T. McCants Stewart

T. McCants Stewart was born into a relatively privileged family in Charleston, South Carolina that could afford to give him a pretty good secondary school education. He received his law degree from the University of South Carolina at Columbia in 1875 and moved north a few years later. Immersing himself in both national and local politics, Stewart was one of several prominent black New Yorkers who became disillusioned with the Republican Party in the last decades of the nineteenth-century, and for a period of time switched allegiance to the Democratic Party. After Philip White's death in 1891, then Mayor Seth Low appointed Stewart to succeed Philip on the Brooklyn Board of Education.

NYPL ID number: 1819715
Harry A. Williamson papers: additions, 1881-1962

Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

T. Thomas Fortune

Born a slave in Florida, T. Thomas Fortune was freed after emancipation. As a young man, he headed north to Washington D.C. where he attended Howard University and worked for a local newspaper. He then settled in New York City and established himself as a newspaper editor, founding the New York Globe, which he later renamed the Freeman and finally the Age. My grandfather, Jerome B. Peterson, served as co-editor of the Age for many years. Fortune was one of several prominent black New Yorkers who became disillusioned with the Republican Party in the last decades of the nineteenth-century, and for a period of time switched allegiance to the Democratic Party.

Joseph Fischl

NYPL ID number: 116918

Mne of Mark; eminenet, progressive and rising, by William J. Simmons, n.d. Opposite page 785

Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

Charles Ray

Born in Falmouth, Mass, Charles B. Ray moved to New York City in 1832. Although he was an ordained Methodist minister, Ray had many other occupations as well. He ran a boot and shoe store, and, In the late 1830s, took over the editorship of the city's black newspaper, the Colored American, for a short period of time. Ray was also actively engaged in many important political causes. He fought for the restitution of black male suffrage taken away by an amendment to the State constitution in 1822. He was a member of New York's Vigilance Committee and harbored many runaway slaves in in his home until they found safe passage to proceed North.

Carter Woodson, The Negro in Our History (1922).

Thomas Downing, New York City pioneer and restaurant owner

Born into slavery in Virginia, Thomas Downing escaped north with his family and settled in New York City. He was a prominent leader in the black community, an early member of the African Society for Mutual Relief, a vestryman at St. Philip's, a promoter of education for black youth, and a fighter for black civil rights in the city.

In addition, Downing ran an oyster house on Broad Street. Because of its proximity to the Customs House, the port, banks, the Merchant exchange, and other important businesses, Downing counted some of New York’s most powerful men among his customers. It was said that he often passed messages back and forth between customers at different tables and that people then assumed that he wielded influence at the highest level of city government. As a result, scores of office seekers flocked to his restaurant.

When Downing died in 1866, hundreds of people—both black and white—attended his funeral.

NYPL: psnypl_scg_527
Portrait Collection

Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

Charles Reason

The younger brother of Patrick Reason, Charles also attended the Mulberry Street School in the late 1820s where he excelled as a student. After graduation, he dedicated himself to a life of public activism, fighting for the abolitionist cause ase well as the restitution of black male suffrage taken away by an 1822 amendment to the State constitution. A member of several literary societies that flourished in the black communit in the 1830s and 1840s, Charles gave lectures of Milton and Wordsworth and dabbled in poetry writing.

Above all, Charles was devoted to the cause of black education. As principal teacher at the Laurens Street school, he taught Philip White in the late 1830s. Years later, he became Maritcha Lyons's teacher.

Denison's

NYPL ID number: 104235
Portrait Collection

Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

Alexander Crummell, abolitionist, Episcopal minister and missionary

Alexander Crummell was a student at the Mulberry Street School at the same time as Peter Guignon; the two remained lifelong friends. After graduation, Crummell attended Noyes Academy in New Hampshire and Oneida Institute in upstate New York with Henry Highland Garnet for a short period of time. Setting his sights on becoming an Episcopal minister, Crummell encountered stiff resistance from the church hierarchy, but was finally ordained in 1844. Soon thereafter, he left for England where he matriculated at Queen’s College, Cambridge University, and received a Doctorate of Divinity in 1853. Crummell then moved to Liberia where he labored as a missionary for the next twenty years.

Crummell returned to the United States in the early 1870s. Although much legislation had been passed during Reconstruction granting civil rights to black Americans, much work remained to be done. As a theologian and intellectual, Crummell spoke and wrote extensively on racial issues. Towards the end of his life, he founded the American Negro Academy. He became the mentor of one of its younger members, W.E. B. Du Bois, and exercised enormous influence over the up-and-coming scholar.

NYPL: psnypl_scg_504
Portrait Collection

circa 1890s

Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

Henry Highland Garnet, abolitionist and editor

Born into slavery in Maryland, Henry Highland Garnet escaped north with his family, arriving in New York City in 1825. He was a student at the Mulberry Street School at the same time as Peter Guignon, and later attended Noyes Academy in New Hampshire and Oneida Institute in upstate New York with Alexander Crummell. Ordained a Presbyterian minister, Garnet settled in Troy, New York where he led his own congregation. In addition, Garnet was a radical political activist. He was one of the first to suggest violent resistance to slavery and promote the emigration of black Americans to Africa. As such, he frequently found hismelf at odds with the more integration minded George Downing.

In 1881, President Garfield appointed Garnet United States Minister and Counsel General to Liberia. Garnet left for Liberia in November 1881, only to die there in February 1882.

NYPL: psnypl_scg531
Portrait Collection

Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

Dr. James McCune Smith, physician and abolitionist

Born in New York City in 1813, James McCune Smith referred to himself as “the son of a self-emancipated bond-woman” who owed his “liberty to the Emancipation Act of the State of New York.” He attended the Mulberry Street School at the same time as Peter Guignon and was recognized as the school's most talented student. Denied entrance to medical schools in the U.S. on account of his race, Smith matriculated at the University of Glasgow Medical School in Scotland, where he graduated at the top of his class. He returned to New York in the late 1830s and established a pharmaceutical and medical practice on West Broadway. It was in this pharmacy that Philip White apprenticed. Additionally, In the early 1840s, Smith became the physician at the Colored Oprhan Asylum.

A true Renaissance man, Smith had many interests. As a political activist, he was a leader in the antislavery movement, fought for black civil rights, and promoted the education of black children. In the 1850s, he joined the Radical Abolition Party, made up of white and black abolitionists; at its 1856 convention, the party nominated an interracial slate of candidates: white abolitionist Gerrit Smith for president and James McCune Smith for vice president.

As a writer, Smith contributed newspaper columns to Frederick Douglass’ Paper, published essays on culture and politics in the Anglo-African Magazine, and even wrote poetry.

Smith married Malvina Barnet in the early 1840s. Very little is known about her. She bore him many children, most of whom died in childhood. Long in poor health, Smith died early in 1865.

Week's

NYPL ID number: 1804234
Portrait Collection

Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations