Kicha's photos

Among what are known as the learned professions, the law has attracted, perhaps fewer colored men than any other. The position of the negro lawyer is widely different from that of the preacher or the teacher. They have an assured following, as there is no competition between the white churches and schools and the negro churches and schools. The negro lawyer, however, must not only build up a clientage in sharp competition with the white lawyer but must also overcome the custom of the colored man to go to a white lawyer when in need of legal advice or services. So when one finds a colored lawyer who has succeeded in building up a good practice, especially in the smaller places, one may be sure of exceptional ability. As a lawyer, Julius Irwin Washington, of Beaufort, has won a measure of success which is at once a credit to him and to his race. What is more, he has not found it necessary to leave his home town in order to succeed but among the people who know his character and ability best has worked through the years. He was born in Beaufort, December 12, 1860. His parents were Richard and Catherine Washington. Coming of school age, just after the war, young Washington attended the public schools and when ready for college entered South Carolina College, which was open to both races. Later he read law under General W.J. Whipper, and was admitted to the bar in December, 1887. It was necessary for Mr. Washington to make his own way in school. He taught school for a few terms. He is Secretary of the Trustee Board of the Beaufort School. He believes that progress of his people depends on better school facilities, better wages and the ballot. He has property interests in Beaufort, Atlanta and in Aiken county. In October, 1880, Mr. Washington was married to Miss Carrie Kinlaugh, of Beaufort. She bore him two children: Adell S. (Mrs. Fleming) and Thomas W. Washington. His wife passed away in 1885. On June 4, 1890, Mr. Washington was married to Miss Eliza Middleton. Their children are Serg. J. I., Jr., Sadie (Mrs. Rice), Etta M. and Charles E. Washington. Source: History of the American Negro and his Institutions (South Carolina)

George Pheldon Stewart (1874-1924), along with Will H. Porter co-founded the Indianapolis Recorder newspaper in the 1890s. It began in an office on New York Street in Indianapolis. Stewart eventually became sole owner. He was active in several business, political, and fraternal organizations always promoting the business and political progress of blacks. Race pride and the importance of education were promoted in the stories the newspaper covered. The Recorder began as a community newspaper and grew to cover state and national news stories. By 1916 it included vital statistics, political stories, and many ads. The newspaper continues to be published today. [Photo and Info: Indiana Historical Society ]

William Warfield was known in Fort Wayne in the early 1900s as an entrepreneur who was well respected in the community. He died in 1936. By 1910, William Warfield had built a solid life for his family. Through odd jobs, such as cleaning doctors' offices and drugstores, Warfield purchased a 21-room, three-story home on East Douglas Street. He also had written several songs, which are registered with the Library of Congress. Warfield was one of 572 African Americans who lived in Fort Wayne at that time, trying to build a better life for themselves. But it wasn't always easy, said Hana Stith, a retired teacher who is compiling the history of African Americans in the city. Stith said Warfield was the exception in an era when blacks were facing difficult times. "Things were tough," Stith said. "There was no decent housing, minimal jobs and small wages." "I don't think blacks were content back then, by any means," said Miles Edwards, a member of the Fort Wayne African American Historical Society. "But they were able to deal with the hand that life had dealt them. They had to be strong to survive the things they were going through." Before 1910, the African-American population was small. Fort Wayne residents had voted in favor of excluding African Americans from the state in the 1851 Indiana Constitution. The black population began to grow after the 13th and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution were passed, which abolished slavery and declared African Americans citizens of this country. By 1900, there were 276 African Americans in Fort Wayne. The overall population was 45,115. Part of the reason for the increase was the migration of African Americans moving from the South. Although little is known about African-American life during this period, documents show they mostly worked in hotels and domestic service, and a few had jobs with the old Bass Foundry. he average salary was about 20 cents an hour. African Americans basically kept to themselves and only mingled with whites in the city when they were working for them. "Blacks were looked down upon as second-class citizens, and most recreation was in the church," Stith said. There were only two churches for African Americans at the time — Turner Chapel A.M.E. and Mount Olive Baptist Church. African Americans also attended the Garity, a local movie theater that had seats in the back reserved for them. On weekends, Stith said, they often had picnics in old Robison Park. By the end of the decade, Warfield and a few others had created a strong presence in the city, Stith said. Warfield was a writer and editor of The Vindicator, an African-American publication that began in 1913. He later went on to write "We Love Old Fort Wayne." The song was written in honor of the city's 150th birthday. By the 1920s, the African-American population had grown to 1,450, and job opportunities began to expand with the help of the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center. The facility, also located on Douglas Street, was a place where African Americans could gather for recreation and job training. The center also was a place where children learned about history and was home to a 20-piece orchestra that played at African-American churches in Fort Wayne, Edwards said. Sources: Early African Americans Find Local Life a Constant Struggle, by Shannon King of The News-Sentinel; photograph courtesy of Hana Stith

Daguerreotype by Thomas M. Easterly, ca. 1860 Missouri History Museum Archives Daguerreotype of Robert J Wilkinson, a barber who worked at the Southern Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. Wilkinson owned a popular barbershop in the Planters' House Hotel and was named in Cyprian Clamorgan's 1858 pamphlet, 'The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis' to be one of the forty-three free Blacks in St. Louis who, as he described, "move in a certain circle; who by means of wealth, education, or natural ability, form a peculiar class- the elite of the colored people." In the early 1840s Wilkinson moved from Cincinnati to St. Louis and was one of the 1400 free blacks that lived in St. Louis out of the estimated 2100 free blacks at this time in 1850. Source: Dolores A. Kilgo's. Likeness and Landscape: Thomas M. Easterly and the Art of the Daguerreotype

Frank Barbour Coffin of Little Rock (Pulaski County), owned one of the first drugstores serving the city’s black community. Frank Barbour Coffin (1870 - 1951), was an African-American pharmacist who owned and operated one of the earliest drug stores serving the black community of Little Rock (Pulaski County). He was also one of the country’s unnoted African-American poets of the nineteenth and twentieth century, barely remembered today for his two volumes of poetry and other works printed in various publications. F. B. Coffin was born on January 12, 1870, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, the son of Samuel and Josephine Barton Coffin. Holly Springs was a small town in northern Mississippi, about forty miles from Memphis, Tennessee. His mother died before he was twelve years old, leaving Coffin and at least four other siblings to be raised by their father, a farmer. Little else is known about his childhood years. Coffin attended Rust College in his hometown of Holly Springs from 1886 to 1887. He earned a Ph.D. degree from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1890 and a pharmaceutical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville in 1893. Coffin borrowed train fare to Little Rock and moved to Arkansas. His name first appears in the Little Rock City Directory in 1895. He obtained a license to practice pharmacy in Arkansas after passing the necessary exam and worked in the pharmacy business at George E. Jones Drug Company at 700 West 9th Street. On January 1, 1898, Coffin purchased the business and became the sole proprietor. Jones, whose wife had been a classmate of Coffin, sold him the building and loaned him $150 worth of drugs to get started. His business became known as Children’s Drug Store around 1928. Coffin tutored children in the community with their homework assignments after school, at his store. His business was very popular with neighborhood children because of the soda fountain and candy, thus his motto, “Follow the Children to Children’s Drug Store.” When Coffin bought the drug store, African Americans mostly populated West 9th Street with homes and businesses. Although not the first African American to open a drug store in Little Rock, Coffin was still considered a curiosity among his white neighbors from the surrounding area who occasionally drifted into the store to ask if he was the Negro who mixed medicine. They eventually began to trade with him. Coffin stated in an Arkansas State Press newspaper interview that “at that time practically all of 10th Street and back out that way was populated by whites.” He offered the conveniences of a well-supplied and well-operated store with a delivery service. Almost a decade passed before Coffin had competition from other black-owned drug stores. The Foster Drug Store was established around 1908, followed by the Gem Pharmacy at 800 West 9th and Floyd Pharmacy located at 501 West 9th Street. Coffin advertised his business in the Arkansas State Press and in the conference programs of the Arkansas Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association. In 1902, Coffin married Josie Pettie, a teacher in Little Rock. There are no records of a divorce or her death. In 1913, he married Lottie E. Woodford of Lexington, Kentucky. The couple’s home was at 1118 Izard Street. Coffin published his first book of poetry, Coffin’s Poems and AJAX Ordeals in 1897. His poetry reflected a fondness for children and his mother, as well as romantic love. He offered insight into the troubles of racism and wrote admiring verses about Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln. Other pieces of his poetry were published in the Arkansas World, Arkansas Monitor, Pittsburg Courier and other publications. Coffin also wrote a two-page ode titled “Re-emancipation of Human Driftwood,” which was published in The Douglass Monitor (circa 1927). The Douglass Monitor was a publication of the Frederick Douglass Club established in Little Rock on September 7, 1905. The club was formed as a separate Negro Republican club after segregation took root in the Republican Party. Haven Press of New York published another Coffin book, Factum Factorum, in 1947. In 1994, some of his poetry was published in a collection called The Spirit of the Free. In 1949, two years before his death, he had moved into the Graysonia Hotel at 809 Gaines Street. He was a trustee of the Wesley Chapel Methodist Church and served as secretary for Philander Smith College. Coffin died on March 4, 1951, at the United Friends Hospital, and his funeral arrangements were taken care of by the United Friends Undertakers. The United Friends was established in Little Rock in 1918 as a self-help organization to take care of the needs of their black members. The United Friends, whose motto was “We Serve In Life, We Serve In Death,” provided insurance, hospitalization, and funeral arrangements for its members. Coffin is buried at Haven of Rest Cemetery in Little Rock. Source: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System authored by Linda McDowell

Arthur P. Bedou (1880 - 1966), maintained a studio in New Orleans for over 50 years. He photographed everything from landscapes to rallies, but his refined portraiture earned him acclaim and business. For many years, Bedou served as the formal portrait photographer for Xavier University and many religious institutions in Louisiana. He is best known, however, for his series of photographs documenting the life of Booker T. Washington during his tenure as President of Tuskegee Institute. Bedou was also an active journalist and a co-founder of the People’s Life Insurance Company of Louisiana. Source: New Orleans Historical Society

From the first and deadliest WWI. [ D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville ]

Hubbard Pryor fled slavery in Tennessee at age twenty-two and reached Union lines, enlisting in a black infantry regiment on April 7, 1864. This photograph was included in a report on black recruitment sent to the war department in Washington, DC, later in the year. “For raiders in the enemies country, these Colored Troops will prove superior,” wrote the white regimental captain; “they are good riders - have quick eyes at night . . . and know all the by-ways.” [Davis, p. 269] The 44th U.S. Colored Infantry soon moved south to Georgia. Surrounded during a battle in Dalton, the regiment surrendered. The white officers were released by agreement but the African American soldiers were placed “under guard and lash,” forced to work rebuilding southern railroads and other facilities. After the war Pryor stayed in Georgia his home state and married in 1870. In May 1890 he wrote the war department to learn if he had been listed as a prisoner or a deserter at war’s end. Listed as a prisoner, he was thus eligible for a pension. Before he could apply, however, he died in August 1890, in his mid forties. Sources: National Archives & Lawrence E Walker Foundation Collection ; Robert Scott Davis, Jr., “A Soldier’s Story: The Records of Hubbard Pryor, 44th U.S. Colored Troops, (National Humanities Center)

While a professor at Howard University, T. Montgomery Gregory was active in establishing a training camp for black Army officers during World War I. He became a lieutenant. (Family photo). On May 3, 1917, a letter appeared in a Washington newspaper posing a stark question: “What of the Negro?” The letter’s author was T. Montgomery Gregory, an English professor at Howard University who had been moved to write by events that were rapidly unspooling in the capital. A month earlier, the United States had declared war on Germany, joining a conflict that had already been raging in Europe for nearly three years. Our military was relatively small then. It was estimated that some 2 million American men would need to be conscripted into the Army in the coming year. Black men had fought in American wars since before the country was a country, a fact Gregory pointed out, writing, “The unbroken loyalty of the negro to the country of his adoption, yes even to the owners of his body, is one of the remarkable facts of history.” With the United States girding for war, Gregory wondered how men such as himself would be involved. “What part is he to play in this fighting phalanx?” Gregory asked. Thomas Montgomery Gregory was born in 1887 on the campus of Howard University, where his father, James Monroe Gregory, was a dean and Latin professor. The elder Gregory had been in Howard’s first graduating class. T. Montgomery Gregory earned his undergraduate degree not from Howard but from Harvard — Class of 1910 — but the historically black college was to play an important role in what came next. As the United States prepared to enter the Great War, the Army announced that 14 officer training camps would be established. Supporters of integration — including such figures as Joel E. Spingarn, a white New Yorker active in the NAACP, and W.E.B. Du Bois , editor of its magazine, the Crisis — believed these camps should include African Americans. The Army disagreed: No black volunteers would be allowed at the camps. Activists started mobilizing to secure what they saw as the next best thing: a camp to train black officers. A group called the Central Committee of Negro College Men was formed to push for this. “The headquarters of this group was the basement of the chapel at Howard University,” said Sheila Gregory Thomas, T. Montgomery Gregory’s daughter. Gregory chaired the group, which sprang into action. Members of the committee lobbied Congress, going from office to office on Capitol Hill to make their case to representatives. If a congressman refused to see them, they left behind a card outlining the situation and pledging the support of the African American community. Letters and articles appeared in the black press and in the white-owned press. (Gregory’s letter was in the old Washington Times.) The committee employed stirring language in its plea for a black officer corps: “Let us not mince matters; the race is on trial. It needs every one of its red-blooded, sober minded men. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, business men, and all men who have graduated from high school. Let the college student and graduate come and demonstrate by their presence the principles of virtue and courage learned in the academic halls. Up, brother, our race is calling.” The effort extended to many fronts in the African American community. “The colored churches in the District of Columbia were interested,” wrote Emmett J. Scott, an assistant to Secretary of War Newton Baker and the highest-ranking African American member of President Woodrow Wilson’s administration. “Frequent mass meetings were held by the Howard students; and when additional funds were needed a concert was given in the chapel.” Figures at the Tuskegee-Normal and Industrial Institute were active, too. Barely a week after Gregory’s letter appeared, 1,500 black American men had put their names forward. Most were college students or college graduates. On May 19, the War Department announced that the 17th Provisional Training Regiment would be established for black officer candidates at Fort Des Moines. It was a remote location, chosen, some thought, because it was far from East Coast journalists who would be watching the experiment closely. T. Montgomery Gregory was among those who attended the camp. He was commissioned as a lieutenant and served stateside in intelligence, his daughter said. What was the outcome of the campaign launched in a Howard University basement? Or, as Scott put it in a chapter at the end of his 1919 history on black participation in the Great War: “Did the Negro soldier get a square deal?” Any student of American history probably knows the answer. Two units of black troops — the 92nd and 93rd divisions — served in France. The officers graduated from Fort Des Moines faced discrimination throughout World War I: hazed, denied promotion, denied command, bivouacked in lesser quarters, prohibited from interacting with French civilians. It wasn’t until 1948 that President Harry S. Truman integrated the armed forces. Source: Washington Post, article by John Kelly (Feb. 5, 2019), "When WWI raged, a D.C. professor fought for Black officers' participation"

James Monroe Trotter was born in 1842, in Grand Gulf, Mississippi, to a slave named Letitia and her owner Richard S. Trotter. Around 1854, Richard Trotter sent Letitia and her children to the free city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where after attending several schools in the area, the young James Trotter worked as a hotel and a river-boat cabin bell-boy as well as a teacher. In 1863, after being recruited by John Mercer Langston (great-uncle of poet, Langston Hughes), Trotter moved to Massachusetts where he enlisted on June 11, 1863, and within less than two weeks was mustered into Company K of the 55th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as a 1st Sergeant. On November 19, 1863, he was promoted to Sergeant Major and, on April 10, 1864, he was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, which was quite unusual for African Americans serving in the Union army. In the above carte-de-visite, Trotter wears the uni-form and officer’s shoulder straps of a 2nd Lieutenant, which makes the rarity of this image even greater. With the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, African American men could actively as well as legally be recruited into the Union army. Nonetheless, there remained a reluctance by the army to commission any of its enlisted black soldiers and a great deal of trepidation amongst its white officers when qualified black enlisted soldiers were considered for promotion to officer. Trotter experienced this fear first hand. Even though he had been promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant on April 10, 1864, because of on-going contract disagreements between commissioned black soldiers and the U.S. government, which had largely been brought about by white back-lash over the appointment of black officers, he was not mustered to this rank until a little over a year later, on July 1, 1865, less than two months before the 55th regiment was itself mustered out on August 29, 1865. For black Union soldiers this bureaucratic delay only further attested to on-going racial discrimination that existed within the Union army, which while advancing claims to inclusion and equality, nonetheless continued to provide inequality in pay and an unfair share of noncombat labor duty to its enlisted black soldiers. James Trotter, the first man to protest African American soldiers receiving less pay than promised. The federal government reneged on its promise to pay soldiers $13 a month, and instead paid only $10. Sgt. Maj. James Trotter, of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry, stepped up and said, "We are soldiers, we will accept nothing less than the soldier's pay..."We will not degrade the name of an American soldier." After ten months without compensation, the soldiers won. Trotter said later, "in their struggle for equal pay and recognition the Massachusetts colored troops finally won for themselves, for all other colored troops, and relatively for their race and its friends, a complete, a glorious victory." After the war, Trotter returned to Ohio, married Virginia Isaacs, and moved to Boston where he obtained a good position in the U.S. Postal Service. After eighteen years of service with the USPS, James Trotter found that he was not being promoted as were white co-workers of equal seniority. In an act of protest, he resigned rather than continue in an inferior position. In 1878 Trotter published a groundbreaking survey of African American music. His distinguished war record and support of the Democratic Party led to appointment as District of Columbia Recorder of Deeds in 1887, the highest government office open to blacks. Trotter’s passionate commitment to equality inspired his famous son, William Monroe Trotter. Marsha Dubrow, Examiner; Mirror of Race Collection, By Erina Duganne; African American Families of Monticello; Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising, William J. Simmons, and Henry McNeal Turner; Civil War Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library

The look of war ---- a WWI soldier rests. Saga of Blacks in America by Rosetta Lucas Quisenberry

Portrait of an unknown Black soldier from WWI. A Saga of the Black Man; by Rosetta Lucas Quisenberry

Of all the men who wore blue uniforms in the Civil War, none felt more keenly the purpose of his mission than the African-American soldier. Every marching step, every swing of a pick and every round fired at Confederate enemies gave him a chance to strike a blow against slavery and prove himself equal to his white comrades. U.S. Colored Troops were consistently good fighters, performing well in every engagement in which they fought. Even their enemies had to grudgingly admit that fact. One USCT member, William H. Carney, transcended good to become great, and was the first black U.S. soldier to earn the Medal of Honor. On February 17, 1863, at age 23, Carney heeded the call for African Americans to join a local militia unit, the Morgan Guards, with 45 other volunteers from his hometown of New Bedford, Mass. That unit would later become Company C of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. There was something unique about the new regiment, commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw; it was an all-black unit with the exception of senior officers and a few senior non-commissioned sergeants. The 54th Massachusetts was created to prove that black men could be good soldiers. Carney was born a slave on February 29, 1840, at Norfolk, Va. His father, also named William, escaped slavery, reaching freedom through the underground railroad. William Sr. then worked hard to buy the freedom of the rest of his family. The free and reunited family settled in New Bedford in the second half of the 1850s. Young William learned to read and write, and by age 15 he was interested in becoming a minister. He gave up his pursuit of the ministry, however, to join the Army. In an 1863 edition of the Abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, Carney stated: “Previous to the formation of colored troops, I had a strong inclination to prepare myself for the ministry; but when the country called for all persons, I could best serve my God serving my country and my oppressed brothers. The sequel in short—I enlisted for the war.” That career change had momentous impact on Carney’s life, as the 54th Massachusetts had a chance to prove its mettle in the July 18, 1863, Battle of Fort Wagner outside of Charleston, S.C. During the fight, the 54th made heroic attacks on the garrison, and Carney’s bravery earned him a promotion to sergeant and the U.S. military’s most prestigious award. Fort Wagner on Morris Island guarded the entrance to the harbor of Charleston. Shaw and the 600 men of the 54th Massachusetts would spearhead the Federal assault from a slim strip of sand on the east side of the fort, which faced the Atlantic Ocean. The 54th burrowed into a sand dune about 1,000 yards from Fort Wagner. Behind it was the 6th Connecticut. Federal land and sea artillery bombarded the fort all day long. By nightfall, orders were passed down and the 54th stood up, dressed ranks and attacked in two wings of five companies each. As the men advanced they were immediately hit by a barrage of canister, musketry and shelling from the fort. A bullet struck the 54th’s color sergeant, and as the wounded man faltered, Carney threw down his gun, seized the flag and moved to the front of the 54th’s assaulting ranks. He soon found himself alone, on the fort’s wall, with bodies of dead and wounded comrades all around him. He knelt down to gather himself for action, still firmly holding the flag while bullets and shell fragments peppered the sand around him. Carney surveyed the battlefield and noticed that other Union regiments had attacked to his right, drawing away the focal point of the Rebel resistance. To his left he saw a large force of soldiers advancing down the ramparts of the fort. At first he thought they might be were Union forces. Flashes of musketry soon doomed his hopes. The oncoming troops were Confederates. He wound the colors around the flagpole, made his way to a low protective wall and moved along it to a ditch. When Carney had passed over the ditch on his way to the fort, it was dry. But now it was waist deep with water. He seemed to be alone, surrounded by the wreckage of his regiment. Carney wanted to help the wounded, but enemy fire pinned him down. Crouching in the water, he figured his best chance was to plot a course back to Federal lines and make a break for it. Carney rose to get a better look. It was a fateful move. As he later wrote: “The bullet I now carry in my body came whizzing like a mosquito, and I was shot. Not being prostrated by the shot, I continued my course, yet had not gone far before I was struck by a second shot.” Despite carrying two slugs in his body, Carney kept moving. Shortly after being hit the second time he saw another Union soldier coming in his direction. When they were within earshot, Carney hailed him, asking who he was. The Yank replied he was with the 100th New York, and asked if Carney was wounded. Carney said he had indeed been shot, and then flinched as a third shot grazed his arm. The 100th soldier came to his aid and helped him move farther to the rear. “Now then,” said the New York soldier, “let me take the colors and carry them for you.” Carney, though, would not consent to that, no matter how battered he was. He explained that he would not be willing to give the colors to anyone who was not a member of the 54th Massachusetts. The pair struggled on. They did not get far before yet another bullet hit Carney, grazing him in the head. The two men finally managed to stumble to their own lines. Carney was taken to the rear and turned over to medical personnel. Throughout his ordeal, he held on to the colors. Cheers greeted him when Carney finally staggered into the ranks of the 54th. Before collapsing, he said, “Boys, the old flag never touched the ground!” During the battle, Company C of the 54th Massachusetts was able to, for a short time, capture a small section of Fort Wagner. The 54th suffered 272 killed, wounded or missing out of the 600 in the battle. Colonel Shaw was among the dead. Total Union casualties were 1,515 out of about 5,000 in the assault force, while the Confederates had 174 casualties out of about 1,800 defenders. Although the Union forces were repulsed and had to lay siege to Fort Wagner, which the Confederates abandoned two months later, the 54th was widely hailed for its bravery. Like a pebble dropped into a puddle, the regiment’s heroism had a ripple effect, spurring thousands of other black men to join the Union Army. Even Abraham Lincoln noted that the 54th’s bravery at Wagner was a key development that helped secure final victory for the North. William Carney recovered from the four wounds he received at Fort Wagner, and word soon spread of his unselfish actions. When Carney’s commanders heard about his conduct, he was promoted to sergeant. Later in the war, the 54th fought a rear-guard action covering a retreat at the Battle of Olustee, but Sergeant Carney could not participate in that engagement due to the lingering effects of his wounds. Because of his injuries he was discharged from the Army a little more than a year after the battle, on June 30, 1864. Carney subsequently married Susannah Williams, also of New Bedford, on October 11, 1865. They had one child who later became an accomplished music teacher of the New Bedford area. In 1866 William Carney was appointed superintendent of streetlights for the city of New Bedford. He then went to California to seek his fortune but returned to New Bedford in 1869 and took a job as a letter carrier for the Postal Service. He worked at that job for 32 years before retiring. After retirement he was employed as a messenger at the Massachusetts State House, where in 1908 he would be fatally injured in an accident that trapped his leg in an elevator. William H. Carney’s valor at Fort Wagner was honored on May 23, 1900, when he was awarded the Medal of Honor. That was almost 40 years after he so proudly served with the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. He was the first black soldier to receive the award. When asked about his heroic actions, he simply said, “I only did my duty.” Source: historynet.com, article by Thomas M. Hammond

The above is a photograph of Woodard and his mother. On February 13, 1946, U.S. Army Sergeant Isaac Woodard Jr. (1919-1992), was on a Greyhound Lines bus traveling from Camp Gordon in Augusta, Georgia, headed home to his family in North Carolina. En route to Winnsboro, South Carolina, Woodward asked the bus driver to make a rest stop, which the driver grudgingly did so after an argument with Woodard. The bus stopped in Batesburg (now Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina). Once the stop was completed, Woodard got into a second altercation with the driver after the driver chastized him for taking too long. Though Woodard did not protest, the driver contacted the local police (including Chief of Police Linwood Shull), who forcibly removed Woodard from the bus. After demanding to see his discharge papers, a group of officers, including Shull, took him to a nearby alleyway, where they proceeded to beat him repeatedly with nightsticks. Woodard was then taken to the town jail and arrested for disorderly conduct, accused of drinking beer in the back of the bus with other soldiers. In an analysis of the case, attorney and author Michael R. Gardner wrote, "In none of the papers is there any suggestion there was verbal or physical violence on the part of Sergeant Woodard. It’s quite unclear what really happened. What did happen with certainty is the next morning when the sun came up, Sergeant Isaac Woodard was blind for life." What was revealed is that during the course of the night in jail, Shull blinded Woodard, smashing in one of his eyes with a nightstick and gouging the other out. Woodard also suffered partial amnesia as a result of the injuries. The following morning, the police sent him before the local judge, who promptly found him guilty and fined him fifty dollars. Upon requesting medical assistance, it took two days for a doctor to be sent to him. Not knowing where he was and still suffering from amnesia, Woodard ended up in a hospital in Aiken, South Carolina, receiving substandard medical care. Three weeks after he was reported missing by his relatives, he was discovered in the hospital. Woodard was immediately rushed to an Army hospital in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Though his memory had begun to recover by that time, doctors found both his corneas damaged beyond repair. Though the case wasn't reported much in the early days following the attack, it was soon covered in major newspapers around the nation. The NAACP publicized Woodard's plight, campaigning heavily for the state government of South Carolina to address the issue, which it frequently dismissed. However, the news soon also emerged in popular culture. Via his radio show, broadcaster and movie celebrity Orson Welles soon began to crusade for the punishment of Shull and his accomplices. Welles, a follower of the civil rights movement, found the reaction of the South Carolina government to be intolerable and shameful. Later that year, folk artist Woody Guthrie would record a song for his album The Great Dust Storm entitled "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard", saying he wrote the song "...so's you wouldn't be forgetting what happened to this famous Negro soldier less than three hours after he got his Honorable Discharge down in Atlanta...." Guthrie later said of the song, "I sung this Isaac Woodard song in the Lewisohn Stadium one night for more than 36,000 people, and I got the loudest applause I've ever got in my whole life. This song is a long song, but most of the action is told in Isaac's own words. I made this ballad up because we'll need lots of songs like this one before we win our fight for racial equality in our big free United States." On September 19th, of that year, NAACP Executive Secretary Walter White, a friend of President Harry S. Truman, met him in the Oval Office to discuss the Woodward case. Gardner writes that when Truman "heard this story in the context of the state authorities of South Carolina doing nothing for seven months, he exploded." The following day, Truman wrote a letter to Attorney General Tom C. Clark demanding that action be taken to resolve this. Six days later, on September 26, Truman directed the United States Department of Justice to open an investigation on the case. A short investigation ensued, and on October 2nd, Shull and several of his officers were indicted in the U.S. District Court in Columbia, South Carolina. The case was brought into the Federal level on the grounds that the beating had occurred at a bus stop on Federal property, and that at the time of the assault, Woodward was in uniform. The case was presided over by Judge Julius Waties Waring. By all accounts, the trial was a travesty. The local U.S. Attorney charged with handling the case failed to interview anyone except the bus driver, a decision that Waring, a civil rights proponent, believed was a gross dereliction of duty. Waring would later write of his disgust of the way the case was handled at the local level, commenting, "I was shocked by the hypocrisy of my government...in submitting that disgraceful case...." On the Defense side, the behavior was no better. When the defense attorney began to shout racial epithets at Woodard, Waring had it stopped immediately. During the trial, the defense attorney also stated to the jury that "if you rule against Shull, then let this South Carolina secede again." Furthermore, after Woodard had given his account of what happened, Shull firmly denied this, claiming that Woodard had threatened him with a gun, and that Shull had used his nightclub to defend himself. During this testimony, Shull admitted that he repeatedly struck Woodard in the eyes. On November 5th, after thirty minutes of deliberation, Shull was found innocent on all charges despite his admission that he had blinded Woodard. The courtroom broke into applause immediately thereafter. In July 1948, over the objection of senior military officers, Truman promulgated Executive Order 9981, banning racial discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces. This was done as a response to a number of incidents against black veterans, most notably the Woodard case. The failure to convict Shull was seen as a failure on the part of the Truman Administration. Sources: Michael R Gardner, 'Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks' , The Stan Iverson Memorial Library, Infoshop & Anarchist Archives; NAACP Papers

Tintype of an unknown African American man identified as a Buffalo Soldier. Locale unknown. [Photo: RailSplitter] Buffalo Soldiers - African Americans have served proudly in every great American war. Over two hundred thousand African American servicemen fought bravely during the Civil War. In 1866 through an act of congress, legislation was adopted to create six all African American army units. The units were identified as the 9th and 10th cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st infantry regiments. The four infantry units were reorganized in 1868 as the 24th and the 25th infantry. Black soldiers enlisted for five years and received $13.00 a month, far more than they could have earned in civilian life. The 10th cavalry was formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and recruited soldiers from the northern states. Colonel Benjamin Grierson was selected to command the 10th cavalry. Colonel Edward Hatch was selected to command the 9th cavalry and he recruited soldiers from the south and set up his headquarters in Greenville, Louisiana. The troops were led by white officers. Many officers, including George Armstrong Custer, refused to command black regiments and accepted a lower rank rather than do so. The black regiments could only serve west of the Mississippi River because of the prevailing attitudes following the Civil War. The Buffalo Soldier’s main charge was to protect settlers as they moved west and to support the westward expansion by building the infrastructure needed for new settlements to flourish. [Info: Buffalo Soldiers of the American West]

Sergeant Major Zechariah Alexander served in the 3rd North Carolina Infantry in the Spanish-American War, c. 1898. Photograph courtesy of Mrs. Kelly M. Alexander, Sr., Posed in his Spanish American War uniform ---- he was the patriarch of the Alexander family, whose generations would continue to positively make their mark on Charlotte and beyond. Charlotte, North Carolina, By Vermelle Diamond Ely, Grace Hoey Drain, Amy T. Rogers

Was a member of the Independent Battery, U.S. Colored Light Artillery, who served at Fort Leavenworth and helped protect eastern Kansas during Price's invasion in 1864. In addition, Matthews helped recruit many members of the First Colored Kansas Volunteer Infantry. Prior to the Civil War, Matthews ran a boarding house in Leavenworth, Kansas, that was used as part of the underground railroad. Assisted by Daniel R. Anthony, the brother of Susan B. Anthony, Matthews helped many Missouri slaves escape to Kansas and other "free" states. William Matthews was so enthusiastic about the new First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry in 1862 that he was one of the first to volunteer. Matthews’ enthusiasm spread and he convinced a number of exslaves to enlist in the regiment. The Leavenworth businessman soon was appointed captain, the highest ranking African American officer in the regiment. At the beginning of the Civil War, African Americans were not allowed to serve in the U.S. military. By the summer of 1862 it was clear that additional troops were needed. To meet the need, Congress passed two bills that allowed the participation of black soldiers in the Union Army. The measure lacked popular support and the U.S. Army did not begin recruiting black soldiers until 1863. Ignoring the federal army regulations, U. S. Senator James H. Lane of Kansas quickly organized the First Kansas Colored. Recruiting began in mid-August with headquarters in Mound City. By October 1st, Kansas had six companies, around 600 men. “An effort is being made in Leavenworth to raise a regiment of negroes. There are contrabands enough in Fort Scott to fill up two companies.” Fort Scott Bulletin. “The blacks behaved nobly and have demonstrated that they can and will fight.” Lawrence Republican. When President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, the Union Army began enlisting black soldiers. The First Kansas Colored was the first black regiment from a northern state. “I never saw such fighting as was done by the negro regiment . . .they make better soldiers in every respect than any troops I have ever had under my command.” --Major General James Blunt The federal army refused to allow black officers. Matthews and his commanding officers were unable to gain an exemption for his service. The First Kansas Colored was assigned to escort Union supply trains south to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). When a large force of Texans attacked their supply train at Cabin Creek, the unit successfully protected the train. This marked the first time that black and white troops fought together. Fifteen days later the First Kansas Colored held the Union line against Confederate advances at Honey Springs, Indian Territory. The battle also was significant because for the first time American Indian, African American, and white troops fought together. The First Kansas Colored captured the flags of the Texas regiment after only 20 minutes. The regiment’s greatest test came at the battle of Poison Spring in April 1864. When the Confederates ambushed the Union supply train, the African American troops took the brunt of the attack and suffered great losses. Many of the black soldiers who were captured or wounded during the battle were executed. The sacrifice of the First Kansas Colored served as inspiration for other black troops, who used the battle cry, “Remember Poison Spring!” The cost was high for the First Kansas Colored soldiers. Around 25 percent of the regiment was killed in action or died. They faced bigotry from some of the white soldiers and officers. They received less pay than their counterparts. Yet the black soldiers succeeded in proving their ability. Matthews went on to serve as a first lieutenant in Douglas’ Independent Colored Kansas Battery. The First Kansas Colored served out the remaining years of the war in Arkansas. Its three regimental flags are preserved at the Kansas Museum of History. Source: Kansas Historical Society

A photograph of Union Navy veteran William B. Gould with his six sons. This photograph of the Gould veterans originally appeared in the NAACP’s magazine, Crisis, in December 1917. All of the sons were veterans of World War I except William B. Gould, Jr., a Spanish-American War veteran. William B. Gould, already in his 80s, is seated wearing his Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) uniform. GAR was an organization for Union veterans. Standing behind elder Gould are, from left to right: Lawrence Wheeler Gould, James Edward Gould, William Benjamin Gould, Jr., Ernest Moore Gould, Herbert Richardson Gould, and Frederick Crawford Gould. William B. Gould was born a slave, but that would not define him or confine him. By the end of his life, he would leave a legacy of service for which any American would be proud. And it seems his sons learned from his example. Gould grew up in the North Carolina port city of Wilmington. On September 21, 1862, Gould and seven other men liberated themselves from captivity by navigating a boat down the Cape Fear River. Gould and the others were picked up by the USS Cambridge, and he became a member of the ship’s crew. Gould was literate, and kept a diary of his days as a Union sailor. One of his descendants, William B. Gould, IV, used that diary to form the basis of "Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor." The heart of the book is the remarkable Civil War diary of the author’s great-grandfather, William Benjamin Gould, an escaped slave who served in the United States Navy from 1862 until the end of the war. The diary vividly records Gould’s activity as part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron off the coast of North Carolina and Virginia; his visits to New York and Boston; the pursuit to Nova Scotia of a hijacked Confederate cruiser; and service in European waters pursuing Confederate ships constructed in Great Britain and France. Gould’s diary is one of only three known diaries of African American sailors in the Civil War. It is distinguished not only by its details and eloquent tone, but also by its reflections on war, on race, on race relations in the Navy, and on what African Americans might expect after the war. The book includes introductory chapters that establish the context of the diary narrative, an annotated version of the diary, and a brief account of Gould’s life in Massachusetts after the war. The elder Gould was clearly an inspiration to his sons. They enlisted in the US Army, and became part of the next generation of African American soldiers who served in the Spanish-American War and World War I. Source: jubiloemancipationcentury.wordpress