Annie E. Brown (1862-1918)

Annie E. Brown (1862-1918)

Annie E. Brown gained fame as a Methodist Episcopal evangelist in the late 1800s and early 1900s, earning a national reputation among Blacks and whites alike with her missionary work. While most of Brown’s work was done along the Atlantic seaboard, she traveled as far...
John Berry Meachum (1789-1854)

John Berry Meachum (1789-1854)

John Berry Meachum was a businessman, a founder of the oldest black church in Missouri, and a pioneer in the education of blacks in that state. Meachum was born a slave in Goochland County, Virginia on May 3, 1789. His owner, Paul Meachum, moved Meachum to North...
Scott Joplin (1867-1917)

Scott Joplin (1867-1917)

Scott Joplin, a musician and composer of ragtime music, was born in 1867 to ex-slave parents who worked as laborers on a Texas farm. At an early age they moved to Texarkana, on the Texas-Arkansas border, and it was here, following his mother as she cleaned the houses...