Unknown or Little Known African-Americans

By Stacey Anter

Library Detective

As Americans, we must learn about every part of our American History so that we may not only learn from mistakes, but also be inspired by acts of courage, successes and triumphs. National Black History Month, also known as African-American History Month, is the perfect time to learn about important events and people in history. Because my husband is a history buff, and if he had it his way we would have one television permanently showing The History Channel, I learned about one incredible group of men: the Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first African-Americans to join the Army Air Corps and fight during World War II.  According to Tuskegee Airmen, Inc –National Web (http://tuskegeeairmen.org/pages/1/index.htm) “These airmen fought two wars - one against a military force overseas and the other against racism at home and abroad.” By the way, the Tuskegee Airmen did not lose a single plane! Amazing! If you’d like to learn more, visit the Tuskegee Airmen website, or watch the 1995 HBO historical drama, The Tuskegee Airmen, starring Laurence Fishburne. Or you can read Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen, by Lynn M. Homan and Thomas Reilly.  A great website for more information is Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama (http://www.tuskegee.edu/) who is celebrating Booker T. Washington’s birthday. 

There are so many African Americans that we never really learned about in history class. One local group of notables for Black History Month is the Rhode Island First Regiment, a group of 125 black patriots led by Col. Christopher Greene, who fought courageously in the Battle of Newport in 1778 and other battles during the American Revolution. One local author, and Coventry Public Library favorite, is Linda Crotta Brennan who wrote a picture book on this very subject, The Black Regiment of the American Revolution.

Of course, we know Rev. Frederick Douglass, the first African American to be appointed to office in four different presidential administrations. Here are just a few more important African-Americans from history:

-Rev. Hiram Rhodes Revels (1827-1901) was the first Black U.S. Senator.

-Joseph Hayne Rainey (1832-1887) overcame slavery to become the first African-American elected to U.S. Congress and serve at Speaker of the House.

-Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877-1963) was an African American inventor whose most notable inventions included the gas mask and the traffic light.

-John Rock (1825-1866) was one of the first African-Americans to earn a medical degree and the first African-American to be admitted to U.S. Supreme Court Bar.

-Prince Whipple (1750-1796) and Oliver Cromwell (1752-1853) are two black patriots who fought alongside George Washington and others in the American Revolution. They crossed the Delaware River in 1776 and are depicted in the famous painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware.”

-James Armistead (1748-1830) was a black patriot and spy who assisted in the victory at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

-Rev. Richard Allen (1760-1831) was the founder of America’s first black denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

-Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, (1815-1882) the first African-American to deliver a sermon in Congress.

-Jefferson Franklin Long (1836-1901) was the first African-American to give a speech in the U.S. House of Representatives.

-John Roy Lynch, (1847-1939) was the first African-American elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, and the first one to preside over a national political convention.

The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution by William C, Nell is a great resource to learn more. He was a scholar and historian in the 1830s who became the first black American to hold a post in the Federal Government. Other Black historians who you might like to check out are: Carter Woodson, Benjamin Quarles, Joseph Wilson, Booker T. Washington, Edward Johnson.

As always, I suggest learning about people by reading their own words whenever possible. Here are some additional resources that you can check out from the library:

My Soul Has Grown Deep: classics of early African-American literature [collected by] John Edgar Wideman; Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White by David Barton; Let Your Motto Be Resistance: the life and thought of Henry Highland Garnet by Earl Ofari; The Facts of Reconstruction by John Roy Lynch;  Escape From Slavery: the boyhood of Frederick Douglass in his own words by Frederick Douglass;  Frederick Douglass, in his own words by Frederick Douglass;  Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass; African American Inventors by Stephen Currie; Inspiring African American Inventors by Jeff C. Young; The Booker T. Washington Papers by Booker T. Washington; Character Building: Being address delivered on Sunday evenings to the students of Tuskeegee Institute by Booker T. Washington.

I call myself the Library Detective because I can find the answers to any question you can think of, or at least I can point you in the right direction.  To find out more about African-Americans in history, visit your local library; there are more Library Detectives there, too.