Heroes of Black History

In 1937, after decades in the North, Archibald Rutledge returned to the "hyacinth days and camellia nights" of his native Carolina Lowcountry to restore his family home, Hampton Plantation. Originally published in 1947, these pages describe, in intimate and compelling detail, the plantation life he found upon his return. In the simple and lyrical language that has become the hallmark of the first poet laureate of South Carolina, Rutledge eloquently portrays the black men and women who labored alongside him in the marshes of the Santee. From his beloved companion Prince Alston to the master carpenter Lewis Colleton to Mobile "The Hunterman," who saved his infant from the talons of an eagle with a single musket shot, the people of the plantation come to life in the hands of this southern literary legend.

Tuskegee, Alabama, is associated with Tuskegee University, the Tuskegee Airmen, Booker T. Washington, and George Washington Carver. Named after the Taskigi, it is the site of the first law school in Alabama and had local schools long before there was a public school system. Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers (now Tuskegee University) was pivotal to the city being a beacon of African American achievement for a century. The birthplace of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, radio host Tom Joyner, and singer Lionel Richie, it is where Olympic star Alice Coachman was dubbed the "Tuskegee Flash" and where important court cases guaranteeing voting rights and equal education were fought. The city was also the site of the infamous medical experiment that threatened to stain the school's triumphant legacy.

William Henry Jernagin was a devout Christian and fierce advocate for civil rights in the first half of the twentieth century. He was senior pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in the Mount Vernon Square neighborhood for more than forty-five years. His activism made him an internationally recognized figure. He was a foundational leader in the American civil rights movement. His residency allowed him to contribute to the collective action to abolish Jim Crow in the nation's capital. Through his office in the National Baptist Convention, he also identified the potential in a lesser-known leader of the time, Martin Luther King Jr. Jernagin's passion lifted him to leading positions in the National Baptist Convention and National Fraternal Council of Negro Churches, as well as close work with Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower. Author Ida E. Jones reveals the story of this often-overlooked leader and his fight for civil rights while living in the District of Columbia.

From 1927 until his death in 1979, E.F. Joseph documented the daily lives of African Americans in the Bay Area. His images were printed in the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender but not widely published in his home community. A graduate of the American School of Photography in Illinois, Joseph photographed the likes of such celebrities and activists as Josephine Baker, Mahalia Jackson, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Thurgood Marshall. However, what is perhaps more compelling within these pages are the countless images of everyday citizens—teaching, entertaining, worshipping, working, and serving their community and their nation.