John Ware (1845?-1905)

John Ware (1845?-1905)

John Ware was born a slave in South Carolina circa 1845.  When the Civil War ended, he decided to exercise his freedom by moving west.  Ware settled in Texas and got a job with a rancher who raised horses.  In 1879 Ware rode north on a cattle drive to Montana and...
Kelly Miller (1863-1939)

Kelly Miller (1863-1939)

Kelly Miller, mathematician, intellectual, and political activist, was born on July 18, 1863 in Winnsboro, South Carolina to Kelly and Elizabeth Miller. Like many African Americans who took advantage of increased educational opportunities after the civil war, Miller...
Benjamin Mays (1895-1984)

Benjamin Mays (1895-1984)

Benjamin Mays, Christian minister, scholar, advocate for justice, and an educator, was born in Ninety-Six, South Carolina on August 1, 1894, the youngest of eight children.  His parents, Louvenia Carter and Hezekiah Mays, were tenant farmers and former slaves. Mays...
Barney L. Ford (1822-1902)

Barney L. Ford (1822-1902)

Born in 1822 to a Virginia slave and a white plantation owner, Barney L. Ford grew up in South Carolina where he learned to read and write from another servant. Ford escaped slavery at age twenty-six when his master hired him out to work on a Mississippi riverboat. He...