In the late nineteenth century, many blacks migrated to St. Louis from the Deep South for its industrial jobs. Delaney met with new arrivals to try to track down her father. Learning that he was living on a plantation 15 miles south of Vicksburg, Mississippi, she wrote and asked him to visit her. Her sister Nancy from Canada joined their reunion in St. Louis. Their father was glad to see them, but, as his wife Polly had died by then, he returned to Mississippi and his friends of 45 years.


She died in her Missouri home August 31, 1910. Funeral services were held for her in St. Louis, sponsored by the Heroines of Jericho.


By 1842, Lucy Ann was working for Martha Berry Mitchell, another of the married Berry daughters. They came into conflict in part because of the slave girl's inexperience at heavy domestic tasks, including laundry. Martha decided to sell her, and her husband David D. Mitchell arranged the sale. The day before she was to leave, Lucy Ann escaped and hid at the house of a friend of her mother's.


Since her own case had not been settled, Wash was still considered a slave with no legal standing, but under the slave law, she could file suit in Circuit Court in St. Louis for Lucy Ann Berry's freedom as "next friend". The law provided a slave with the status of a "poor person", with court-appointed counsel when the court determined the case had grounds. Delaney's memoir suggests that her mother's attorneys suggested her strategy of filing separate suits for her and her daughter, to prevent a jury's worrying about taking too much property from one slaveholder.


The case was prepared primarily by Francis Butter Murdoch, who litigated nearly one third of the freedom suits filed in St. Louis from 1840–1847. Francis B. Murdoch had served as the Alton, Illinois district attorney, and prosecuted the murder of the printer Elijah Lovejoy by anti-abolitionists. Wash also attracted the support of Edward Bates; a prominent Whig politician and judge, he argued Lucy Ann's case in court. Bates later served as the US Attorney General under President Abraham Lincoln.


Lucy Ann and Polly Berry lived in St. Louis after gaining her freedom. They had to get certificates as free blacks and deal with other restrictions of the time against free people of color. They worked together as seamstresses.


As Delaney recounted in her memoir, she became active in civic and religious associations. Such organizations developed rapidly in both the African-American and white communities nationally in the years following the Civil War. She joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1855, founded in 1816 in Philadelphia as the first independent black denomination in the US. In addition, Delaney was elected president of the first colored society, the Female Union, an organization of African-American women. She also served as president of the Daughters of Zion, as well as a women's group affiliated with the Freemasons, to which her husband belonged.They often supported community education and health projects.


Delaney belonged to the Col. Shaw Woman's Relief Corps, No. 34, a women's auxiliary to the Col. Shaw Post, 343, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The veterans' group was named after the white commanding officer of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first of the United States Colored Troops and a unit that achieved renown for courage in the Civil War. Delaney dedicated her memoir to the GAR, which had fought for the freedom of slaves.


In 1891, Delaney published her "From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom," the only first-person account of a freedom suit. The text is also classified as a slave narrative, most of which were published prior to the Civil War and Emancipation. Delaney devoted most of her account to her mother Polly Berry's struggles to free her family from slavery. Though the story is Delaney's, she features her mother as the lead protagonist.


The narrative is steeped in spirituality, as was typical of the genre and people's lives. Delaney delebrated what she considered God's benevolent role in her own life, and she attacked the hypocrisy of Christian slave owners. "From the Darkness" emphasizes the strength of the African Americans who suffered under slavery, rather than recount its abuses. By continuing her memoir after she gained freedom at age 14, Delaney could demonstrate her fortitude as a young widow, and after the deaths of each of her four children. She portrayed her mother Polly Berry as serving as an adviser and role model. By celebrating her political and civic activities, Delaney stated the way African Americans fully participated in US democracy.


"From the Darkness" was originally published in St. Louis in 1891 by J.T. Smith. After the rise of the mid-20th-century Civil Rights Movement and feminism, and new interest in historic black and women's literature, in 1988 the book was reprinted in the collection "Six Women's Slave Narratives" by Oxford University Press. It is available in full for free online by Project Gutenberg, as well as by the University of North Carolina in its "Documents of the American South" website .


Literary critic P. Gabrielle Foreman suggested that author Frances Harper based her character of "Lucille Delaney", in the novel "Iola Leroy" (1892), on Delaney's memoir published the year before.


The city of St. Louis has frequently acknowledged Lucy Ann Berry's significance to local and national Black History.


1900 United States Census, Missouri St. Louis ED 396 Precinct 11 St. Louis city Ward 26


Zach Delaney Male 77 Married Black, B. Feb 1823 Ohio, Married 1850, Father born Virginia, Mother born Virginia, Head of Household, Employed as Janitor


Lucy A Delaney Female 74 Married Black, B. May 1826 Missouri, Married 1850, Father born Kentucky, Mother born Illinois, Mother of 7 children total


Ancestry City Directories 1822-1995, Zachariah resides in St. Louis occupation as Cook, Porter or Janitor


Last entry in St. Louis City Directory was on page 257 for 1904, Zachariah Delaney, Janitor resides at 1317 Washington. Approx death date of 1904-5


Boiler Explosion and Fire of the Edward Bates where Lucy's first husband Frederick Turner perished as a deckhand. Listed among those Mortally wounded, dying of his injuries with one William Robinson, presumed a co worker. *Note a Claudine and Louisa Robinson lived next door to the Delaneys on the 1900 census for St. Louis. Eli Delany, First Cook, listed among dead crewmen


"...Missing and Dead of the Crew -- JOHN BROWN, colored fireman, Quincy, blown overboard; ANDREW HATFIELD, colored fireman, Ill., do.; ELI DELANY, first cook, St. Louis, do.; GEO. MATSON, fireman, do., do.; JOHN LEMON, deck-hand, do. do., HARRY JOHNSON, do. do.; WM. PARKS, do. do.; C. W. LYONS, do. do.; Quincy, do.; ______ HOLLIDAY, do. do.; WM. AMNET, do., St. Louis, died of wounds; FRED., (Frenchman) cook, do. do.; ISAAC DOZIER, deck-hand, Ala., do. Four missing names not known.


Newspaper clipping states 'dead were buried at Hamburg, Illinois"


Wounded—George Blackwell, T. B. Ewing, D. E. Cameron, Samuel Simpson, Preston Leiper, Le Roy Jenkins, E. B. Morrison and wife, (badly,) M. Vansel, James Cook, J. H. Simpson, Master Bowen, Mr. Eades, E. T. Hudson, H. M. Swazy, J. Righter, and friend. Mortally Wounded—George Watt, Samuel Dolsey, Wm. Wells, John Montague, Silas Bowman, Samuel Ferguson, T. M. McDonald, Joseph Morrison, Jacob Andrews, F. Turner, Jno. Swan, and Wm. Robinson.


Sarah Louise "Sadie" Delany (September 19, 1889 – January 25, 1999) was an American educator and civil rights pioneer who was the subject, along with her younger sister, Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany, of the "New York Times" bestselling oral history biography, "", by journalist Amy Hill Hearth. Sadie was the first African-American permitted to teach domestic science at the high-school level in the New York public schools, and became famous, with the publication of the book, at the age of 103.


Delany was the second-eldest of ten children born to the Rev. Henry Beard Delany (1858–1928), the first black person elected Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, and Nanny Logan Delany (1861–1956), an educator. Rev. Delany was born into slavery in St. Mary's, Georgia. Nanny Logan Delany was born in a community then known as Yak, Virginia, seven miles from Danville.


Sadie Delany was born in what was then known as Lynch Station, Virginia, at the home of her mother's sister, Eliza Logan. She was raised on the campus of St. Augustine's School (now University) in Raleigh, North Carolina, where her father was the Vice-Principal and her mother a teacher and administrator. Delany was a 1910 graduate of the school. In 1916, she moved to New York City, where she attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, then transferred to Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1920 and a master's of education in 1925. She was a New York City schoolteacher until her retirement in 1960. She was the first black person permitted to teach domestic science on the high school level in New York City.


Delany died at the age of 109 in Mount Vernon, New York, where she resided in the final decades of her life. She is interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.


In 1994, the sisters and Hearth published "The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom," a follow-up to "Having Our Say." After Bessie's death in 1995 at age 104, Sadie Delany and Hearth created a third book, "On My Own At 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessie."


Delany was the aunt of science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany Jr., the son of her youngest brother. Living Relative Families:


Ryan N. Dennis is an American curator and writer who is currently Chief Curator and Artistic Director at the Mississippi Museum of Art's Center for Art and Public Exchange (CAPE). She previously served as Curator and Programs Director (2017-2020) and Public Art Director and Curator (2012-2017) at Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas. Dennis focuses on African American contemporary art with an emphasis on site-specific projects and community engagement.


Ryan N. Dennis was born in Houston, Texas. In 2007, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Houston where she was in the African American studies program and the art history program. She received a M.A. degree in arts and cultural management from the Pratt Institute in New York City in 2011. Dennis interned in the curatorial department of the Menil Collection in Houston, where she would later work professionally.


Early in her career, Ryan N. Dennis worked as a curatorial assistant at the Menil Collection (2007-2009). She moved to New York City to pursue her degree, where she was a fellow at The Laundromat Project in 2009, worked in public programs at the New Museum, and was traveling exhibition and artists-in-residence manager at the Museum for African Art (now The Africa Center) from 2010 to 2012.


Dennis was selected for the 2019 Center for Curatorial Leadership annual Fellowship, where she completed a weeklong residency at the Brooklyn Museum. In 2019, she was selected, along with Evan Garza, to co-curate the seventh edition (2021) of the Texas Biennial, a "geographically-led, independent survey of contemporary art in Texas." She was a juror for the 2019 Whitney Museum of American Art Bucksbaum Award, which every two years awards $100,000 and is one of the largest cash awards for individual visual artists.


In April 2020, she became the Chief Curator and Artistic Director at the Mississippi Museum of Art's Center for Art and Public Exchange (CAPE). It is the largest art museum in the state.


Ryan N. Dennis' written works appear in "Prospect.3 Notes for Now" (2014) as part of Prospect New Orleans, "" (2015)"," the "Miami Rail" (2017). She also contributed to the monograph of Autumn Knight published in 2018.


George Cain (October 27, 1943 – October 23, 2010) was an African-American author who is renowned for writing "Blueschild Baby", a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1970. The book is about the life of a drug user who finally overcomes his addiction. Cain was himself a drug user but, unlike the character in his novel, he never overcame his addiction nor went on to write another book.


Born on October 27, 1943, as George Maurice Hopkins, he would adopt the pen name Africa Cain, later choosing to use his original first name. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan and moved with his family to Teaneck, New Jersey after graduating from the McBurney School, which he attended on scholarship. His basketball skills earned him a scholarship at Iona College, but he dropped out as a junior and headed to the American Southwest. While in Mexico he was charged and sentenced to six months in jail for possession of marijuana.


Despite favorable responses to the book, he never completed a planned sequel to his debut book and as described by his ex-wife Jo Lynne Pool he "had a lot of friends from the street, and they were going down", and he went down along with them, his life and family falling apart.


Cain died at the age of 66 on October 23, 2010, in Manhattan due to complications of kidney disease. He was survived by two daughters, a son and five grandchildren.


Barbara Taylor Bowman (born October 30, 1928) is an American early childhood education expert/advocate, professor, and author. Her areas of expertise include early childhood care/education, educational equity for minority and low-income children, as well as intergenerational family support and roles. She has served on several boards and was the co-founder of Erikson Institute, where she pioneered the teaching of early childhood education and administration.


Bowman was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Laura Dorothy Vaughn (née Jennings) and Robert Rochon Taylor, who was on the board of the Chicago Housing Authority. Her grandfather was architect Robert Robinson Taylor. Her parents were African-American. After receiving a B.A. degree from Sarah Lawrence College, she began teaching at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools' nursery school, while simultaneously earning her M.A. degree in education from the University of Chicago in 1952.


Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty and the 1965 creation of Head Start inspired Bowman. The next year, with the support of businessman and philanthropist Irving B. Harris, Bowman cofounded the


Chicago School for Early Childhood Education (now known as the Erikson Institute) with child psychologist Maria Piers and social worker Lorraine Wallach. Bowman went on to serve as its president during the period of 1994 to 2001, and maintains a professorship at the institute, where she is the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development. The institute's Barbara T. Bowman Professor of Child Development professorship is named in her honor.


Bowman is the Chicago Public Schools' Chief Early Childhood Education Officer. She is the past president (1980–1982) of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Her Board memberships are many including: Business People in the Public Interest, Chicago Public Library Foundation, Great Books Foundation, High Scope Educational Foundation, Institute for Psychoanalysis, and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Among the many honorary degrees awarded to Bowman are those from Bank Street College, Dominican University, Governors State University, Roosevelt University, and Wheelock College. During her career, she has also served on the Editorial Board of "Early Childhood Research Quarterly", and chaired the National Academy of Science, National Research Council's Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy.


Bowman was married to the late James E. Bowman, renowned pathologist and geneticist of African American descent, and the first black resident at St. Luke's Hospital. They have one daughter, Valerie Jarrett, who was Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison in the Obama administration. Their granddaughter, Laura Jarrett, graduated from Harvard Law School in 2010 and married Tony Balkissoon, who is also a lawyer and the son of Ontario MP Bas Balkissoon, in June 2012.


Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party.


In 1968, Cleaver wrote "Soul on Ice", a collection of essays that, at the time of its publication, was praised by "The New York Times Book Review" as "brilliant and revealing". Cleaver stated in "Soul on Ice": "If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America."


Cleaver went on to become a prominent member of the Black Panthers, having the titles Minister of Information and Head of the International Section of the Panthers, while a fugitive from the United States criminal justice system in Cuba and Algeria. He became a fugitive after leading an ambush on Oakland police officers, during which two officers were wounded. Cleaver was also wounded during the clash and Black Panther member Bobby Hutton was killed. As editor of the official Panthers' newspaper, "The Black Panther", Cleaver's influence on the direction of the Party was rivaled only by founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Cleaver and Newton eventually fell out with each other, resulting in a split that weakened the party.


After spending seven years in exile in Cuba, Algeria, and France, Cleaver returned to the US in 1975, where he became involved in various religious groups (Unification Church and CARP) before finally joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as becoming a conservative Republican, appearing at Republican events.


Eldridge Cleaver was born in Wabbaseka, Arkansas; as a child he moved with his large family to Phoenix and then to Los Angeles. He was the son of Leroy Cleaver and Thelma Hattie Robinson. He had four siblings: Wilhelima Marie, Helen Grace, James Weldon, and Theophilus Henry.


Cleaver was released from prison on December 12, 1966. He was writing for "Ramparts" magazine and organizing efforts to revitalize the Organization of Afro-American Unity. The Black Panther Party was only two months old. He then joined the Oakland-based Black Panther Party (BPP), serving as Minister of Information, or spokesperson. What initially attracted Cleaver to the Panthers, as opposed to other prominent groups, was their commitment to armed struggle.


In 1967, Cleaver, along with Marvin X, Ed Bullins, and Ethna Wyatt, formed the Black House political/cultural center in San Francisco. Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Sarah Webster Fabio, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Avotcja, Reginald Lockett, Emory Douglas, Samuel Napier, Bobby Hutton, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale were Black House regulars. The same year, he married Kathleen Neal Cleaver (divorced 1987), with whom he would have son Ahmad Maceo Eldridge (born 1969, Algeria; died 2018, Saudi Arabia) and daughter Joju Younghi (born July 31, 1970, North Korea).


Cleaver was a presidential candidate in 1968 on the ticket of the Peace and Freedom Party. Having been born on August 31, 1935, Cleaver would not have been the requisite 35 years of age until more than a year after Inauguration Day 1969. (Although the Constitution requires that the President be at least 35 years of age, it does not specify whether he need have reached that age at the time of nomination, or election, or inauguration.) Courts in both Hawaii and New York held that he could be excluded from the ballot because he could not possibly meet the Constitutional criteria. Cleaver and his running mate Judith Mage received 36,571 votes (0.05%).


Cleaver also cultivated an alliance with North Korea in 1969, and BPP publications began reprinting excerpts from Kim Il Sung's writings. Although leftists of the time often looked to Cuba, China, and North Vietnam for inspiration, few had paid any attention to the secretive Pyongyang regime. Bypassing US travel restrictions on North Korea, Cleaver and other BPP members made two visits to the country in 1969–1970 with the idea that the "juche" model could be adapted to the revolutionary liberation of African-Americans. Taken on an official tour of North Korea, Cleaver expressed admiration at "the DPRK's stable, crime-free society which provided guaranteed food, employment, and housing for all, and which had no economic or social inequalities".


Byron Vaughn Booth (former Panther Deputy Minister of Defense) claimed that, after a trip to the DPRK, Cleaver discovered his wife had been having an affair with Clinton Robert Smith Jr. Booth told the FBI he had witnessed Cleaver shoot and kill Smith with an AK47. Elaine Mokhtefi, in the "London Review of Books", writes that Cleaver confessed the murder to her shortly after committing it.


In his 1978 book "Soul on Fire", Cleaver made several claims regarding his exile in Algeria, including that he was supported by regular stipends from the government of North Vietnam, which the United States was then bombing. Cleaver stated that he was followed by other former criminals turned revolutionaries, many of whom (including Booth and Smith) hijacked planes to get to Algeria.


Cleaver left Algeria in 1972, moving to Paris, France, becoming a born again Christian during time in isolation living underground. He turned his hand to fashion design; three years later, he released codpiece-revival "virility pants" he called "the Cleavers", enthusing that they would give men "a chance to assert their masculinity".


Cleaver returned to the United States in 1977 to face the unresolved attempted murder charge. By September 1978, on bail as those proceedings dragged on, he had incorporated Eldridge Cleaver Ltd, running a factory and West Hollywood shop exploiting his "Cleavers", which he claimed liberated men from "penis binding". He saw no conflict with his newfound Christianity, drawing support for his overtly sexual design from 22 Deuteronomy. The long-outstanding charge was subsequently resolved on a plea bargain reducing it to assault. A sentence of 1,200 hours' community service was imposed.


In the early 1980s, Cleaver became disillusioned with what he saw as the commercial nature of evangelical Christianity and examined alternatives, including Sun Myung Moon's campus ministry organization CARP. He later led a short-lived revivalist ministry called Eldridge Cleaver Crusades, "a hybrid synthesis of Islam and Christianity he called 'Christlam'", along with an auxiliary called the Guardians of the Sperm.


Cleaver was then later baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) on December 11, 1983. He periodically attended regular services and lectured by invitation at LDS gatherings.


By the 1980s, Cleaver had become a conservative Republican. He appeared at various Republican events and spoke at a California Republican State Central Committee meeting regarding his political transformation. In 1984, he ran for election to the Berkeley City Council but lost. Undaunted, he promoted his candidacy in the Republican Party primary for the 1986 Senate race but was again defeated. The next year, his 20-year marriage to Kathleen Neal Cleaver came to an end.


In 1988, Cleaver was placed on probation for burglary and was briefly jailed later in the year after testing positive for cocaine. He entered drug rehabilitation for a stated crack cocaine addiction two years later, but was arrested for possession by Oakland and Berkeley Police in 1992 and 1994. Shortly after his final arrest, he moved to Southern California, falling into poor health.


Cleaver died at age 62 on May 1, 1998, at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona, California. He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California.


While in prison, he wrote a number of philosophical and political essays, first published in "Ramparts" magazine and then in book form as "Soul on Ice". In the essays, Cleaver traces his own development from a "supermasculine menial" to a radical black liberationist, and his essays became highly influential in the black power movement.


In the most controversial part of the book, Cleaver acknowledges committing acts of rape, stating that he initially raped black women in the ghetto "for practice" and then embarked on the serial rape of white women. He described these crimes as politically inspired, motivated by a genuine conviction that the rape of white women was "an insurrectionary act". When he began writing "Soul on Ice", he unequivocally renounced rape and all his previous reasoning about it.


The essays in "Soul on Ice" are divided into four thematic sections: "Letters from Prison", describing Cleaver's experiences with and thoughts on crime and prisons; "Blood of the Beast", discussing race relations and promoting black liberation ideology; "Prelude to Love – Three Letters", love letters written to Cleaver's attorney, Beverly Axelrod; and "White Woman, Black Man", on gender relations, black masculinity, and sexuality.


Ariel Serena Hedges Bowen (March 3, 1863 – July 7, 1904) was an African-American writer, temperance activist, and professor of music at Clark University in Atlanta in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "Twentieth Century Negro Literature" (1902) noted that "she is regarded as one of the foremost and best cultured women of her race."


In 1886, Hedges was married to Dr. J. W. E. Bowen of the Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Georgia. She became a life member of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She moved to Atlanta with her husband in 1893, where the couple raised a family of four children (one son and three daughters).


Bowen became Professor of Music in Clark University in 1895, writing broadly on music ("Music in the Home"), as well as being an accomplished vocalist and musician with the piano and pipe organ.


Bowen also was a notable figure in the Southern Women's Christian Temperance Union, writing "The Ethics of Reform" and serving as state president of the Georgia W. C. T. U., No. 2.


Ariel Bowen Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Georgia is named in her memory.


Donna LaVonne Franklin is an African-American social scientist and author, and a nationally recognized scholar on African American families.


Franklin was born to Donald A. Franklin and Helen Kirkpatrick Franklin in Los Angeles, California. When she was young, her parents moved to La Sierra, California (later annexed to the City of Riverside). She attended elementary school and began high school in Riverside.


For her last years of high school Franklin transferred to the co-educational African American boarding school Pine Forge Academy, located in Berks County, Pennsylvania. The campus was built on land once owned by Thomas Rutter, an abolitionist iron miller, and was a terminal for the Underground Railroad during the closing days of the Civil War.


Franklin graduated from Loma Linda University with a BA in Sociology, and holds a Master’s in social work and a PhD from the University of Southern California.


Franklin was the first African American woman to be appointed at the assistant professor level at the University of Chicago School of Social Administration, in 1982. She was recruited by Dolores Norton, a graduate of Temple University and Bryn Mawr, who was the first African American woman to be tenured at the University of Chicago.


During Franklin’s tenure at the University of Chicago, she was a co-investigator on a multimillion-dollar research project that focused on urban poverty and family structure. Primarily, her interests included how social and structural processes interact to influence an adolescent female’s decisions regarding sexuality and pregnancy. Six years later, Franklin was promoted to associate professor.


In 1994, Franklin accepted the John Milner Visiting Professor appointment at the University of Southern California. From 1997 to 2008, she taught Advanced Social Theory at Smith College, a required course in the doctoral program at Smith’s School for Social Work. Franklin has also held academic appointments at Howard and Tuskegee universities.


Franklin was one of the first national co-chairs of the Council on Contemporary Families, from 1997 to 1999, and has also served on its board of directors. She retired from academic life to focus on writing in 2008.


Franklin's first book, "Ensuring Inequality: The Structural Transformation of the African American Family," was based on her research at University of Chicago and included a foreword by William Julius Wilson, a Harvard University Professor and recipient of the National Medal of Science. Published by Oxford University Press in 1997, "Ensuring Inequality" won the American Sociological Association's William J. Goode Distinguished Book Award; She was the first African-American author to win this award.


Franklin's second book, "What's Love Got to Do With It: Understanding and Healing the Rift Between Black Men and Women", was published by Simon & Schuster in 2000. It examines the history and tensions of gender relations in the African American community.


Franklin is currently working on a memoir with the working title "From Slavery to Freedom: A Memoir of an American Family and Myself."


Franklin has contributed essays to two anthologies. “African Americans and the Birth of the Modern Marriage” is included in "Families As They Really Are," a collection penned by an interdisciplinary community of experts who study and work with families.


“The Obama Marriage: A Model for Moving Forward the ‘Stalled Revolution’” appears in "Obama on Our Minds: The Impact of Obama on the Psyche of America." Published in 2016, the book was written by multicultural theorists and researchers, who delve into President Barack Obama’s success and societal impact.


Among other chapters, academic papers, and shorter pieces, Franklin has penned an op-ed published in the "New York Times" entitled "Black Herstory." Written in the wake of the Million Man March, the piece outlines the distinctive “herstory” of black women’s equality with black men (compared to other American women) following their emancipation from slavery and its aftermath, and argues that, consequently, black women should have been included in the march.


On her father’s side, Franklin is descended from one of the first African American families to settle in California’s San Gabriel Valley. Approximately 50 members of the Franklin family are buried in the historic Savannah Memorial Park in Rosemead.


Franklin’s great-grandfather Lawrence (usually called Harry) was born in the state about 1864. Her paternal great-grandmother, Sabra Ann Hardison, was born a slave in the township of Jamesville, North Carolina, around the beginning of the Civil War. Sabra Ann came to California as a domestic servant to members of the family of Gail Borden, Jr. (inventor of condensed milk), and settled in the San Gabriel Valley.


Sabra Ann met Harry shortly after she arrived, a consequence of the two being among the few African Americans in the area. Harry spoke fluent Spanish and was at the time employed by the sheriff in El Monte. Sabra Ann and Harry married on October 2, 1886, and lived out their lives in Alhambra, California.


Franklin was married to historian and playwright Bart McSwine from 1971 to 1982. She is the mother of one daughter, Myisha Karimah McSwine, and one grandson, Malo Kagen McSwine.


William J. Anderson wrote a narrative describing his life as a slave.


Anderson is believed to have been born on or around June 2, 1811, to Susan and Lewis Anderson. William's mother was a free woman, but his father was a slave, belonging to a Mr. Shelton. Later in William's life he wrote a narrative about himself that was published by the "Chicago Daily Tribune" and entitled:


Life and Narrative of William J. Anderson, Twenty-four Years a Slave; Sold Eight Times! In Jail Sixty Times!! Whipped Three Hundred Times!!! or The Dark Deeds of American Slavery Revealed. Containing Scriptural Views of the Origin of the Black and of the White Man. Also, a Simple and Easy Plan to Abolish Slavery in the United States. Together with an Account of the Services of Colored Men in the Revolutionary War--Day and Date, and Interesting Facts.


After the death of his father, his mother Susan sold William to Mr. Vance, who lived about ten miles away from her. William's life with Mr. Vance was not a good one. William was very interested in learning how to read and write and would often secretly steal or borrow books from white boys to practice these skills. Whenever his master discovered what William had been up to, he would whip and kick him. Nevertheless, William remained devoted to learning.


William was a devout Christian. He believed that if he was a good Christian, he would go to heaven. He thought that this was important because he had never been treated well on earth, and it would be one place he could be happy and rest. Finally after much practice and determination, William learned how to read. The next thing that he wanted to do was learn how to write. Late at night, when his master was asleep, he would practice his writing by candlelight. He soon took to teaching a short lesson on Sundays to some of the other slaves on the plantation. But soon the white people found out and banned them from meeting again to talk about learning. Anderson was a slave.


On December 12, 1856, William was arrested and charged with helping slaves from Kentucky. On pages 53 and 54 of his narrative he explains how horribly he was treated by the guards. He also explains what it was like to be an African American during those times in jail charged with such a crime. When the day of the trial came, several people testified against him but nevertheless, the court found him a free man. In the Appendix of his narrative it has a plan that he has written for a plan to abolish slavery:


Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgeon, author, and politician who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. He was a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 Republican primaries. He is considered a pioneer in the field of neurosurgery.


Carson became the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in 1984 at age 33; he was the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the United States. At retirement, he was professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Carson's achievements include participating in the first reported separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head. Although surgically a success, the twins continued to suffer neurologic/medical complications. Additional accomplishments include performing the first successful neurosurgical procedure on a fetus inside the womb; developing new methods to treat brain-stem tumors; and revitalizing hemispherectomy techniques for controlling seizures. He wrote over 100 neurosurgical publications. He retired from medicine in 2013.


Carson has received numerous honors for his neurosurgery work, including more than 60 honorary doctorate degrees and numerous national merit citations. In 2001, he was named by CNN and "TIME" magazine as one of the nation's 20 foremost physicians and scientists, and was selected by the Library of Congress as one of 89 "Living Legends" on its 200th anniversary. In 2008, Carson was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2010, he was elected into the National Academy of Medicine. He was the subject of the 2009 TV film "", where he was portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. Carson has also written and co-written six bestselling books.


Carson has said that he protected white students in a biology lab after a race riot broke out at his high school in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. "The Wall Street Journal" confirmed the riot but could not find anyone who remembered Carson sheltering white students.


In the summers following his high school graduation until his second year in medical school, Carson worked at a variety of jobs: as a clerk in the payroll office of Ford Motor Company, supervisor of a six-person crew picking up trash along the highway under a federal jobs program for inner-city students, a clerk in the mailroom of Young & Rubicam Advertising, assembling fender parts and inspecting back window louvers on the assembly line at Chrysler, a crane operator at Sennett Steel, and finally a radiology technician taking X-rays. At Yale, Carson had a part-time job on campus as a student police aide.


In his autobiography, Carson said he had been offered a scholarship to West Point. "Politico" reported that West Point has no record of his ever seeking admission. The academy does not award scholarships to anyone; cadets receive a free education and room and board in exchange for a commitment to serve in the military for at least five years after graduation. Carson also said the University of Michigan had offered him a scholarship. His staff later said the described scenario was similar to that of West Point, as he never actually applied for entry to the University of Michigan.


Carson entered the University of Michigan Medical School in 1973, and at first he struggled academically, doing so poorly on his first set of comprehensive exams that his faculty adviser recommended he drop out of medical school or take a reduced academic load and take longer to finish. He continued with a regular academic load, and his grades improved to average in his first year of medical school. By his second year of medical school, Carson began to excel academically by seldom attending lectures and instead studying textbooks and lecture notes from 6a.m. to 11p.m. Carson graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School with an M.D. in 1977, and he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.


Carson was then accepted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine neurosurgery program, where he served one year as a surgical intern and five years as a neurosurgery resident, completing the final year as chief resident in 1983. He then spent one year (1983–1984) as a Senior Registrar in neurosurgery at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Nedlands, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.


Upon returning to Johns Hopkins in 1984, Carson was appointed the university's Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery. As a surgeon, he specialized in traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy, and trigeminal neuralgia. He has said that his hand–eye coordination and three-dimensional reasoning made him a gifted surgeon.


While at Johns Hopkins, Carson figured in the revival of the hemispherectomy, a drastic surgical procedure in which part or all of one hemisphere of the brain is removed to control severe pediatric epilepsy. Encouraged by John M. Freeman, he refined the procedure in the 1980s and performed it many times.


According to "The Washington Post", the Binder surgery "launched the stardom" of Carson, who "walked out of the operating room that day into a spotlight that has never dimmed", beginning with a press conference that was covered worldwide, and it created name recognition leading to publishing deals and a motivational speaking career. On the condition the film would have its premiere in Baltimore, Carson agreed to a cameo appearance as "head surgeon" in the 2003 Farrelly brothers' comedy "Stuck on You", starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as conjoined twins who, unhappy after their surgical separation, continue life attached to each other by Velcro.


In March 2013, Carson announced he would retire as a surgeon, saying he would "much rather quit when I'm at the top of my game". His retirement became official on July 1, 2013.


In 2021, Carson joined Galectin Therapeutics to assist with development of the Company’s galectin-3 inhibitor, belapectin, as a treatment for NASH cirrhosis and in combination with immunotherapy for the treatment of cancers.


Carson has written many articles in peer-reviewed journals and six bestselling books published by Zondervan, an international Christian media and publishing company. The first book was an autobiography published in 1992. Two others are about his personal philosophies of success and what he sees as the stabilizing influence of religion.


Carson delivered the keynote address at a Mannatech distributor convention in 2011, during which he said the company had donated funds to help him obtain a coveted endowed-chair post at Johns Hopkins Medicine: "...three years ago I had an endowed chair bestowed upon me and uh, it requires $2.5 million to do an endowed chair, and I'm proud to say that part of that $2.5 million came from Mannatech." In October 2015, Carson's campaign team said "there was no contribution from Mannatech to Johns Hopkins", and his statement had been "a legitimate mistake on his part. Confusion. He had been doing some fundraising for the hospital and some other chairs about that time, and he simply got things mixed up."


On November 3, 2015, Mannatech said on its website that for compliance with Federal campaign finance regulations, the company had removed all references to Carson before he announced his bid for the presidency.


In July 2013, Carson was hired by "The Washington Times" as a weekly opinion columnist. In October 2013, Fox News hired Carson as a contributor, to provide analysis and commentary across Fox News Channel's daytime and primetime programming, a relationship that lasted until the end of 2014.


In 2014, some House Republicans (who later formed the House Freedom Caucus) approached Carson about the possibility of his standing for Speaker of the House in the event that the incumbent Speaker, John Boehner, had to step down due to intra-party disunion. Carson declined, citing preparations for his 2016 presidential campaign. Ultimately, Boehner resigned in October 2015, and Paul Ryan was elected as the new Speaker.


Carson, who had been registered as a Republican, changed his registration to independent in the 1990s after watching Republicans impeach President Clinton for perjury regarding an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky. "I just saw so much hypocrisy in both parties," he said. In February 2013, Carson said he was not a member of any political party.


In his book "America the Beautiful" (2013), he wrote: "I believe it is a very good idea for physicians, scientists, engineers, and others trained to make decisions based on facts and empirical data to get involved in the political arena."


Carson's sudden popularity among conservatives led to his being invited as a featured speaker at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He tied for seventh place in the "Washington Times"/CPAC 2013 Straw Poll with 4% of the 3,000 ballots cast. In the 2014 CPAC straw poll, he was in third place with 9% of the vote, behind senators Ted Cruz of Texas (with 11%) and Rand Paul of Kentucky (31%). In the presidential straw poll at the 2013 Values Voter Summit, he and Rick Santorum polled 13%, with winner Ted Cruz polling 42%, and in 2014 he polled 20% to Cruz's winning 25%.


On November 4, 2014, the day of the 2014 midterms, he rejoined the Republican Party, saying it was "truly a pragmatic move" because he was considering running for president in 2016.


In January 2015, "The Weekly Standard" reported that the Draft Carson Committee had raised $13 million by the end of 2014, shortly after Carson performed well in a CNN/ORC poll of potential candidates in December 2014, coming second in two different versions. He polled 10% to Mitt Romney's 20%, but in the same poll with Romney removed from the list, Carson polled 11% to Jeb Bush's 14%. "The Wall Street Journal" mentioned that the Draft Carson Committee had chairmen in all of Iowa's 99 counties, and that Carson had recently led two separate Public Policy polls for the state of Pennsylvania.


In October 2015, the Super PAC supporting Carson, The 2016 Committee (formerly the Draft Carson Committee), announced it had received donations in mostly $100 increments from more than 200 small businesses around the country over the course of one week. Fox Business reported that "Carson's outsider status is growing his small business support base." Ben Walters, a fundraiser for The 2016 Committee, expressed optimism about Carson's small business support base: "It's unbelievable the diversity of businesses that we are bringing on. We are seeing everything from doctors' offices and folks in the healthcare profession to motorcycle repair shops and bed and breakfasts."


In October, it was noted that Carson's "improbable" political career had surged in polls and fundraising, while he continued to participate in nationally televised Republican debates.


In November 2015, Carson's campaign aired a 60-second TV advertisement in which excerpts from Carson's stump speech were intercut with a rap by an artist named Aspiring Mogul. They spent $150,000 on the ads, which were aired in Atlanta, Detroit and Miami. Carson defended the ad, saying "Well, there are people in the campaign who felt that was a good way to do things... I support them in doing that, but I probably would have taken a little different approach." Later, he said the advertisement was done without his knowledge, that "it was done by people who have no concept of the black community and what they were doing", and that he was "horrified" by it.


Statements that Carson made regarding foreign policy called into doubt his familiarity with the domain. "The New York Times" reported in 2015, "Carson has acknowledged being something of a novice on foreign affairs." Regarding the Ukrainian crisis, Carson would send arms to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against pro-Russian rebels. He also believes the Baltic states should "get involved in NATO" (apparently unaware they are NATO members).


In a November 2015 Republican debate, Carson declared his intentions to make ISIS "look like losers" as he would "destroy their caliphate". Carson also advocated capturing a "big energy field" outside of Anbar, Iraq, which he said could be accomplished "fairly easily". Regarding the Middle East, he also claimed that "the Chinese are there", while in contrast, "The Guardian" reported that "there are no known members of the Chinese armed forces currently engaged in any conflict in the Middle East."


Carson said he is not opposed to a Palestinian state, but he questioned why it needs "to be within the confines of Israeli territory [...] Is that necessary, or can you sort of slip that area down into Egypt?"


On March 2, following the Super Tuesday 2016 primaries, Carson announced that he did "not see a political path forward" and would not attend the next Republican debate in Detroit. He said, "this grassroots movement on behalf of 'We the People' will continue," indicating that he would give more details later in the week. He suspended his campaign on March4 and announced he would be the new national chairman of My Faith Votes, a group that encourages Christians to exercise their civic duty to vote.


In total, Ben Carson's campaign spent $58 million. However, most of the money went to political consultants and fundraising rather than advertising. Carson questioned whether his campaign was economically sabotaged from within.


On March 11, 2016, a week after Carson ended his presidential campaign, he endorsed Trump, calling him part of "the voice of the people to be heard". Carson's subsequent comments that Americans would have to sustain Trump for only four years if he was not a good president drew criticism, and he admitted that he would have preferred another candidate, though he thought Trump had the best chance of winning the general election.


On the other hand, at the press conference Carson said Trump had a "cerebral" side.


On April 25, Carson expressed opposition to Harriet Tubman replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill the day after dubbing the replacement "political expediency", though he indicated interest in Tubman having another tribute. In late April, Carson wrote to the Nevada Republican Party, requesting the two delegates he won in Nevada be released and free to support whoever they want.


On May 4, after Trump wrapped up the Republican nomination, he hinted that Carson would be among those who would vet his vice-presidential pick. The same day, in an interview Carson expressed interest in Ted Cruz serving as Attorney General of the United States, a position that Carson said would allow Cruz to prosecute Hillary Clinton, and then as a Supreme Court Justice nominee from the Trump administration. On May 6, Carson said in an interview that Trump would consider a Democrat as his running mate, conflicting with Trump's assertion that he would not. A Carson spokesperson later said Carson expected Trump to select a Republican.


Carson was said by aide Armstrong Williams in a May 10 interview to have withdrawn from the Trump campaign's vetting team, though the campaign confirmed he was still involved. Later that month, Carson revealed a list of potential vice-presidential candidates in an interview with "The Washington Post". On May 16, Carson said the media could not keep opinion out of reporting and cited Walter Cronkite as a fair journalist who was, in his words, a "left-wing radical".


During the Republican National Convention, Carson appeared with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in support of the pro-Donald Trump Great America PAC at an event in Cleveland.


In total, Carson received 857,039 votes during the Republican primaries; this total represented 2.75% of the votes cast. He received the support of seven delegates at the Republican National Convention. Trump received the Republican nomination and went on to be elected president on November 8, 2016.


After Donald Trump's win in the 2016 election, Carson joined Trump's transition team as Vice Chairman. Carson was also offered a cabinet position in the administration. He declined, in part because of his lack of experience, with an aide stating, "The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency." Although it was reported that the position was for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Carson's business manager has disputed this, stating, "Dr. Carson was never offered a specific position, but everything was open to him." He was eventually offered the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, which he accepted.


On December 5, 2016, Trump announced that he would nominate Carson to the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. During the confirmation process, Carson was scrutinized by some housing advocates for what they perceived as his lack of relevant experience.


On January 24, 2017, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs voted unanimously to approve the nomination. Senate Democrats attempted to defeat Carson's nomination via filibuster, but that vote failed on March 1, 2017, and he was then confirmed by the Senate by a 58–41 vote the next day.


On March 6, his first day as secretary, while addressing Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employees, Carson saluted the work ethic of immigrants, and during his comments, he likened slaves to involuntary immigrants. A HUD spokesman said that no one present thought Carson "was equating voluntary immigration with involuntary servitude". In the same speech, Carson was criticized by some for saying that the human brain "was incapable of forgetting and could be electrically stimulated into perfect recall".


Under the federal budget proposed by Trump in 2017, HUD's budget for the fiscal year 2018 would be cut by $6.2 billion (13%) and the Community Development Block Grant, a program which Carson praised in a trip to Detroit as HUD secretary, would be eliminated. Carson issued a statement supporting the proposed cuts. Carson suggested that federal funds for housing in Detroit could be part of an expected infrastructure bill.


In April 2017, while speaking in Washington at the National Low Income Housing Coalition conference, Carson said that housing funding would be included in an upcoming infrastructure bill from the Trump administration.


In July 2017, during his keynote address at the LeadingAge Florida annual convention, Carson stated his concern about "seniors who become destitute" and reported that the Department of Housing and Urban Development had increased public housing programs for the elderly by an unspecified number.


During congressional testimony in May 2019, Carson did not know what the term REO ("Real Estate Owned" refers to housing owned by a bank or lending institution post-foreclosure) stood for and confused it with the cookie, Oreo. In response, Carson went on the Fox Business Network where he accused Democrats of adhering to "Saul Alinsky" tactics.


On March 1, 2020, the office of Vice President Mike Pence announced Carson's addition to the White House Coronavirus Task Force.


On November 9, 2020, Carson tested positive for COVID-19 after attending President Trump's Election Night party. He initially treated himself with a homeopathic oleander extract on the recommendation of Mike Lindell, the founder of My Pillow, Inc., which Carson said caused his symptoms to disappear. Oleander was previously rejected by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for COVID-19 and Carson received criticism for promoting an unscientific homeopathic treatment. He disclosed on November 20 that he subsequently became "extremely sick" and attributed his recovery to Regeneron's experimental antibody therapy. He said that President Trump had given him access to the drug.


Remarks on transgender use of homeless shelters.


Carson was accused by members of the Department of Housing and Urban Development of making transphobic remarks at a meeting in San Francisco in September 2019. He warned that "big, hairy men" might infiltrate homeless shelters for women, prompting one woman to walk out. Reps. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts and Jennifer Wexton of Virginia called for his resignation, but Carson said the accusations were a "mischaracterization". A HUD spokesperson responded that Carson "does not use derogatory language to refer to transgendered individuals. Any reporting to the contrary is false."


In 1994, Carson and his wife started the Carson Scholars Fund that awards scholarships to students in grades 4–11 for "academic excellence and humanitarian qualities".


Recipients of the Carson Scholars Fund receive a $1,000 scholarship towards their college education. It has awarded 6,700 scholarships. In recognition for his work with the Carson Scholars Fund and other charitable giving throughout his lifetime, Carson was awarded the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership in 2005.


In 2021, Carson founded the American Cornerstone Institute or ACI, a conservative think tank centered around advancing policies that promote "faith, liberty, community, and life."


The ACI's mission statement is "dedicated to promoting and preserving individual and religious liberty, helping our country’s most vulnerable find new hope, and developing methods to decrease the federal government’s role in society and to improve efficiency to best serve ALL our nation’s citizens. Headed by world-renowned neurosurgeon, presidential candidate, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, ACI will be a voice for reason and civility in a nation that is increasingly devoid of common sense."


Carson and his wife, fellow Detroit native Lacena "Candy" Rustin, met in 1971 as students at Yale University and married in 1975. They began living in West Friendship, Maryland, in 1988. Together, the couple have three sons (Rhoeyce, Benjamin Jr., and Murray), as well as several grandchildren. Their oldest son, Murray, was born in Perth, Australia, while Carson was undertaking a residency there. In 1981 Carson's wife became pregnant with twins before miscarrying in the fifth month of her pregnancy.


In 2001, Ben and Candy Carson bought a 48-acre property in Upperco, Maryland.


After being diagnosed with prostate cancer, Carson underwent a two-hour operation at the Johns Hopkins Hospital on August 7, 2002.


In 2013, Carson, his wife, and Carson's mother moved to West Palm Beach, Florida.


Surrounding his confirmation as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Carson bought a $1.22 million home in Vienna, Virginia, in February 2017 and sold his West Palm Beach home for over $900,000 in May 2017.


Carson and his wife are members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA). Carson was baptized at Burns Seventh-day Adventist Church in Detroit. A few years later, he told the pastor at a church he was attending in Inkster, Michigan, that he had not fully understood his first baptism and wanted to be baptized again. He has served as a local elder and Sabbath School teacher in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Although Carson is an Adventist, the church has officially cautioned church employees to remain politically neutral.


In keeping with his Seventh-day Adventist faith, Carson announced in 2014 his belief "that the United States will play a big role" in the coming apocalypse. He went on to say, "I hope by that time I'm not around anymore."


In an interview with Katie Couric, Carson said that Jesus Christ came to Earth to redeem the world through his atoning sacrifice and that all people are sinners and need his redemption.


Carson has stated that he does not believe in hell as understood by some Christians: "You know, I see God as a very loving individual. And why would he torment somebody forever who only had a life of 60 or 70 or 80 years? Even if they were evil. Even if they were only evil for 80 years?" This is fully in line with Adventist teaching, which promotes annihilationism.


Carson endorsed Seventh-day Adventist theology, which includes belief in a literal reading of the first chapters of Genesis. In a 2013 interview with "Adventist News Network", Carson said "You know, I'm proud of the fact that I believe what God has said, and I've said many times that I'll defend it before anyone. If they want to criticize the fact that I believe in a literal, six-day creation, let's have at it because I will poke all kinds of holes in what they believe." Carson's Adventism was raised as an issue by his then-primary rival Donald Trump. Some Adventists have argued that Carson's political positions on gun rights and religious liberty conflict with historic Adventist teachings in favor of nonviolence, pacifism, and the separation of church and state.


During a commencement speech at Andrews University in Michigan in 1998, Carson stated that he believed that the pyramids of Giza were created by the Biblical figure Joseph to store grain, despite the fact that the story of Joseph is set in the time of Egypt's Middle Kingdom, five centuries after the pyramids of Giza were built. When questioned about it again in 2015, he stood by his original assertion.


Carson is a member of the American Academy of Achievement, Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.


Carson has been awarded 38 honorary doctorate degrees and dozens of national merit citations. Detroit Public Schools opened the Dr. Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine for students interested in pursuing healthcare careers. The school is partnering with Detroit Receiving Hospital and Michigan State University.


Xernona Clayton Brady (née Brewster, born August 30, 1930) is an American civil rights leader and broadcasting executive. During the Civil Rights Movement, she worked for the National Urban League and Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where she became involved in the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Later, Clayton went into television, where she became the first African American from the southern United States to host a daily prime time talk show. She became corporate vice president for urban affairs for Turner Broadcasting.


Clayton created the Trumpet Foundation. She was instrumental in the development of the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame that was developed by the foundation to honor the achievements of African Americans and civil rights advocates. She convinced a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan to denounce the Klan. Clayton has been honored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the city of Atlanta for her work.


Xernona and her twin sister Xenobia were born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the daughters of Reverend James and Elliott (Lillie) Brewster. Her parents were administrators of Indian affairs in Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1952, Clayton earned her undergraduate degree with honors from Tennessee State Agricultural and Industrial College in Nashville, Tennessee. She majored in music and minored in education. At TSU, Clayton became a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She is a Baptist. She pursued graduate studies at the University of Chicago.


Clayton began her career in the Civil Rights Movement with the National Urban League in Chicago, working undercover to investigate racial discrimination committed by employers against African Americans. Clayton moved to Atlanta in 1965, where she organized events for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), under the direction of Martin Luther King Jr. She developed a deep friendship with Dr. King's wife, Coretta Scott King. Clayton and Scott King traveled together on concert tours. Although Clayton did not march with King, citing a fear of being arrested, Clayton helped plan King's marches.


In 1966, Clayton coordinated the Doctors' Committee for Implementation, a group of African American physicians who worked for and achieved the desegregation of all Atlanta hospitals. The Doctors' Committee served as a model for nationwide hospital desegregation, and was honored by the National Medical Association.


Clayton then headed the Atlanta Model Cities program, a federally funded group dedicated to improving the quality of desegregated neighborhoods. Clayton met Calvin Craig, the Grand Dragon of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan, through the Model Cities program, as Craig served in a policy position with the organization. Craig cited Clayton's influence when he decided to denounce the Klan in April 1968.


In 1967, Clayton became the first Southern African American to host a daily prime time talk show. The show was broadcast on WAGA-TV in Atlanta and was renamed, "The Xernona Clayton Show". Clayton joined Turner Broadcasting in 1979 as a producer of documentary specials. In the 1980s, she served as director of public relations for Turner Broadcasting. In 1988, Turner Broadcasting promoted Clayton to corporate vice president for urban affairs, assigning her to direct Turner projects and serve as a liaison between Turner Broadcasting and civic groups in Atlanta and throughout the country. Clayton retired from Turner Broadcasting in 1997, choosing to call the retirement a "professional transition".


Clayton serves on the board of directors of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. She served on the Board of Review for the state of Georgia's Department of Labor. In 1991, she published an autobiography, "I've Been Marching All The Time", a title inspired by King. The book focused on her life and her views of the Civil Rights Movement.


In 1993, Clayton, with Turner Broadcasting, created the Trumpet Awards to honor achievements of African Americans. She serves as the chair, president, and CEO of the Trumpet Awards Foundation that was formed in late 2004. In early 2004, Clayton created the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame.


Clayton was a member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the pastor.


Clayton was married to Ed Clayton (who also worked with Dr. King) from 1957 until his death in 1966. She co-authored a revised edition of her late husband's biography of Martin Luther King Jr. that is entitled, "The Peaceful Warrior".


Following her first husband's death, Clayton married Paul L. Brady, the first African American to be appointed as a Federal Administrative Law Judge, in 1974. Brady and Clayton have two children from Brady's previous marriage, Laura and Paul Jr.


TSU honored Clayton at their Blue and White All-Star Academy Awards in 2005. Clayton's footprints were added to the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in 2006. On May 1, 2011, Clayton received the James Weldon Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She received the Local Community Service Award from Spelman College in 2004.


In September 2011, the Atlanta City Council renamed a street and a plaza at Hardy Ivy Park in downtown Atlanta in Clayton's honor. In conjunction with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the AFC Enterprises Foundation awards an annual Xernona Clayton Black Press Scholarship amounting to $10,000 to a student pursuing a doctoral degree in journalism. The Mattel Toy Company created a "Xernona Clayton Barbie" doll in her honor in 2004.


Sharon Bridgforth (born May 15, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American writer working in theater.


Bridgforth was born in Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to South Central Los Angeles when she was 3 years old. She discovered the diversity of the city during her long bus commutes to school.


From 1993 to 1998, Bridgforth worked as the founder, writer, and artistic director of the root wy'mn theatre company. root wy'mn's touring roster included: the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, The Theater Offensive in Boston, La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, California and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.


From 2002 to 2009, she served as the anchor artist for the Austin Project, produced by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones and the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, University of Texas at Austin. Her work, "Finding Voice Facilitation Method" was published in "Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project" edited by Osun Joni L. Jones, Lisa L. Moore, and herself.


In 2008, Bridgforth received a National Performance Network Creation Fund award, for "delta dandi", co-commissioned by Women & Their Work, in partnership with the National Performance Network. Freedom Train Productions in New York presented a reading of the work in 2008. A workshop production of the work was produced in 2009 at the Long Center in Austin, Texas.


At Northwestern University, as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation artist-in-residence in the Performance Studies department, Bridgforth presented a workshop production of "delta dandi" during the 2009 Solo/Black/Woman performance series. Since 2009, Bridgforth has been resident playwright at New Dramatists, New York. Her work "blood pudding", was presented in the 2010 New York SummerStage Festival.


She was the 2010–2012 Visiting Multicultural Faculty member at the Theatre School at DePaul University and is the curator of the Theatrical Jazz Institute at Links Hall, produced by the school, Links Hall and herself.


Published by RedBone Press, "the bull-jean stories" give cultural documentation and social commentary on African-American herstory and survival. Set in the rural South of the 1920s through the 1940s, "the bull-jean stories "uses traditional storytelling and nontraditional verse to chronicle the course of love returning in the lifetimes of one woman-loving-woman named bull-dog-jean.


Both a performance and a novel," Love Conjure/Blues" places the fiction-form inside a traditional Black American voice, inviting dramatic interpretation and movement within a highly literary text: It is filled with folktales, poetry, haints, prophecy, song, and oral history. "Love Conjure/Blues "was also published by RedBone Press.


Exists as a show, oracle deck, performance/novel, performance, sung children's book, and artistic mentorship towards homeownership. The performance celebrates the different embodiments of gender through the journey of three characters alongside Yoburba deities Oya, Osun, and Yemaya. The show premiered at the Pillsbury House + Theater in Minneapolis, MN, on May 30, 2018 and ran through June 17, 2018. The performance was written by Sharon Bridgforth, directed by Ebony Noelle Golden, with dramaturgy by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and vocal composition by Mankwe Ndosi.


In addition to a performance, "dat Black Mermaid Man Lady" is an oracle deck. The deck consists of characters from the performance/novel and features artwork by Yasmin Hernandez. The oracle deck is a working deck that Bridgforth used for a series of weekly readings.


Partnering with Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association and City of Lakes Community Land Trust, Bridgforth worked with five to seven emerging artist of color to create new works and more toward homeownership.


In 1997, Bridgforth's script "no mo blues "was nominated for an Osborn Award (sponsored by the American Theatre Critic's Association). "The bull-jean stories" won a Lambda Literary Prize for "Best Book by a Small Press" in 1998. The collection also received a nomination for a Lambda Literary Prize in the category of "Best Lesbian Fiction" and a nomination from the 1998 American Library Association for "Best Gay/Lesbian Book". Bridgforth was nominated for the 2002-2003 Alpert Award in the theatre category. She has received the 2000 Penumbra Theatre (St. Paul, MN) Playwriting Fellowship and 2001 YWCA Woman Of The Year in Arts Award in Austin, Texas.


A recipient of the 2008 Alpert/Hedgebrook Residency Prize, her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts commissioning program; the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group, playwright-in-residence program; National Performance Network commissioning and community fund; the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media; and the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund Award. Bridgforth was also the recipient of the Creative Capital Performing Arts Award in 2016.


She has a daughter, Sonja Perryman, from a past marriage. A lesbian, her partner is Omi Osun Joni L. Jones. Jones also has a daughter, Leigh Gaymon-Jones, from a past marriage.


Herman Cain (December 13, 1945July 30, 2020) was an American businessman and activist for the Tea Party movement within the Republican Party. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Cain grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He then earned a master's degree in computer science at Purdue University while also working full-time for the U.S. Department of the Navy. In 1977, he joined the Pillsbury Company where he later became vice president. During the 1980s, Cain's success as a business executive at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, in which capacity he served from 1986 to 1996.


Cain was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from 1989 to 1991. He was deputy chairman, from 1992 to 1994, and then chairman until 1996, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In 1995, he was appointed to the Kemp Commission and, in 1996, he served as a senior economic adviser to Bob Dole's presidential campaign. From 1996 to 1999, Cain served as president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association.


In May 2011, Cain announced his 2012 presidential candidacy. By the fall, his proposed 9–9–9 tax plan and debating performances had made him a serious contender for the Republican nomination. In November, however, his campaign faced allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied. He announced the suspension of his campaign on December 3, but remained involved in politics. In the 2020 election cycle, Cain was a co-chairman of Black Voices for Trump.


Cain died from COVID-19 on July 30, 2020, at the age of 74.


Herman Cain was born on December 13, 1945, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Lenora Davis Cain (1925–1982), a cleaning woman and domestic worker, and Luther Cain (1925–2005), who was raised on a farm and worked as a barber and janitor, as well as a chauffeur for Robert W. Woodruff, the president of The Coca-Cola Company. Cain said that as he was growing up, his family was "poor but happy." Cain related that his mother taught him about her belief that "success was not a function of what you start out with materially, but what you start out with spiritually." His father worked three jobs to own his own home—which he achieved during Cain's childhood—and to allow his two sons to attend college.


Cain grew up on the west side of Atlanta, attending S. H. Archer High School and the Rev. Cameron M. Alexander's Antioch Baptist Church North in the neighborhood now known as The Bluff. Eventually the family moved to a modest brick home on Albert Street in the Collier Heights neighborhood. He graduated from high school in 1963.


In 1967, Cain graduated from Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. In 1971, he received a Master of Science in computer science from Purdue University, while working full-time as a ballistics analyst for the U.S. Department of the Navy as a civilian.


After completing his master's degree from Purdue, Cain left the Department of the Navy and began working for Coca-Cola in Atlanta as a computer systems analyst. In 1977, he moved to Minneapolis to join Pillsbury, becoming director of business analysis in its restaurant and foods group in 1978.


At age 36, Cain was assigned to analyze and manage 400 Burger King stores in the Philadelphia area. At the time, Burger King was a Pillsbury subsidiary. Under Cain, his region posted strong improvement in three years. According to a 1987 account in the "Minneapolis Star Tribune", Pillsbury's then-president Win Wallin said, "He was an excellent bet. Herman always seemed to have his act together." At Burger King, Cain "established the BEAMER program, which taught our employees, mostly teenagers, how to make our patrons smile" by smiling themselves. It was a success: "Within three months of the program's initiation, the sales trend was moving steadily higher."


Cain's success at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him president and CEO of another subsidiary, Godfather's Pizza. On his arrival on April 1, 1986, Cain told employees, "I'm Herman Cain and this ain't no April Fool's joke. We are not dead. Our objective is to prove to Pillsbury and everyone else that we will survive." Godfather's Pizza was performing poorly, having slipped in ranks of pizza chains from third in 1985 to fifth in 1988. Under Cain's leadership, Godfather's closed approximately 200 restaurants and eliminated several thousand jobs, and by doing so returned to profitability. In a leveraged buyout in 1988, Cain, executive vice president and COO Ronald B. Gartlan, and a group of investors bought Godfather's from Pillsbury.


Federal Reserve Bank and National Restaurant Association.


Cain served as chairman of the board of the Omaha Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from January 1, 1989, to December 31, 1991. He became a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1992. He served as deputy chairman from January 1, 1992, to December 31, 1994, and then as its chairman until August 19, 1996, when he resigned to become active in national politics.


Cain left Godfather's Pizza in 1996 and moved to the District of Columbia, From 1996 to 1999 he served as CEO of the National Restaurant Association, a trade group and lobbying organization for the restaurant industry, on whose board of directors he had previously served. Cain's lobbying work for the association led to a number of connections to Republican lawmakers and politicians. Under Cain's leadership, the Association lobbied against increases to the minimum wage, mandatory health care benefits, regulations against smoking, and lowering the blood alcohol limit that determines whether one is driving under the influence.


Cain was on the board of directors of Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO, Inc.


After Cain's term with the restaurant advocacy group ended in 1999, he returned to Omaha for about a year, then moved to his hometown of Atlanta in 2000.


Cain wrote a syndicated op-ed column, which was distributed by the North Star Writers Group.


Cain appeared in the 2009 documentary "An Inconvenient Tax". From 2008 to February 2011, Cain hosted "The Herman Cain Show" on Atlanta talk radio station WSB. On January 19, 2012, Cain began working for WSB again by providing daily commentaries, while occasionally filling in for Erick Erickson and Neal Boortz.


On October 1, 2012, Cain began writing weekly online columns for the media organization Newsmax, in a series titled "9–9–9 To Save America".


Cain took over Boortz's radio talk show on January 21, 2013, upon Boortz's retirement. The show was dropped from the Westwood One Radio Network in December 2016 in favor of The Chris Plante Show, but continued to air in limited syndication through WSB's owner, Cox Radio.


On February 15, 2013, Fox News Channel announced Cain would join the network as a contributor. In March 2019, Cain was a panelist on a "Watter's World" episode.


Cain received the 1996 Horatio Alger Award and was bestowed with honorary degrees from Creighton University, Johnson & Wales University, Morehouse College, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the New York City College of Technology, Purdue University, Suffolk University, and Tougaloo College.


Then former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Jack Kemp, referred to Cain as "the Colin Powell of American capitalism". Kemp stated that Cain's "conquests won't be counted in terms of countries liberated or lives saved, but in those things that make life worth living—expanding opportunity, creating jobs and broadening horizons, not just for those he knows, but through his example, for those he'll never meet."


Possible nomination to the Federal Reserve Board.


On April 4, 2019, President Donald Trump said that he intended to nominate Cain to the second of the two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve Board. Assessing the possible nomination, news publications reviewed Cain's sexual misconduct allegations that preceded his withdrawal from the 2012 presidential election. Cain acknowledged that the nomination process would be "more cumbersome" for him due to his "unusual career". He initially stated that he was not considering withdrawing his name from consideration for the seat. After it appeared likely that he would not receive enough votes to support his confirmation, Cain withdrew on April 22, 2019.


In the 2020 election cycle, Cain was a co-chairman of Black Voices for Trump.


Role in the defeat of 1993 Clinton health care plan.


Because Kemp was impressed with Cain's performance, he chartered a plane to Nebraska to meet Cain after the debate. As a result, Cain was appointed to the Kemp Commission in 1995.


Joshua Green of "The Atlantic" called Cain's exchange with President Clinton his "auspicious debut on the national political stage."


Cain was a senior economic adviser to the Bob Dole presidential campaign in 1996.


Cain briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. He later said in looking back at the effort that it was more about making political statements than winning the nomination. "George W. Bush was the chosen one, he had the campaign DNA that followers look for." However, Cain went on to state, "I believe that I had a better message and I believe that I was the better messenger." After ending his own campaign, however, he endorsed Steve Forbes.


In 2004 Cain ran for the U.S. Senate in Georgia and did not win in the primaries. He was pursuing the seat that came open with the retirement of Democrat Zell Miller. Cain sought the Republican nomination, facing congressmen Johnny Isakson and Mac Collins in the primary. Collins tried to paint Cain as a moderate, citing Cain's support for affirmative action programs, while Cain argued that he was a conservative, noting that he opposed the legality of abortion except when the mother's life is threatened. Cain finished second in the primary with 26.2% of the vote, ahead of Collins, who won 20.6%, but because Isakson won 53.2% of the vote, Isakson was able to avoid a runoff.


Starting in 2005, Cain worked for the political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) alongside Mark Block. Block would later become campaign manager for Cain's 2012 presidential run and would be joined in Cain's campaign by several other AFP employees. Cain continued to receive honoraria for speaking at AFP events until he announced his campaign for the Republican nomination. Cain's senior economic advisor during his 2012 presidential campaign, Rich Lowrie, who helped devise Cain's 9–9–9 tax plan, had served on the AFP board. In 2006, Cain voiced several radio ads encouraging people of color to vote Republican; the ads were funded by a group called America's PAC and its founder J. Patrick Rooney.


A Tea Party activist, Cain addressed numerous Tea Party rallies in 2010. Following the 2010 midterm elections, Cain announced his intentions to run for president in December 2010, stating that there was a 70% chance that he would attempt to seek the office. Later that month, he was the "surprise choice" for 2012 GOP nominee in a RedState.com reader poll. Cain announced the formation of an exploratory committee on January 12, 2011, before formally announcing his candidacy on May 21 in Atlanta.


Cain's addresses to conservative groups were well received, and in late September and early October 2011, Cain won the straw polls of the Florida Republican Party, TeaCon, and the National Federation of Republican Women's Convention. "My focus groups have consistently picked Herman Cain as the most likeable candidate in the debates," said GOP pollster Frank Luntz. "Don't underestimate the power of likability, even in a Republican primary. The more likeable the candidate, the greater the electoral potential."


Sexual harassment allegations and end of campaign.


In late October 2011, "Politico" reported that Cain had been accused by two women of sexual harassment and misconduct during his time as CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. Two other women made additional harassment accusations later on. Cain acknowledged that the restaurant organization made financial settlements to the complainants. Two of the four women came forward publicly: Sharon Bialek and Karen Kraushaar.


On November 28, 2011, Cain asserted that a woman named Ginger White claimed to have had an affair with him and that the allegation was not true. In an interview with White, which aired on the same day, she stated that the affair lasted 13 years and ended right before Cain announced his presidential campaign. On November 30, 2011, Cain denounced the allegations of sexual harassment and adultery at an event in Dayton, Ohio.


On December 3, 2011, Cain suspended his campaign. The sexual harassment claims were widely considered responsible for the sharp drop in his poll numbers.


According to a Pew Research Center report on December 21, 2011, Cain was the "most covered candidate" among the Republicans during that year.


For President Barack Obama's 2012 State of the Union address, the Tea Party Express chose Cain to give its second annual response. After Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels gave the official GOP response, Cain delivered his speech at the National Press Club. The speech was streamed live on the Tea Party Express website. Cain referred to Obama's address as a "hodgepodge of liberal ideas," adding that there were "no big ideas that would impact job growth" and "no big ideas that would stimulate economic growth in this country."


Although Mitt Romney was endorsed by Cain on May 15, 2012, he would eventually lose the general election to President Obama. Cain then told Bryan Fischer that the Republican Party no longer represented the interests of conservatives in the United States and that it did not have "the ability to rebrand itself." He asserted that "a legitimate third party" would be needed to replace it.


Cain married Gloria Etchison of Atlanta, soon after her graduation from Morris Brown College in 1968. The couple had two children, Melanie and Vincent, and four grandchildren.


Cain served as an associate minister at the Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, which he joined at the age of 10. The church is part of the National Baptist Convention and is politically liberal and theologically conservative. The church's senior pastor, Rev. Cameron M. Alexander, did not share Cain's political philosophy.


Disclosures filed during Cain's 2011 campaign categorized his wealth at that time as being between $2.9 and $6.6 million, with Cain's combined income for both 2010 and 2011 being between $1.1 and $2.1 million.


In 2006, Cain was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer, metastases to his liver, and a 30 percent chance of survival. After he underwent surgery and chemotherapy, the cancer was reported to be in remission.


Cain opposed masking mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. He attended the 2020 Trump Tulsa rally on June 20 and was photographed not wearing a face mask in a crowd who also were not wearing masks. On June 29, Cain tested positive for COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia and was admitted to an Atlanta-area hospital two days later. On July 2, Cain's staff said there was "no way of knowing for sure how or where" he contracted the disease. Dan Calabrese, the editor of Cain's website, said, "I realize people will speculate about the Tulsa rally, but Herman did a lot of traveling [that] week, including to Arizona where cases [were] spiking."


After four weeks of hospitalization, Cain died from COVID-19 complications on July 30, 2020, at the age of 74.


Brian Jhan Fox (born 1959) is an American computer programmer and free software advocate. He is the original author of the GNU Bash shell, which he announced as a beta in June 1989. He continued as the primary maintainer of bash until at least early 1993. Fox also built the first interactive online banking software in the U.S. for Wells Fargo in 1995, and he created an open source election system in 2008.


In 1985 Fox worked with Richard Stallman at Stallman's newly created Free Software Foundation. At the FSF, Fox authored GNU Bash, GNU Makeinfo, GNU Info, GNU Finger, GNU Echo and the readline and history libraries.


He was also the maintainer of GNU Emacs for a time, and made many contributions to the software that was created for the GNU Project between 1986 and 1994.


In 2008, Fox collaborated with Alan Dechert and Brent Turner to create a completely open source election system. The system was coded together with Parker Abercrombie, and demonstrated at the LinuxWorld conference in Moscone Center in San Francisco, August 5–7, 2008.


Fox also is a founding member of both the California Association of Voting Officials (CAVO) and the National Association of Voting Officials (NAVO). These not-for-profit organizations promote open source voting systems for use in public elections. Fox co-wrote a "New York Times" piece in 2017 with former CIA head R. James Woolsey advocating open source election systems as a means of securing US elections against Russian interference.


Fox also wrote AMACS, a cut-down implementation of Emacs for the Apple II series.


He is the fourth born in a family of six siblings, composer and musician Donal Fox, Thaddeus Fox, sister Ena Fox, Daniel Fox and sister Sara Fox-Ray. He lives in Santa Barbara with longtime partner Lissa Liggett and their three children.


He is the son of physicist and educator Herbert Fox and grandson of artist Daniel Fox, creator of the Monopoly Man.


David George (c. 1742–1810) was an African-American Baptist preacher and a Black Loyalist from the American South who escaped to British lines in Savannah, Georgia; later he accepted transport to Nova Scotia and land there. He eventually resettled in Freetown, Sierra Leone.


With other slaves, George founded the Silver Bluff Baptist Church in South Carolina in 1775, the first black congregation in the present-day United States. He was later affiliated with the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia. After migration, he founded Baptist congregations in Nova Scotia and Freetown, Sierra Leone. George wrote an account of his life that is one of the most important early slave narratives.


David George was born in Essex County, Virginia, in 1742 to African parents John and Judith, as the slave of a man called 'Chapel'. George ran away after witnessing his mother's horrible whipping. He also personally experienced a traumatic severe whipping. George received help to run away from some white travelers and worked for these men for some time. It was not until his master offered a reward for George that he ran away and worked for another white man whom he encountered (this time for many years). Because his master continued to pursue him, George migrated to South Carolina.


He was captured by a Creek Indian chief named Blue Salt. He considered George his prize and made him work. When George's owner found out that he was working for Blue Salt, he brought rum, linen and a gun to exchange for the slave, but Blue Salt refused to give him up. For several years, George worked for Creek and Natchez Indians.


George escaped and ran away again, this time encountering a Scottish trader named George Galphin (appears in some records as Gaulfin, Gaulphin), for whom he worked four years at Silver Bluff, South Carolina. Because of his close association with the Native Americans, Galphin had many slaves who had intermarried with the Creek.


George received help to read and write from the children of Galphin. He primarily used the Bible while learning how to read and write.


During this time, George met and married Phyllis, who was part Creek. Together they had four children born in what is now the United States. They had two more children born while in Nova Scotia, and four more children born in Sierra Leone.


In 1773 George met an old childhood friend and former slave, George Lisle, who had been converted to the Baptist faith. During the Great Awakening, Baptist preachers had traveled throughout the South, converting both whites and blacks, free and slave. Brother Palmer was a white Minister that uplifted and spread the word of God to David George and other Black people. Palmer was the start of the Church in Silver Bluff. Impressed with Liele's conversion, George, his wife and eight others were baptized at Silver Bluff. In 1775 George and eight other slaves formed one of the first African-American Baptist congregations in the United States.


A somewhat different account of George during these years is presented by Mark A. Noll, American church historian:


"The first continuing black church was the Silver Bluff Church in Aiken County, South Carolina, where an African-American preacher, David George (1742-1810), established a congregation around 1773 or 1774. George’s pilgrimage marked him as one of the most remarkable religious figures of his century. After serving as a slave, he was converted through the influence of an-other slave named Cyrus. Soon George began to exhort his fellow bondsmen, an activity that led to his becoming, in effect, the pastor of the Silver Bluff Church. ... American patriots were trying to throw off the "slavery" of Parliament, but for those in chattel bondage like David George, the British were the agents who combated racial, chattel slavery."


Three years later during the American Revolutionary War, the slaves escaped to Savannah, where they gained freedom behind British lines, as they had occupied the city. George continued to minister to a Baptist congregation.


Several years later, the George family chose to migrate with other Black Loyalists to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where the British provided some assistance in setting up a new colony and settlement in West Africa.


William Gwinn, his wife and daughter also emigrated to Sierra Leone. George founded the first Baptist church there. George was very influential; he was elected a "tythingman", a position of power in the colony at that time. George wrote a memoir that is considered one of the important slave narratives. He died in Freetown in 1810.


His descendants are part of the Sierra Leone Creole people of the Western Area of Freetown. Many of George's descendants belong to the Masonic Lodges of Sierra Leone. One of his descendants, also named David George, is a member of the organization "Amistad Sankofa", working to educate students about international issues and bridge the racial divide.


In August 2007, the African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia and the Atlantic Baptist Convention had a joint convention and liturgy, to acknowledge earlier racism by the white convention, and seek reconciliation. They had had separate associations since the 19th century.


Jeffrey Banks is a fashion designer and author who has been described as a major black fashion maker.


Banks worked as a design assistant to Ralph Lauren (1971–73) and Calvin Klein (1973–76). He has claimed credit for Klein's logo garments, stating that he had the logo from a press folder silkscreened onto the sleeve of a brown T-shirt as a present for Klein. The gift was assumed by Barry K. Schwartz to be part of the upcoming line, and similar shirts formed the uniform for the front-of-house staff at Klein's next catwalk show, leading to the buyers asking to purchase them.


After leaving Calvin Klein, Banks launched his own-name label in New York City in 1977, according to his official website, although some sources state 1978.


By 1996, suits, shirts, eyewear and accessories from "Jeffrey Banks Ltd." and "Jeffrey Banks International" were being sold worldwide with sales of about $20 million.


As an author, Jeffrey Banks has co-authored three fashion books with Doria de la Chapelle for Rizzoli, including a 2007 book on tartan, a 2011 book on the preppy style, and a 2015 book on the milliner Patricia Underwood. The second book led to Banks and de la Chapelle collaborating with Erica Lennard on "Perry Ellis: an American original", the first in-depth monograph on Banks's former friend and colleague, the designer Perry Ellis, published in 2013.


Florence "Flo" Anthony is a gossip columnist, syndicated radio host, TV contributor and author. She is an African-American reporter who writes for the gossip page of the "Philadelphia Sun". Anthony resides in the East Harlem section of New York City.


Florence Anthony is a graduate of Howard University.


After working as a publicist for sports legends like Muhammad Ali, Butch Lewis, Michael Spinks, Larry Holmes, Mike McCallum and Matthew Saad Muhammad; Anthony wrote in the mid-1980s entertainment news.


She became the first African-American reporter to work on the gossip column of the "New York Post", as well as the first African-American to pen a column in The National Examiner. An expert on everyone from Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson to Whitney Houston and Donald Trump, Anthony was a contributor on news magazine shows like Inside Edition, The Insider and Entertainment Tonight.


In the 1990s, Anthony became a gossip girl on "The Ricky Lake Show", The "Rolonda Watts Show", "The Joan Rivers Show", "The Geraldo Show", "The Sally Jessy Raphael Show", "The Tempestt Bledsoe Show", "The Gordon Elliott Show", "Forgive or Forget", "The Leeza Gibbons Show", "The Danny Bonaduce Show", "The Bertice Berry Show", "The Mark Walberg Show", "The Vicki Lawrence Show", and "The Maury Povich Show". She was also a guest on Court TV, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, CNN and HLN; and "The Dini Petty Show" and "The Camilla Scott Show".


For six seasons, Anthony was a contributor and in time co-host of E! Entertainment's "The Gossip Show", a roundtable entertainment news show of gossip columnists. She also appeared on "E! True Hollywood Story" episodes on celebrities like La Toya Jackson, Robin Givens, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown and countless others.


Anthony continues to be a fixture in multimedia. With her own company, Dottie Media Group LLC, Anthony has two syndicated radio shows, "Gossip To Go With Flo" and "Flo Anthony's Big Apple Buzz", that are distributed in partnership with Superadio. The shows are heard by over 3 million listeners daily in upwards of 20 radio markets nationwide.


As a writer, Anthony is a regular contributor to the "New York Daily News", providing entertainment news stories for its popular Confidential column. The famed Hollywood insider also has a weekly syndicated column of her own that appears in "The New York Amsterdam News", "Philadelphia Sunday Sun", "BRE Magazine", "Columbus Times" and "Oklahoma Eagle". Anthony also heads up Steven Hoffenberg's PostPublishing.buzz website and is a contributing writer for "Resident"magazine. She is also the former publisher/editor-in-chief of "Black Noir" magazine, as well as editor-in-chief of "Black Elegance" magazine.


On TV, she is regularly featured as a guest contributor on TV One (U.S. TV network)'s documentary series "Unsung" and "Unsung: Hollywood." She also appeared for numerous seasons on TV One's now defunct series "Life After". Anthony can also be seen talking breaking news and celebrity culture on multiple cable news shows and local shows like "Good Day New York".


As an author, Anthony made her debut in 2000 with her first novel, "Keeping Secrets Telling Lies" Her second tome came 13 years later in 2013, when she inked a book deal with Zane (author)'s Strebor Books to release "Deadly Stuff Players." The sequel to that novel, "One Last Deadly Pay" was released in 2016 through W. Clark Distribution. Anthony regularly appears at book festivals and expos signing copies of her books.


She also handles personal appearances and publicity for boxing great Michael Spinks.


John Preston Davis (January 19, 1905 – September 11, 1973) was an American journalist, lawyer and activist intellectual, who became prominent for his work with the Joint Committee on National Recovery (JCNR). In 1935 he co-founded the National Negro Congress, an organization dedicated to the advancement of African Americans during the Great Depression.


In 1946 he founded "Our World" magazine, a full-size, nationally distributed publication for African-American readers. He also published the "American Negro Reference Book", covering virtually every aspect of African-American life, present and past.