Black History Month

John Mercer Langston (1829-1897), son of a white Virginia planter and a slave mother, was freed as a young child and educated, graduating from Oberlin College in 1849.
Josiah Thomas Walls (1842-1905), was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives three times, but served only one term (1873-74) because of a contested election in 1871.
Ex-slave Bob Lemmons was born about 1850, in south Texas. He worked. He spent most of his life in Carrizo Springs in 45 miles from the Mexican border, and knew Billy the Kid.
Charles Knight (left) who won the prize offered by the London Mail for expert rivet driving. He drove 4,875 rivets in nine hours in a Government shipyard. WWI. Ca. 1918.
Elderly African American woman writing in a rocking chair, Putnam, Georgia, May 1941.
Elderly former slave in her sitting in her news papered home in May 1941. The beds are covered with handmade quilts. Greensboro, Alabama, May 1941.
African American store fronts, original title: 'Shop fronts, laundry and barber shop, Negro shop', Vicksburg, Mississippi, photograph by Walker Evans, February, 1936.
A young African American woman working in the midst of clotheslines heavy with sheets and stockings, photograph by Gertrude Kasebier, 1902.
Bessie Smith, American blues singer, portrait by Carl Van Vechten, February 3, 1936.
Mrs. Harding's dogs O'Boy & Laddie Boy attended by a member of the White House staff. Throughout the 20th century, the African Americans of Washington, DC have served as White House staff.
Asbury Park, African Americans swimming at Asbury Park beach, New Jersey, July 19, 1908.
African American newsie,'Roland, eleven year old newsboy', Newark, New Jersey, photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine, August 1, 1924.
African American laborer at Wheeler Dam, Alabama, 1930s.
African American farmer negotiating at a tobacco Auction, Durham, North Carolina, Nov. 1939. Photo by Marion Wolcott.
Finished brick homes in the Newport News Housing project for African Americans, Oct. 1937. The homes would be sold on long term payment plan. Photo by John Vachon.
Depression era slums in Washington D.C. African American men in the backyards of three story row houses. Nov. 1935.
African American farm family outside their log cabin home in North Carolina. Rural poverty persisted for several decades following abrupt emancipation of slaves in a post-Civil War South. Ca. 1903.
African American Union army cook at work at City Point, Virginia during the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, fought from June 1864, to March 1865.
African American sharecropper house with child on steps, North Carolina, photograph by Dorothea Lange, July, 1939.
African Americans preparing cotton for the gin on Smith's plantation, Port Royal Island, S.C. Photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan ca. 1862
Students constructing telephones at Hampton Institute. African American higher education stressed practical skills and services, to counter employment discrimination for blacks. Ca. 1899.
African American academic students at Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee, ca. 1899. Ca. 1899.
Thirteen-year old African American sharecropper boy plowing in July 1937. Photo by Dorothea Lange.
Cotton sharecroppers weeding their small cotton crop in Greene County Georgia. July 1937 photo by Dorothea Lange.
World War I, soldier of the African-American 3rd Battalion, 366th infantry with his gas mask, U.S. Signal Corps photograph
African American Midwife carrying her medical bag on a dirt road in Georgia. Nov. 1941 photo by Jack Delano
Exterior of the slave pen of Price, Birch & Co., dealers in slaves, of Alexandria, Virginia with an African American women standing in foreground. Slave pens to hold slaves awaiting sale. Ca. 1863.
African Americans group including men, women, children and elders, hand cleaning or sorting cotton at the Atlantic Cotton Compress Company in Pensacola, Florida. Ca. 1905.
African American lily vendors on Easter Sunday, Chicago, Illinois. April 1941
Arthur Simmons, African American White House staff member, in office lobby at beginning of McKinley administration. 1900. African Americans served on White House staff in the 19th and 20th centuries.
School in session - half of the students are not in school but out picking tobacco. Colored School at Anthoston, Kentucky. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, September 13, 1916.
The White House kitchen during the presidency of Benjamin Harrison. Ca. 1892.
Benjamin Sterling Turner (1825 - 1894), born a slave, but was educated. After the Civil War he engaged in local politics in Selma, Alabama, and elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1870.
African American men loading bananas, titled: 'Loading bananas', Mobile, Alabama, photograph by Arthur Rothstein, 1937.
Well dressed young African American men and women, possibly college students, in Georgia ca. 1900.
African American middle class neighborhood in Georgia, ca. 1899. Women and children are seated on their the porches and steps of their stylish homes.
Charles Edmund Nash (1844-1913), African American Representative to the 44th Congress (1875-1877) from Louisiana.
John Mercer Langston (1829-1897), was the first known African American elected to public office in 1855, in Ohio.
African American barber shop, original title: 'Negro barber shop', Atlanta, Georgia, photograph by Walker Evans, March, 1936.
Nicodemus, Kansas. A colony of free African Americans. Homesteaders ca. 1880-1890s
African American construction worker at the Douglas Dam on the French Broad River, one of the Tennessee Valley Authority public works projects of the New Deal. June 1942.
Formally dressed African American men pose with derbies and top hats, and banner labeled Waiters Union in Georgia, ca. 1899. Service occupations such as waiters, porters, and doormen.
African American school children posed with their teacher outside a segregated one-room school, in South Carolina. Ca. 1905
African Americans with white soldiers and sailors on WW1 troop ship. July 18, 1919. Black soldiers with musical instruments have an integrated audience.
Fifteen African American laborers with wheel barrels hauling dirt to build a levee in Louisiana in 1935 as four whites supervise and watch the workers. 1935 photo by Ben Shahn.
Booker T. Washington addressing a laughing crowd of African American men in Lakeland, Tennessee, during his campaign promoting African American education. Ca. 1900.
African American students in geography class at Thaddeus Stevens School. The school was a fresh air school, with large windows allowing good ventilation. CA. 1910.
African American farmer planting cotton in a plowed field in Butler County, Alabama. April 1941. 13_99)
Young African American women sewing with machines and by hand in the sewing class at the Agricultural and Mechanical College, Greensboro, N.C.
Elderly African Americans who were once slaves work together in a rural setting in 1920.
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) African American and lifelong activist for abolition of slavery and civil rights for freed slaves and women. Carte de visite, ca.1864
Listening to Booker T. Washington. An African American audience, some standing on railroad box cars, in New Orleans, Louisiana. 1912.
African American cotton hoers worked from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. for one dollar. Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1937. Photo by Dorothea Lange.
Margaret James Murray Washington (ca. 1861), third wife of Booker T. Washington from 1891 until his death in 1915. She was a teacher at Tuskegee Institute and supporting women's education. Ca. 1910.
Booker T. Washington addressing crowd from porch of a small building, in Brownsville, Texas, ca. 1900.
U.S. Army, African American soldiers, ca. 1917
African American men, women, and children, employed as cotton pickers in Georgia, 1898.
Bonus Marchers confront Washington, D.C. police, July 28, 1932. Veterans pushing the line forward in their battle, one with blood streaming down his face.
African American soldiers aim their rifles at a picket station near Dutch Gap Canal, Virginia. Nov. 1864.
George Washington Carver (1864-1943), African American botanist, teacher and former slave, Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama, photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1906.
Street in Pittsburgh's 'Hill' district. The African American section was one of the poorer sections of the city but had an active arts and civil culture. July 1938 photo by Gordon Parks.
African-American vendors selling farm produce at the Sixth Street market, Richmond, Virginia.
African American work crew in northern, Virginia, using levers for loosening rails, as part of the Union Military Railway Service. Ca. 1862 photo by Andrew J. Russell
The Civil War, African American 'contrabands' (escaped slaves), at Foller's house, Cumberland Landing, Virginia, by James F. Gibson, 1862.
A newly freed African American group of men and a few children posing by a canal against the ruins of Richmond, Virginia. Photo made after Richmond was taken by Union troops on April 3, 1865.
African American first graders learn to brush their teeth at the Miner Normal School near Washington, D.C. ca. 1910.
African American slave family representing five generations all born on the plantation of J. J. Smith, Beaufort, South Carolina.
African American ex-slaves sitting,'Attendants at Old Slave Day', Southern Pines, North Carolina, April 8, 1937.
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), standing on a stage in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, 1912.
African American family in a fine horse-drawn carriage in Atlanta, Georgia owned by undertaker David Tobias Howard, riding with his mother, and wife. Ca. 1899
African American seasonal cotton workers waiting in hopes of being hired for a day of 'chopping cotton,' field work hoeing out weeds. June 1938 photo by Dorothea Lange.
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), African American educator and leader. Ca. 1900.
African American World War 1 soldier. 1917-18. Portrait may depict a man named Eugene Jones, standing in front of a U.S. American flag. Ca. 1917-1918.
African American work team on a northern Virginia railroad in 1862 or 1863. Photo by Andrew J. Russell.
Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, were part of the defending forces of Washington, D.C. Photo shows two rows of African Americans holding rifles at Fort Lincoln in 1864.
African American women, former slaves, photographed in 1920's in vicinity of Washington, D.C.
Group portrait of the 'Ministers Class' at Roger Williams University of Nashville, Tennessee. The college was founded in 1864 to educate former slaves. 1899.
Middle class African American family seated on lawn in Georgia, ca. 1899.
African Americans, members of 369th Colored Infantry, wave from a troop ship as they arrive back in New York City. The regiment was nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters and the Black Rattlers. Ca. 1919.
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), former slave and abolitionist broke whites' stereotypes about African Americans in the decades prior to the U.S. Civil War. 1855 portrait.
1963 March on Washington. A view of over 200,000 marchers along the Capitol mall. Aug. 28, 1963
African American WW1 heroes with French medals, Croix de Guerre. 1919. They were awarded for gallantry in Action.
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), writing at his desk. His autobiography, UP FROM SLAVERY, 1901, was a best seller.