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Black Historians & Black HistoryThe Early Years
The ongoing discussion of the necessity to study Black History has persisted for more than 100 years. The early initiatives were defensive in nature and sought to prove the worthiness of Black people to be a part of the body politic of this nation and in fact, members of the human race. Dr. Thomas Dew of William and Mary attempted to justify the institution of slavery by saying that Africans "[differ] from us [whites] in color and habits and [are] vastly inferior in the scale of civilization." George McDuffie, the Governor of South Carolina, added that African slavery was "destined by providence, evidenced by the color of their skin and intellectual inferiority and natural improvidence of this race." And Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, suggested that he would assign the superior status to whites, and supported Black colonization because he doubted the ability of free Black people to live successfully among whites. Enter historians of the African/ African-American experiences to debunk the myths and escalate the struggle for freedom, justice and equality. If you are a Historian, or know of one that should be listed but is not, please e-mail us at mrsescollectables1@yahoo.com |
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| Eric Williams | John Hope Franklin | (MORE HISTORIANS) | Dr. Al-Tony Gilmore | Lonnie G. Bunch III |
W.E.B. DuBois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. At that time Great Barrington had perhaps 25, but not more than 50, Black people out of a population of about 5,000. Consequently, there were little signs of overt racism there. Nevertheless, its venom was distributed through a constant barrage of suggestive innuendoes and vindictive attitudes of its residents. This mutated the personality of young William from good natured and outgoing to sullen and withdrawn. This was later reinforced and strengthened by inner withdrawals in the face of real discriminations. His demeanor of introspection haunted him throughout his life.
Known as the "Father of Black History,"Carter G. Woodson holds an outstanding position in early 20th century American history. Woodson authored numerous scholarly books on the positive contributions of Blacks to the development of America. He also published many magazine articles analyzing the contributions and role of Black Americans. He reached out to schools and the general public through the establishment of several key organizations and founded Negro History Week (precursor to Black History Month).
George Washington Williams (October 16, 1849-August 2, 1891) was an American Civil War veteran, minister, politician and historian. Williams was born in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania to Thomas and Ellen Rouse Williams. He was the eldest of four children; his brothers were John, Thomas and Harry. He first coined the term crimes against humanity after he witnessed the brutality of King Leopold's Congo (1885-1908), in which 10 million people were to lose their lives.
Robert Benjamin Lewis (1798-1858) from Gardiner wrote the first Afro-centric book in America, Light and Truth (sub-title: "collected from the Bible and ancient and modern history, containing the universal history of the colored and the Indian race, from the creation of the world to the present time"), published in 1833 and several subsequent editions.
The man who made himself Dr. James William Charles Pennington was born Jim Pembroke, a slave in Maryland. Clearly an exceptionally intelligent young boy, he was apprenticed by his master to a stonemason and then to a blacksmith. When he was about twenty, altercations between his parents and their master, punctuated by savage whippings, made him determined to escape north to freedom.
William Wells Brown was born into slavery near Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Elizabeth, was owned by Dr. Young and had seven children by different fathers (In addition to Brown, her children were Solomon, Leander, Benjamin, Joseph, Millford, and Elizabeth). Brown's father was George Higgins, a white plantation owner and relative of the owner of the plantation where Brown was born.
The date of William Still's birth is given as October 7, 1821, by most sources, but he gave the date of November 1819 in the 1900 Census. He was born in Burlington County, New Jersey, to Charity and Levin Still. Both his parents had come to New Jersey from the eastern shore of Maryland as ex-slaves. He was the youngest of eighteen siblings, who included James Still, known as "the Doctor of the Pines," Peter Still, Mary Still, and Kitturah Still, who moved to Philadelphia.
Brawley, Benjamin (1882–1939), educator, historian, and critic. As was customary for many black intellectuals during his day, Benjamin Brawley received two college degrees—one from a black institution and one from a predominantly white school. As a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, he was very much influenced by the city's black elite and notion of a" talented tenth". As a graduate of the University of Chicago, he placed a great deal of emphasis upon the life of the mind. After receiving an MA degree from Harvard University, Brawley spent the remainder of his life as a college teacher, historian, and literary critic. Positions at Shaw University and More-house College ultimately led to his appointment at Howard University, where he served as the head of the English department.
The work of Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, a distinguished black bibliophile, is a tribute to the world of scholarship and is preserved in one of the world's largest repositories of materials for the study of peoples of African descent--the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. A self-taught historian with a remarkable memory, he worked to inspire racial pride both through his organizations and through the encouragement of study and research on black themes.
John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927), journalist and educator, was born into slavery in Portsmouth, Virginia on September 5, 1846. After receiving freedom, Cromwell and his family moved to Philadelphia. In 1865, Cromwell returned to Portsmouth to open a private school, which failed due to racial harassment. Cromwell entered Howard University in Washington, D. C. in 1871. He received a law degree and was admitted to the bar in 1874. Cromwell was the first African American to practice law for the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Kelly Miller was the sixth of ten children born to Kelly Miller, a free Negro who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and Elizabeth (Roberts) Miller, a slave. Kelly Miller began his education in a local school established during the Reconstruction period following the end of the Civil War. Miller's greatest influence while at Howard University where his professors of Latin (James Monroe Gregory) and History (Howard president William Weston Patton, who also taught philosophy and conducted weekly vesper services required of all students). He received a Bachelor of Science from Howard University in 1886, a Master of Arts in 1901 and a law degree (LL.D.) in 1903. Miller continued to work at the Pension Office after graduation in 1886
J.A. Rogers published his first book, the 87 page "From Superman to Man" in 1917. At the time he wrote the book, he was working as a Pullman porter out of Chicago. Rogers had gone to Chicago to Study art. Rogers was one of the first and few African historians to use art extensively in helping to validate the achievements of African people.
John Henrik Clarke was born January 1, 1915 in Union Springs, Alabama and died July 16, 1998 in New York City. His mother, Willie Ella Mays Clark, was a washerwoman who did laundry for $3 a week. His father was a sharecropper. As a youngster Clark caddied for Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley "long before they became Generals or President," Clarke recalls in describing his upbringing in rural Alabama.
Over the years, Clarke became both a major historian and a man of letters. Although he is probably better known as a historian, his literary accomplishments were also significant. He wrote over two hundred short stories. "The Boy Who Painted Christ Black" is his best known short story. Clarke edited numerous literary and historical anthologies including American Negro Short Stories (1966), an anthology which included nineteenth century writing from writers such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Charles Waddell Chestnut, and continued up through the early sixties with writers such as LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and William Melvin Kelley. This is one of the classic collections of Black fiction.
Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan (born December 24, 1918, Gondar, Ethiopia) is an American historian.Ben-Jochannan claims to have been born to a Puerto Rican mother and an Ethiopian Jewish father. He was educated in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Spain, earning degrees in engineering and anthropology[citation needed]. In 1945 he was appointed chairman of the African Studies Committee of the newly-founded UNESCO[citation needed], a position which he stepped down from in 1970. From 1976-87, he was an adjunct professor at Cornell University.
John George Jackson (September 22, 1777 - March 28, 1825) was a U.S. Representative and federal judge from Virginia, the son of George Jackson, brother of Edward B. Jackson, and grandfather of William Thomas Bland, Jacob Beeson Jackson, James Monroe Jackson, and John Jay Jackson, Jr.
Born in Buckhannon, Virginia (now West Virginia), Jackson moved with his parents to Clarksburg in 1784. He received an English training and became a civil engineer.
Race woman, teacher, journalist and historian, Drusilla Dunjee Houston, who has earned a high-ranking place in the struggle to redeem Africa's role in world history, was born in Winchester, Virginia in 1876. She was the daughter of John William and Lydia Taylor Dunjee, and spent most of her life in the American Southwest, principally Oklahoma and Arizona. Drusilla's father, John William Dunjee, was an educator, church building missionary and fund raiser for the American Baptist Home Mission Society. He is principally credited with instilling in young Drusilla a strong sense of ethnic identity and "race pride." Visits to the Houston home by her father's close colleagues included such luminaries as Frederick Douglass and Blanch K. Bruce. As a young woman she lived with her family in Minneapolis, Minnesota before settling down in Oklahoma.
Charles Harris Wesley (December 2, 1891 - August 16, 1987) was a noted African American historian, educator, writer and author.Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he graduated from Fisk University in 1911 and received a Master's degree from Yale University in 1913. In 1925, Wesley became the third African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University.Wesley was Dean of Liberal Arts and the Graduate School at Howard University until 1942, President of Wilberforce University from 1942 to 1947, and President of Central State College from 1947-1965.
Monroe Nathan Work (1866-1945), was a sociologist who worked primarily within the anti-lynching campaigns and the Negro Health Week movement. His chief works include a bibliography on African Americans, and the Negro Year Book.Work was born to ex-slaves and as a person whom was able to hear about the many injustices his people suffered he strove towards finding ways to make himself useful in the continued struggle for equality. At the age of 23 Work decided to pursue a higher education and entered a biracial high school in Arkansas City.
Merl R. Eppse, a member of the teaching staff at the institution which included pioneering the opening of several history-related departments since 1928. It has been estimated that during his thirty-three years, Eppse taught about 25,000 students. He was a recognized authority on the history of the American Negro. He served as head of the Department of History and Geography from 1928 to his retirement in 1960.Merl R. Eppse, a member of the teaching staff at the institution which included pioneering the opening of several history-related departments since 1928. It has been estimated that during his thirty-three years, Eppse taught about 25,000 students. He was a recognized authority on the history of the American Negro. He served as head of the Department of History and Geography from 1928 to his retirement in 1960.
C.L.R. James' The Black Jacobins, first published in 1938, was a forbidden book in South Africa until the recent dismantling of apartheid. It's not hard to see why. James researched his account of Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Haitian slave uprising with meticulous care. It remains a masterpiece of historical scholarship, but the book was designed to be a weapon for revolutionary combat.
George Padmore (1902–September 23, 1959), born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was a Trinidadian who became a leading Pan-Africanist.
He was born in Arouca, Trinidad. He worked as a journalist in the West Indies; then, in 1924, travelled to Fisk University in Tennessee where he studied medicine. He later registered at New York University but soon transferred to Howard University. It was during this time that he became active in the Workers (Communist) Party and changed his name to George Padmore.
Dr. George Granville Monah James was born in Georgetown, Guyana, South America. He was the son of Reverend Linch B. and Margaret E. James. George G. M. James earned Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Theology and Master of Arts degrees from Durham University in England and was a candidate there for the D. Litt degree.
Rayford Wittingham Logan (January 7, 1897 - November 4, 1982) was an African American historian and Pan-African activist. He was best known for his study of post-Reconstruction America, a period he termed "the nadir of American race relations". In the late 1940s he was the chief advisor to the NAACP on international affairs
In 1925, Dr. William Sherman Savage became the University of Oregon's first African American graduate when he completed his M.A. degree, and according to Dr. Sherman he was preceded by another African American student named Mabel Byrd who worked as a domestic in the home of Dr. Joseph Shaffer. Robinson and Williams were not the first African Americans at the University of Oregon, but they were the first widely known full-time African American students in the school's history.
Dr. Lorenzo Greene (1899-1988) taught history at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri from 1933 - 1972. His book, Missouri’s Black Heritage, co-authored by Antonio Holland and Gary Kremer, was a pioneering work on the African_American experience in Missouri. He co-authored several works and his historical diaries and notes have been used in other historical texts, such as Selling Black History for Carter G. Woodson. He worked with Carter Woodson, who was known as the "Father of Black History".
Dr. Luther P. Jackson was born in 1892 in Lexington, Kentucky. He became one of the foremost African-American historians in the United States. Dedicating his life to unearthing the untold history of African Americans, particularly Black Virginians, Dr. Jackson published numerous pamphlets and books, and wrote more than 270 articles on the Black experience, including Free Negro Labor and Property Holding in Virginia, 1830-1860 and Virginia Negro Soldiers and Seamen in the American Revolution. From 1922 until his death in 1950, Dr. Jackson also served as chairman of the History Department at the Virginia State University.
Benjamin Quarles was one of the country's foremost authorities on African-American history and a former history professor and department head at Morgan State University. He was born in Boston but taught at Morgan for nearly 40 years. He was the author of a dozen books, including "Frederick Douglass," "The Negro in the Civil War," "The Negro in the American Revolution," "The Negro in the Making of America," "Allies for Freedom" and "Blacks on John Brown."
Dr. Lawrence Dunbar Reddick, a historian and biographer of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., recently died in New Orleans. He was 85. Dr. Reddick was an informal adviser to several Black political and liberation leaders having worked closely with Dr. King.
Black Historian, William Brewer
Eric Williams Born on September 25, 1911, was the son of Elisa and Henry Williams, a minor Post Office official in Trinidad. He was educated at Queen's Royal College and won the Island Scholarship to Oxford University. At Oxford, he placed first in the First Class of the History Honours School and received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1938.Williams formed the People's National Movement (PNM), a political party of which he became the leader. In September of 1956, the PNM won the national elections and he became the chief minister of the country from 1956 to 1959, premier from 1959 to 1962, and prime minister from 1962 to 1981. During his term as prime minister, Williams led Trinidad and Tobago into the Federation of the West Indies and to independence within the Commonwealth in 1962. Williams died in office on March 29, 1981. Often called the "Father of the Nation," Williams remains one of the most significant leaders in the history of modern Trinidad and Tobago.
John Hope Franklin is the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History, and for seven years was Professor of Legal History in the Law School at Duke University. He is a native of Oklahoma and a graduate of Fisk University. He received the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in history from Harvard University. He has taught at a number of institutions, including Fisk University, St. Augustine's College, North Carolina Central University, and Howard University. In 1956 he went to Brooklyn College as Chairman of the Department of History; and in 1964, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, serving as Chairman of the Department of History from 1967 to 1970. At Chicago, he was the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor from 1969 to 1982, when he became Professor Emeritus.
Dr. Al-Tony Gilmore was a history professor at Howard University , where he remained before becoming a history professor and Director of the African American Studies Program at the University of Maryland at College Park. A widely popular professor, whose graduate and undergraduate courses were always fully subscribed, he pioneered lectures and courses in the History and Politics of Black Athletes in America, Popular Culture, and in African American Autobiographies.
Historian and educator Lonnie G. Bunch was born November 18, 1952 , in Newark, New Jersey . After graduating from Belleville High School in1970 , Bunch enrolled in Howard University and later transferred to the American University in Washington, D.C. Bunch stayed at American, earning a B.A. degree in 1974 , an M.A. degree in 1976 and a Ph.D. in 1979 . His degrees are in American and African American history.
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