ChristinaProenzaColes @ProenzaColes Twitter profile | Pikagi

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ChristinaProenzaColes

@ProenzaColes

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Author of AMERICAN FOUNDERS: How People of African Descent Established Freedom in the New World. I study, research, teach, & tweet American history.

https://t.co/HEPwSyv5G7

Joined May 2018

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@ProenzaColes

ChristinaProenzaColes

5 years

I have to say I’m excited about this. Back in the day, I was routinely star-struck to see Lewis Lapham at the Noho Star when he was the editor @Harpers and I was an adjunct at the Cooper Union. Very happy to be included in @Laphamsquart .

@laphamsquart

Lapham’s Quarterly

5 years

Today on LQ: An excerpt from “American Founders: How People of African Descent Established Freedom in the New World” by @ProenzaColes , now available from @newsouthbooks .

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@ProenzaColes

ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

Susie King Taylor, formerly enslaved, served in the field as a volunteer nurse & camp aid during the American Civil War to end slavery. The US Army captain under whom she served described her as heroic.

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@ProenzaColes

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2 years

1910 portrait of Afro-Mexican children in Guanajuato in Central Mexico made by photographer Romualdo García. In the 17th century, Mexico had the largest free African descended population in the Americas.

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1 year

Susie King Taylor served in the American Civil War. Her captain wrote “I regret that you are debarred from having your name on the roll of pensioners as an Army Nurse; for among all the number of heroic women whom the government is now rewarding, I know of no one more deserving.”

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1 year

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a scientist at the NIH, helped develop the Covid vaccine that has saved countless lives. Now a professor of immunology & infectious diseases at Harvard, her work also led to the 1st monoclonal antibody treatment that was authorized by the FDA.

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2 years

This is a portrait of a 19th century Afro-Peruvian woman whose name is not recorded (c. 1868, housed in the Library of Congress). In 1593, the Archbishop of Lima used parish records to estimate that over half of the overall population was composed of people of African descent.

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1 year

Jean-Baptiste Belley purchased his own freedom, led troops in the Haitian Revolution, & was an outspoken abolitionist & political leader in France. At the National Convention in Paris, he instigated a successful vote to end slavery in the French Caribbean in 1794.

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2 years

Harmonia Rosales, “Our Lady of Regla,” oil on panel with 24K gold leaf, 2019.

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2 years

In the 17th century, Mexico had the largest free African descended population in the Americas. This portrait was made in Central Mexico in 1910 by photographer Romualdo García.

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1 year

Henrietta Lacks (b 1920 VA) mother & wife who, in her death from cancer at 31, advanced medicine & saved lives. Her cells collected for scientific research became the gold standard HeLa line that fostered the polio vaccine & many achievements. She is the mother of modern medicine

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2 years

Delilah Beasley (b. 1869) was a journalist & historian who published & spoke widely on the foundational roles Black women & men played in US history. Her meticulously researched 1919 book The Negro Trailblazers of California used archival sources from 16th C Spanish expeditions.

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1 year

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, a lawyer with an a PhD in economics, helped draft anti-discrimination law in 1935. When her law partner & spouse Raymond Alexander was appointed judge, she started her own practice. She served on a federal Committee on Civil Rights in 1947.

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2 years

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

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3 years

On Christmas Eve 1855 enslaved teenagers from Loudon County, Virginia fended off slave patrollers as they made their escape to Philadelphia. This image, “A Bold Stroke for Freedom,” is housed in the Library of Congress.

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2 years

Sissieretta Jones (b. 1868 in Virginia) was a renowned opera singer who performed at the White House (multiple times), at Madison Square Garden (with Antonin Dvorak), headlined at Carnegie Hall in 1893, & toured the Caribbean, South America, & England.

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2 years

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, they hosted (& dressed) John Brown & crew en route to Harper’s Ferry.

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2 years

Bass Reeves (b. 1838) liberated himself from slavery during the Civil War. A skilled, ambidextrous marksman, he was appointed deputy U.S. marshal in 1875 & gained fame during his 32 year career - some believe he was the inspiration for the Lone Ranger.

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3 years

This 1599 portrait is the oldest known signed & dated painting in the New World. The artist was of Indigenous Ecuadorian descent & features Don Francisco de Arobe & his sons who ruled an independent Maroon settlement of self liberated African men & women on Ecuador's coast.

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8 months

Harmonia Rosales, “Our Lady of Regla,” oil on panel with 24K Gold leaf, 2019.

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3 years

Hundreds of thousands of Black Americans fought to end slavery during the American Civil War by enlisting with the Union as soldiers, sailors, & surgeons. Countless served unofficially, like nurse & camp aid, Susie King Taylor.

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2 years

Charlotte Hawkins Brown (b. NC 1883) author, educator, granddaughter of formerly enslaved people, founded a boarding school in the 1920s that attracted students nationally. Her niece Maria Cole was an accomplished jazz vocalist, the wife of Nat King Cole & mother of Natalie Cole.

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2 years

Dr. Louise Fleming was a physician born in Florida in 1862 to enslaved parents. That same year her father liberated himself & enlisted with Union forces to save the United States & end slavery. Dr. Fleming graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1895.

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3 years

Charlotta Bass (b. SC 1874) published a newspaper 1912-1951. She challenged discrimination in housing, hiring, & policing. The Klan stalked her & sued her for libel, but she won in court. Nominated for Vice President 1952. The US National Park Service calls her an American hero.

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2 years

Alain Locke, brilliant philosopher who came to be known as the dean of the Harlem Renaissance, was descended from a War of 1812 veteran. He graduated from Harvard in 1907 with degrees in Philosophy & English, was a Rhodes scholar, a PhD, & chair of Howard's philosophy department.

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2 years

Prince Ayuba Suleiman Diallo was kidnapped from Gambia in 1731 & enslaved in Maryland. In 1733 he went to London & helped organize the British Museum’s collection of Arabic Manuscripts & was inducted into the Spalding Gentlemen's Society. Diallo returned to Gambia in 1734.

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2 years

Dr. Caroline Still Anderson (b. Philadelphia 1848) was a physician & educator. Her parents, William & Letitia Still, were leaders in the Underground Railroad who helped hundreds to free themselves from slavery. Her grandparents were themselves self-liberated, formerly enslaved.

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3 years

Born enslaved in North Carolina, Anna Julia Cooper earned a master’s degree in mathematics from Oberlin College in 1887 & a PhD from the Sorbonne. A devoted educator, visionary leader, & insightful scholar, her 1892 book A Voice from the South championed women’s rights.

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1 year

“The Bates family, pictured here, moved from Tennessee to Nicodemus, Kansas as part of the Black homesteading movement. African Americans successfully homesteaded in all the Great Plains states.”

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1 year

John Merrick & daughters Geneva, Mabel & Martha c. 1909. Mr. Merrick, entrepreneur, philanthropist, formerly enslaved, founded the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, a bank, pharmaceutical company, hospital, library & college. He helped found Durham’s Black Wall Street

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2 years

Before serving as minister in his native Haiti, scholar Anténor Firmin took a diplomatic post in Paris & joined the Society of Anthropology. His 1885 book On the Equality of Human Races used scientific empiricism to refute racist pseudoscience & pioneer modern anthropology.

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Amanda Berry Smith was born enslaved in 1837, acquired an education, preached her beliefs, traveled the world, & established an orphanage in Illinois in 1899 that became a school. She traveled to England (with her daughter), India, & Liberia & published an autobiography in 1883.

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Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois with daughter Yolande & wife Nina Gomer Du Bois in 1901.

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2 years

Dr. Nathan Mossell, whose great-grandfather survived the Middle Passage, was a highly accomplished surgeon who founded a hospital in Philadelphia in 1895.

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Amanda Smith was born enslaved in 1837, acquired an education, preached her beliefs, traveled the world, & established an orphanage in Illinois in 1899 that became a school. She traveled to England (with her daughter), India, & Liberia & published an autobiography in 1883.

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In 1898 John Merrick, entrepreneur, philanthropist, formerly enslaved, founded North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company & eventually a bank, pharmaceutical company, hospital, library & college. He was among several founders of Durham’s Black Wall Street in North Carolina.

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2 years

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was an opera singer who gained fame in the US & Europe in the 1850s & 60s. A formerly enslaved individual born in Mississippi & who studied music in Philadelphia, Ms. Taylor Greenfield performed at Buckingham Palace in 1854.

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2 years

After purchasing his freedom, Isaac Flood moved to Oakland, CA in 1853 & married Elizabeth Scott in 1855. She started the 1st public school for Black students in the state. This is their daughter Lydia. See the Flood Family Papers, the African American Museum & Library at Oakland

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2 years

Established in 1937, Wake-Robin is the oldest Black women’s golf club in the country. This is a photograph of members from 1938, the same year that Wake-Robin members petitioned the US Secretary of the Interior for the desegregation of golf courses.

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2 years

Unidentified family on the US frontier in the 1880s. Anna-Lisa Cox’s The Bone & Sinew of the Land: America's Forgotten Black Pioneers & the Struggle for Equality describes many of "America’s Black pioneers, the frontier they settled, & their fight for the heart of the nation.”

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3 years

Elizabeth Catlett (b. 1915 in Washington DC), descendant of the enslaved, daughter of a Tuskegee math professor & a teacher, herself a lifelong student & professor & ultimately a citizen of Mexico, was among the greatest American artists of the 20th century.

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2 years

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

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2 years

Born in Trinidad, Dr. John Alcindor earned his MD in Scotland in 1899 & was a physician, political activist, & senior district medical officer in London. He was awarded a Red Cross medal for his work treating the wounded in WWI. His great-nephew is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

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2 years

In the War of 1812, Cochrane’s Proclamation of 1814 offered Americans who joined British forces freedom & land in British colonies. Thousand of enslaved African Americans heeded the call, several settled in Trinidad, established enduring communities, & were known as Merikins.

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1 year

Mary McLeod Bethune (b. 1875) risked her life for democracy as an educator & civic leader who worked with presidents FDR & Truman. She founded a college in Florida, faced down the Klan during voter registration drives & publicly campaigned against the prevalence of lynching.

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8 months

On Christmas Eve 1855 enslaved teenagers from Loudon County, Virginia fended off slave patrollers as they made their escape to freedom in Philadelphia. This image, “A Bold Stroke for Freedom,” is housed in the Library of Congress.

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7 months

Born enslaved, Anna Julia Cooper earned a masters in math from Oberlin 1887 & PhD from Sorbonne. Her 1892 book championed women’s rights. “The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class-it is the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity”

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2 years

The State Library & Archives of Florida calls this image Seated Girl & Boy Holding Hat. It’s among many beautiful portraits of Black Floridians made by photographer Alvan Harper between 1884 & 1910 whose names were not preserved with the images.

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1 year

This photograph from around 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.

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1 year

Mary McLeod Bethune, national leader, college founder, journalist, entrepreneur & champion of democracy & gender & racial equality. She advised two US presidents on federal councils & led efforts to end lynching, integrate the armed services, advance education, & register voters.

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2 years

Luís Gama, Brazilian journalist & lawyer, formerly enslaved, freed more than 1000 Afro-Brazilians for whom he provided legal assistance & raised funds. His mother Luisa Mahin was a key organizer of Brazil’s 1835 Malé revolt, perhaps the largest urban slave revolt in the Americas.

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1 year

Dr. Sarah Loguen, 1st woman to earn an MD from Syracuse University, 1st female doctor licensed to practice in the Dominican Republic. Her grandmother Jane McCoy was born free in OH, kidnapped & enslaved, Jane's son (Sarah’s father) Jermain was active in the Underground Railroad.

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1 year

John Johnson (b. 1878 in Nebraska) was a prolific & talented photographer & the son of formerly enslaved people, his father a veteran of the Civil War & his mother was self-liberated. This image from 1918 is Mr. Johnson & his wife Odessa.

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1 year

James Pennington attended Yale after liberating himself from slavery in Maryland. He published a history book in 1841 & an autobiography, The Fugitive Blacksmith, in 1849, the year he participated in Paris World Peace Conference & got an honorary PhD from University of Heidelberg

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2 years

Electrical engineer & Union vet Lewis Latimer patented carbon filament in 1881 that helped bring electric light to US. He joined Thomas Edison’s firm in 1884 & published book 1890. His parents were self-liberated slaves whose activism created Latimer Law to protect others in 1843

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2 years

This portrait is in the Loewentheil Collection of African-American Photographs at Cornell University. The back reads "The best wishes from Class of '08, Texas College, to Mrs. Minnie Apperson."

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2 years

Elizabeth Catlett (b. 1915 in Washington DC), descendant of the enslaved, daughter of a Tuskegee math professor & a teacher, herself a lifelong student & professor & ultimately a citizen of Mexico, was among the greatest American artists of the 20th century.

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2 years

Dr. Maria Maynard Daly (b. 1921) earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University in 1947. She researched & taught at Howard University, Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, & the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

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2 years

This 1599 portrait, the oldest known signed & dated painting in the New World, was made by an artist of Indigenous Ecuadorian descent & features Don Francisco de Arobe & his sons who ruled an independent Maroon settlement of self liberated African men & women on Ecuador's coast.

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3 years

Dr. Caroline Still Anderson (b 1848) was a physician in Philadelphia. Her parents, William & Letitia Still, were leaders in the Underground Railroad who helped scores of Americans to free themselves from slavery. Her grandparents were themselves self-liberated, formerly enslaved.

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2 months

On D-Day, Waverly Woodson, a medic from Philadelphia, treated wounded soldiers under heavy fire despite being wounded himself. He saved the lives of some 200 soldiers, was among the 1.2 million African Americans who served in WWII, & served in the Korean War as well.

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2 years

Henrietta Bowers Duterte of Philadelphia (b. 1807) was a successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, & the 1st woman to operate a mortuary in the US. She used her business to support safe passages on the Underground Railroad.

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2 years

Dr. Elmer Imes (b. 1883) was a Black physicist whose work was an early verification of quantum theory; he was awarded four patents. His ancestors, enslaved & free, were living in what is today the United States before the American Revolution.

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2 years

Sarah Tanner left slavery via Underground Railroad & attended Avery College in 1858. She became the matriarch of an accomplished Black family that included her husband, Bishop Benjamin Tanner, daughter Dr. Halle Tanner, & son, renowned artist Henry O Tanner who made this portrait

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2 years

Edna Griffin (here in uniform during WWII) moved to Iowa so her husband could study osteopathy. In 1948 she organized & filed suit after she & her child were refused service at a drug store soda fountain. Her landmark case desegregated restaurants throughout the state.

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1 year

In 1855, 15 year old Anna Maria Weems went to the White House dressed as a man, impersonating a carriage driver, in order to liberate herself from enslavement. After planning her escape for 2 years despite omnipresent dangers, she joined her politically active family in the North

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3 years

Charlotta Bass (b. SC 1874) published a newspaper 1912-1951. She challenged discrimination in housing, hiring, & policing. The Klan stalked her & sued her for libel, but she won in court. Nominated for Vice President 1952. The US National Park Service calls her an American hero.

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2 years

Mary Eliza Mahoney, b. 1845 to parents who had been enslaved in North Carolina, earned a nursing degree in 1879. A champion of healthcare & women’s rights, she founded a national organization for Black nurses in 1908 & was among the 1st women registered to vote in Boston in 1920.

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Dr. Caroline Still Anderson (b. 1848 in Philadelphia) was a physician & educator. Her parents, William & Letitia Still, were leaders in the Underground Railroad who helped scores of Americans free themselves. Her grandparents were themselves self-liberated, formerly enslaved.

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Abolitionists Nancy & Josiah Henson. Harriet Beecher Stowe acknowledged that Mr. Henson’s 1849 autobiography was the inspiration for her bestseller Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Hensons' work had a profound impact on 19th century history.

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Dr. Percy Julian was “one of the most important scientists of the 20th century.” Descended from enslaved grandparents in AL, he earned his MA at Harvard & PhD in Vienna. His 1935 invention of glaucoma medicine is counted among the top contributions in the history of US chemistry.

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Josiah Walls was elected to Congress from Florida in 1871. Formerly enslaved, Walls was a sergeant in the US Army during the Civil War. Despite violent opposition to Black political participation, he championed eduction throughout his career in politics, law, & at Florida A&M.

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Remembering Lt. Fred Brewer, the American fighter pilot who was killed on a mission to Germany during WWII. A graduate of Shaw University, Lt. Brewer was among the more than 900 Black pilots who trained at the segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama.

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In 1848 Boston attorney Robert Morris challenged school segregation in court a century before Brown v Board of Ed. In 1787 Black Bostonians had petitioned for equal education as well. Morris fought for the rights of his African & Irish American clients & was appointed magistrate

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Henry Highland Garnet issued a Call to Rebellion in 1843 to end slavery & discrimination. Garnet’s family had escaped slavery to NYC though slave catchers attempted re-enslavement. Garnet addressed the US House of Representatives in 1865 & was appointed a US ambassador in 1881.

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Guadeloupe Solitude aka La Mulatresse Solitude (born c. 1772) was a hero and martyr in the fight for freedom in French Guadeloupe. This statue honoring her national service was made by Guadeloupean sculptor Jacky Poulier in 1999.

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Johanna July was an expert horsewoman who trained horses for the US Army in Texas. Born c. 1860 in a Black Seminole town in Mexico, she descended from Florida’s Black Seminoles (Native people & self-liberated slaves who defeated the US Army in the 2nd Seminole War).

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2 years

This photograph from around 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.

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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, they hosted (& dressed) John Brown & crew en route to Harper’s Ferry.

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Ernest Just (b. 1883 in SC) was a biologist whose advances in cytology earned a National Research Council fellowship 1920-1931. Graduated Dartmouth 1907, PhD from University of Chicago 1916. He was the 1st American invited to conduct research at Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.

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Virginia State University was founded on March 6, 1882, when the legislature passed a bill, sponsored by Delegate Alfred W. Harris, a formerly enslaved attorney of Petersburg, to charter the university. This is the 1st graduating class in 1886.

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2 years

This image, held in the Library of Congress, is five officers of the Women’s League, Newport, Rhode Island circa 1899. Branches of this organization were also formed in Baltimore, Richmond, & Norfolk.

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Attorney Gaius Bolin (b. 1864) graduated from Williams College in 1889 (this is his graduation portrait) & was admitted to the New York Bar in 1892. His daughter, Judge Jane Bolin, earned her law degree from Yale in 1931 & was sworn in as a New York City judge in 1939.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

1 year

Electrical engineer & Union vet Lewis Latimer patented carbon filament in 1881 that helped bring electric light to US. He joined Thomas Edison’s firm in 1884 & published book 1890. His parents were self-liberated slaves whose activism created Latimer Law to protect others in 1843

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

Dorothy West (b. 1907) was a novelist, magazine publisher, & journalist, a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance & the 1st Black writer who published in the New York Daily News. She wrote her best selling, critically acclaimed novel The Wedding at age 85.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

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

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

Dr. Marie Daly earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University in 1947. She then researched & taught at Howard University, Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, & the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. This portrait is from her 1942 Queens College yearbook.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

1 year

Dr. William Hinton, son of former slaves, earned MD from Harvard in 1912 where he was professor for 27 years. A renowned clinical pathologist, lab director, textbook author, public health pioneer, physician & scientist, he founded 1st US school for women laboratory technicians.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

1 year

Judge Raymond Alexander was an alumnus of Wharton & Harvard. In 1921 he sued Madison Square Garden for denying him entrance, he fought school segregation in the courts in the 1930s, & he consulted on the 1954 Brown case. Both of his parents were born enslaved.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

William Hinton, son of former slaves, earned his MD from Harvard in 1912, where he taught for 27 years. A renowned clinical pathologist, laboratory director, textbook author, public health pioneer, physician, & scientist, he founded the 1st school for women laboratory technicians

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

Attorney & South Carolina congressman Robert Elliot put his life at risk to enact measures to litigate Klan terrorism. A superb orator, his 1874 speech supported the Civil Rights Act banning discrimination in public transit, accommodations, & schools.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

1 year

Dr. George Grant graduated from Harvard in 1869, returned as faculty, & was president of the Harvard Dental Association. He was an innovator of dentistry & invented a prosthetic for cleft palate. An avid golfer, Dr. Grant received a patent for the modern golf tee in 1899.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

Tanner family in 1890: Sarah (formerly enslaved) met Benjamin at college in 1858 (both seated center), he edited the US's largest Black newspaper. Son Henry (standing left) renowned painter, daughter Dr. Halle Tanner (below Henry) was 1st woman to pass Alabama state medical exam.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

Sarah Garnet (seated) became principal of an integrated school in Manhattan in 1863, founded the Equal Suffrage League in the 1880s & championed teachers & equal rights throughout her career. Her family helped establish Weeksville, a free Black community in Brooklyn in the 1830s.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

1 year

“Black Africans in Renaissance Europe depicts Africans in Europe as pirates, landowners, literati, members of urban confraternities, galley slaves, craftsmen & in many other socio-economic roles that illuminate the 'variety & complexity of black African life in Europe 1440-1600'"

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ChristinaProenzaColes

3 years

Charles Lenox Remond was an early 19C abolitionist & women’s rights advocate who spoke out against discrimination. His politically active, entrepreneurial family lived in Massachusetts. His maternal grandfather was a Black Revolutionary War veteran; his father was from Curaçao.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

Dr. Susan McKinney Steward (b. 1847) graduated as valedictorian from the New York Medical College for Women in 1869, ran her own practice in Brooklyn from 1870 to 1895, & published several papers on childhood disease.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

William Gould (seated) liberated himself from slavery in North Carolina during the Civil War & chose to fight for the freedom of others as a member of the United States armed forces, as did all six of his sons (standing) in the 20th century.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

5 months

In 1855, 15 year old Maria Weems went to the White House dressed as a young man where she impersonated a carriage driver & liberated herself from enslavement. She had planned her escape for 2 years, collaborating with the Underground Railroad.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

In the 19th century, Fanny Jackson Coppin (formerly enslaved) was a renowned teacher, principal, journalist, school board superintendent, & French interpreter for Philadelphia’s courts (& also fluent in Greek, Latin, & advanced math) whose work shaped generations of students.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

2 years

Dr. Ida Gray earned a doctorate in dental surgery from U Michigan 1890 & established a private practice. A widow of a Spanish American War vet, she was president of Chicago’s Professional Women’s Club, treated patients across the color line, & mentored other Black women dentists.

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ChristinaProenzaColes

1 year

Statesman & lawyer John Mercer Langston was a Virginia native, son of a formerly enslaved woman & her former owner, co-founded the National Equal Rights League 1864, helped draft the Civil Rights Act of 1875, 1st pres of Virginia State University 1885, elected to US Congress 1890

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