A Film Co-Produced by Spiritual Concepts Publishing and D. E Evans Directed
Frederick Douglass Honors the Unknown Loyal Dead – Nominated for Best Short Film during the “2022 I Will Tell International Film Festival.
Frederick Douglass Honors the Unknown Loyal Dead – Nominated for Best Short Film during the “2022 I Will Tell International Film Festival.
SEVEN DAYS AND COUNTING DOWN TO THE OFFICIAL KICKOFF OF THE 2023 FREDERICK DOUGLASS SPEAKING TOUR!!! First Stop: Hanover, Virginia, with more than 30 events scheduled so far. Get the Details >
Sponsored by the Hanover Branch of the NAACP.
The African American Historical Association of Western Maryland is proud to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on the upcoming holiday, January 16th, 2023. This day is a time to reflect on the life and teachings of Dr. King, and the progress that has been made toward the goals of equality and justice for all. As we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy, we also recognize that there is still much work to be done to ensure that all people have equal rights and opportunities. We invite our community to join us in remembering Dr. King’s message of hope and unity, and to work towards creating a more just and equitable society.
The National Constitution Center in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania, will be honoring Martin Luther King Jr.’s lifelong dedication to justice, equality, and service for the greater good through a series of free online educational programs throughout January and special events on January 16, 2023. Information about the events may be found here >.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 16, 2023, the museum will be open for extended hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with free admission. Visitors can take part in a variety of programs, including a reading of the famous “I Have a Dream” speech, a family concert featuring songs of the Civil Rights Era, a tour of the Center’s We the People exhibit, and interactive activities for children such as a Freedom Fighter Story Corner and arts and crafts tables.
One of the highlights of the day will be a discussion led by Professor Chanelle N. Rose, associate professor of history at Rowan University. Dr. Rose will delve into the historical context and significance of the “I Have a Dream” speech and the Black freedom struggle. She will also explore the speech’s place in the larger Civil Rights movement and its impact on American history.
In addition to the discussion, local actors will perform a powerful reading of the iconic speech and a diverse ensemble of musicians will lead a family concert celebrating songs of the Civil Rights Era.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. at the National Constitution Center on January 16, 2023. This is a great opportunity to learn more about this important figure in American history and to reflect on his message of hope and unity.
Born on September 16, 1869, in Hagerstown, Maryland, William Othello Wilson was an African-American corporal in the United States Army’s 9th Cavalry Regiment. He is noted for having received the Medal of Honor. Wilson was one of the best marksmen in his unit and quickly rose in rank to corporal.
Wilson’s unit was involved with patrol duties during the Ghost Dance War with the Sioux. The day after the Wounded Knee Massacre, with D Troop and a supply train of wagons surrounded by about fifty Sioux warriors in the early morning of December 30, 1890, Wilson volunteered to carry a message to the Indian agency of the Pine Ridge Reservation two miles away after the Indian scouts refused. After leaving the wagon circle, he was pursued by the warriors but outran them and alerted the other troops at the agency to rescue the stranded soldiers.[2] He earned the Medal of Honor on December 30, 1891, for bravery in volunteering to successfully carry a message to the Pine Ridge Indian Agency in South Dakota.
The 9th cavalry remained at the Pine Ridge reservation until the end of March 1891, lodging in their tents. Just a few weeks before the 9th Cavalry left the Pine Ridge reservation, Wilson took an unauthorized trip to Chadron, Nebraska and was accused of desertion. Wilson denied the charge and said he was under the influence of alcohol, and also blamed the overwintering stress at the Pine Ridge reservation. He spent a week in the guardhouse of Fort Robinson before his comrades from the 9th Cavalry left their winter lodgings through a blizzard to reach a barracks.
In 1893, during a trip to represent his regiment in an annual marksmanship contest in Nebraska, he did not return to his regiment. He kept his Springfield carbine and Colt revolver and the Army did not pursue him.
Wilson was the only black soldier to earn a Medal of Honor after desertion. Wilson was also the last black soldier to earn the Medal of Honor for heroism on American soil.
Wilson returned to civilian life in Maryland, working as an upholsterer, a cook, and a carpenter; he married and had seven children.[5] Wilson died on January 18, 1928, and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Washington County, Maryland.
In February 2003, Wilson’s only surviving daughter, Anna V. Jones, donated her father’s medal to the then-new Maryland African American Museum Corporation.
Text courtesy of Wikipedia
More information from the South Bend Tribune
Watch a video excerpt from Tim Hodge’s recent portrayal of Martin Delaney. The event was held at the Embassy Theatre in Cumberland, Maryland, and sponsored by the African American Historical Association of Western Maryland and co-sponsor Councilman Eugene Frazier.
Wheaton was born in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1866. His father, Jacob, was the first African American to vote in the state of Maryland after passage of the Fifteenth Amendment; a park in Hagerstown is named after him. Due to race relations in the area, Wheaton was required to go to the “colored” public elementary school. In order to complete the equivalent of high school, he attended Storer College, a historically black college in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, graduating in 1882.
To pay his bills he worked as a shoeshiner, sold newspapers and did chores for professors. Meanwhile he became an active member of the Republican party, attending the state Republican conventions of 1887, 1889 and 1891. During the 1888 Presidential election, he was an active speaker on behalf of the eventually successful Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison at ward meetings. At age 22, Wheaton attended the 1888 Republican National Convention in Chicago as an alternate delegate from Maryland; he was the alternate for George L. Wellington.
Wheaton married Ella Chambers on June 6, 1889, and had two children, Layton J. and Frank P. He apprenticed law with a Hagerstown attorney before moving to Washington, D.C., where he attended Howard University. During that time, his connection to U.S Congressman Louis E. McComas helped him get work as a clerk in the United States Congress. He worked as a clerk for a few years, but the 1892 Presidential election, resulting in the election of Democrat Grover Cleveland, caused him to be terminated from his clerk position. At that time he decided to seriously pursue law. He passed the Maryland bar exam in 1892, but moved to Minnesota soon thereafter; the reasons for his move are unclear.
Arriving in Minnesota in 1893, he attended the University of Minnesota Law School, becoming its first African American graduate, in 1894, and was elected class orator. He worked as a clerk in the state legislature and later as a deputy clerk for the Minneapolis municipal court system. He later opened a private law practice and became a major part of the local African American community, spearheading efforts to pass civil rights legislation. He also lobbied for permitting African American soldiers to volunteer for service in the Spanish–American War. At the time of his election to the Legislature, he had already successfully defended a murder suspect.
On November 8, 1898, Wheaton was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives representing District 42. Newspapers of the time called the district “the most aristocratic portion of Minneapolis” in the state house; it included a large chunk of the metropolitan area from the Kenwood neighborhood to modern Eden Prairie, Edina and Excelsior. He had won the Republican nomination by a large margin, and would go on to win the general election by a significant margin as well in an area where only approximately 100 of the area’s over 40,000 residents were African Americans. While in office, he introduced and helped pass an 1899 civil rights statute that broadened existing Minnesota law and granted equal access for all races to saloons, which previously had been able to exclude customers based on race.
Wheaton twice represented Minnesota at the Republican National Convention. At the 1896 Republican National Convention, he was the alternate delegate to state senator Charles Alfred Pillsbury, and lobbied on behalf of eventual nominee William McKinley to African American delegates from the South. At the 1900 Republican state convention, he gave an impassioned speech where, as described by the Minneapolis Journal, he “hypnotize[d] the convention with oratory” in arguing for a spot in Minnesota’s national convention delegation for an African American. The Journal would report that “Before the delegates had time to pull up the lower jaws they dropped in amazement when they heard him nominate himself [. . .] Before the convention scarce knew what happened, Mr. Wheaton had won the prize.” He was selected as the alternate to Knute Nelson.
Wheaton’s attendance as a part of the Minnesota delegation at the 1900 Republican National Convention would be his last major work for the state of Minnesota. Before the state convention that preceded it, he had left for Chicago to be a co-founder of a life insurance company in that city. He later moved to New York City and by 1905 had set up his own law office in Manhattan with James Curtis, another African American attorney who had worked in Minnesota. The law firm was successful. Around the same time, Wheaton switched political parties and became a Democrat. Not long after his arrival, he was asked by Minnesota Governor John Albert Johnson to defend a former stenographer being tried for murder; Johnson and Wheaton knew each other from their time in the Minnesota Legislature.
A contemporary political biography described Wheaton as one of “The Progressive Men of Minnesota.” His political rise ran counter to prevailing national trends. The collapse of Reconstruction and rise in Jim Crow laws caused serious regression in African American political power. Minnesota would not have another African American state legislator until 1973. The news of his death was reported in several Twin Cities newspapers; the Minneapolis Journal saluted “the spectacular career of J. Frank Wheaton, Negro lawyer.”
Our goal is to offer most of our programs for free to the public. In order to do so at times we need to rent facilities and provided refreshments or speaker fees. Please consider donating using our GoFundMe page. Thank you for your support.
Donate