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Community Corner

FROM ABOLITIONISTS, ARTISTS, & SOLDIERS, TO EX-SLAVES, BUSINESS TYCOONS AND MORE …

The Green-Wood Historic Fund is proud to commemorate Black History

Month
with a special trolley tour honoring Green-Wood permanent

residents who helped change the course of our nation’s history through their

significant roles in the Civil War, in the abolitionist movement, and as

pioneers in finance, medicine, and the arts. Featured on the tour, among others, will be:

  • Dr. Susan Smith McKinney-Steward (1846-1918): the first black female doctor in New York State; 
  • Abigail Hopper Gibbons (1801-1893) and James S. Gibbons (1810-1892): abolitionists whose home was a stop on the Underground Railroad; 
  • Margaret (1815-1865) and Scipio Franks (unk.-1875): born slaves, Margaret was freed, then purchased her husband’s freedom; they are interred in the Gibbons’ lot at Green-Wood;
  • John E. Cook (1830-1859): abolitionist insurgent who took part in John Brown's raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, hoping to trigger a slave rebellion; subsequently caught and hung;
  • Lewis Tappan (1788-1873): an early abolitionist, he convinced former President John Quincy Adams to defend the Amistad Crew; as featured in the 1997 film, “Amistad;”
  • James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938): co-wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the “Negro National Anthem;”
  • Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887): preacher, social reformer and abolitionist, he held auctions in Brooklyn Heights to purchase freedom for slaves;
  • Civil War General George Crockett Strong (1832-1863): led the African American 54th Massachusetts Regiment in the Union
    attack on Fort Wagner; featured in the movie "Glory;"
  • Jeremiah G. Hamilton (1806/7-1885): financial agent and New York's first black millionaire;
  • 20th century pianist and Jazz great Cedar Walton;  
  • Contemporary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988);
  • Samuel E. Cornish (1795-1858): published and edited “Freedom’s Journal,” the first African American newspaper in America;
  • And more!
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