) was a formerly enslaved nurse who was appointed Health Captain of the Liberation Army during Cuba’s independence wars. Known as La Bayamesa, Castellanos operated field hospitals that saved countless lives as she risked hers for her country.

I had the honor of writing an afterword for J19’s special issue honoring Frances E. W. Harper's bicentennial! It’s out now, edited by @rafaelwalker.bsky.social & Kristin Moriah, & it features 8 essays by a range of scholars on a range of topics. Harper left posterity so much! Get into it!

Her new book, Something We Said, is amazing.

Page 230. George McJunkin. #reader

I loved her last book, & I know I will love this book. It resonates with the central theme of American Founders – multiculturalism is not some recent artifact of political correctness, it’s historically accurate, it’s the demographic reality of our founding & development.

Celebrating each other’s work. Carrie's got @brookenewman.bsky.social's The Crown’s Silence which explores how British monarchs cultivated transatlantic slavery. Brooke's got @carriegibson.bsky.social's The Great Resistance chronicling the enslaved people who continuously challenged this system.

Black Americans continuously encouraged the US to live up to its ideals not only through the revolts & revolutions that brought slavery to an end throughout the hemisphere, but also as they defended the principles of democracy before & after slavery, on battlefields, in courts, in print & in deed.

The Black medics of the Freedom House Ambulance Service were the most highly trained field practitioners of emergency medical care in the country & revolutionized how we do emergency medicine in the US. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/u...

This 1599 portrait is Don Francisco de Arobe & his sons who ruled an independent settlement of self liberated Africans on Ecuador's coast. Like settlements of the self-liberated in Panama, Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica, Cuba, Suriname, Guyana & Florida, the state recognized it as an autonomous town.

Portrait of the Washington family c. 1789. The identity of the Black gentleman is uncertain (see ALT). George Washington Parke Custis (bottom left) fathered children with 2 enslaved women from Mount Vernon - which is why at least 2 of Martha Washington’s great-granddaughters were born enslaved.

Gertie Brown & Saint Suttle embrace in a silent film from 1898.

The Jones family helped to preserve the Florida Keys. Israel from NC & Mozelle from the Bahamas (pictured) met in Miami & began purchasing & farming land in the Keys in 1897. Their son, Lancelot, sold their 277 acres to the NPS for preservation in 1970 despite much higher offers from developers.

This photograph from 1895 includes some of the Bahamian families who helped to establish Coconut Grove, the founding neighborhood of what is now the city of Miami, Florida. The woman holding the child is Mariah Brown. She built one of the first homes in Miami in 1890; it’s now a historic landmark.

Portrait of the Washington family c. 1789. The identity of the Black gentleman is uncertain (see ALT). George Washington Parke Custis (bottom left) fathered children with 2 enslaved women from Mount Vernon - which is why at least 2 of Martha Washington’s great-granddaughters were born enslaved.

Nannie Helen Burroughs, educator, entrepreneur, women’s rights advocate, daughter of formerly enslaved parents, founded a school in Washington DC in 1901. She observed, “Education & justice are democracy’s only life insurance.”

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” ~Ida B. Wells. Image: University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center.

“Capers’ experience in the American Revolution is… representative of those of a generation of arms-bearing Black Patriots who fought & bled to help achieve American independence.”

Explorer Matthew Henson reached the North Pole in 1909. The expedition included Robert Peary and four Inuit men. Henson and his wife are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She was 95.

In 1924, Alma Thomas was the 1st graduate of Howard University’s Fine Arts program & the 1st woman in the US to hold bachelor’s degree in art. Her work has been collected by the Smithsonian, Metropolitan Museum of Art, & the White House. This piece sold at a Christie’s auction for 2.6 million USD.

Renowned performer Josephine Baker was a WWII hero & the 1st American woman awarded the Croix de Guerre. As an operative for the French Resistance, she collected intelligence, carried coded messages (in invisible ink on her musical scores), & sheltered Jewish refugees & resistance fighters.