Isadore Banks (1895 – 1954)

Isadore Banks (1895 – 1954)

Isadore Banks was a 59-year-old African American landowner who disappeared on June 4, 1954. Banks was born on July 15, 1895, in Arkansas. Much of Banks’ early life is unknown, but he joined the United States Army when he was 22 years old during World War I....
John Brown (1830-1900)

John Brown (1830-1900)

Born into slavery about January 1830, John Brown was owned by a leading Southampton County, Virginia planter named Robert Ridley. When Ridley died in 1852, Brown’s wife (whose name is unknown), two daughters and one brother were sold and taken to Mississippi.  He...
Henry Blair (1807-1860)

Henry Blair (1807-1860)

Henry Blair was an African-American inventor who, in 1834, became only the second black man to receive a United States patent for his mechanical corn planter. For years Blair was believed to be the first African American to receive a patent, but it was later...
Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)

Benjamin Banneker, a free Black farmer, mathematician, and astronomer, was born on November 9, 1731, the son of freed slaves Robert and Mary Banneky, probably near the Patapsco River southeast of Baltimore, Maryland, where his father owned a small farm. For some...