Benjamin "Pap" Singleton

"Father of the Exodus": Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809-1892)

Benjamin Singleton was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Enslaved, Singleton was sold several times, but always managed to escape. Eventually, he fled to Canada, then settled in Detroit, Michigan, where he ran a boardinghouse that also sheltered black runaways.

After the Civil War, Singleton returned to Tennessee and began organizing an effort to buy up Tennessee farmland for blacks; his plan failed because white landowners refused to sell at fair prices. Between 1877 and 1879, Singleton and his partner, Columbus Johnson, formed a company that helped hundreds of black Tennesseans move to Kansas.

Those who moved to Kansas became known as "Exodusters." Singleton was described as the "Father of the Exodus." By 1879, some 50,000 blacks had fled to freedom in Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois, while thousands more had been turned back by whites patrolling the rivers and roads.

In 1880, Singleton was called to testify at Congressional hearings on the alarming migration of blacks from the South. By 1881, however, Singleton had begun a new phase in his campaign to aid his people, organizing a party called the United Colored Links in a black section of Topeka, Kansas, called "Tennessee Town" because so many natives of that state lived there. Unfortunately, Singleton soon discovered that there was not enough capital within the black community to achieve this goal.

In 1883 Singleton founded an organization called the "Chief League," which encouraged blacks to emigrate to the island of Cyprus. Few responded to his call. In 1885, he formed the "Trans-Atlantic Society" to help black people move back to their ancestral homeland in Africa. By 1887, this group, too, had proven unsuccessful.

Poor health forced Singleton to retire from his self-appointed mission. In 1892, he died in St. Louis. But his vision of a society in which African Americans owned the land, directed the industries and held the power would live on, finding a charismatic champion in Marcus Garvey, whose Universal Negro Improvement Association of the early 1920's briefly realized many of Singleton's dreams.

Comments

PHYLLIS LINDA HYMAN (July 6, 1949 – June 30, 1995)

Phyllis Hyman was born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , and grew up in St. Clair Village , the South Hills section of Pittsburgh . Born to an Italian mother, (Louise), and African-American father, (Phillip), Hyman was the eldest of seven children. Through her paternal great-grandparents Ishmael and Cassandra (Cross) Hyman, she was also the first cousin once removed of actor Earle Hyman (best known for his recurring role on The Cosby Show as Cliff's father, Russell Huxtable). After leaving Pittsburgh, her music training started at a music school. On graduation, she performed on a national tour with the group New Direction in 1971. After the group disbanded, she joined All the People and worked with another local group, The Hondo Beat. At this time, she appeared in the film Lenny (1974). She also did a two-year stint leading a band called "Phyllis Hyman and the P/H Factor". She was discovered in 1975 by music industry veteran Sid Maurer, and former Epic Re

Queen Philippa: England's First Black Queen

England's First Black Queen, Mother of the Black Prince Philippa was the daughter of William of Hainault, a lord in part of what is now Belgium. When she was nine the King of England, Edward II, decided that he would marry his son, the future Edward III, to her, and sent one of his bishops, a Bishop Stapeldon, to look at her. He described her thus: "The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is cleaned shaped; her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than the forehead. Her eyes are blackish brown and deep. Her nose is fairly smooth and even, save that is somewhat broad at the tip and flattened, yet it is no snub nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth fairly wide. Her lips somewhat full and especially the lower lip…a

369th Infantry Regiment “Harlem Hellfighters”

First organized in 1916 as the 15th New York National Guard Infantry Regiment and manned by black enlisted soldiers with both black and white officers, the U.S. Army’s 369th Infantry Regiment, popularly known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” was the best known African American unit of World War I. The regiment was nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, the Black Rattlers, which was given to the regiment by the French. The nickname "Hell Fighters" was given to them by the Germans due to their toughness and that they never lost a man through capture, lost a trench or a foot of ground to the enemy. The "Harlem Hellfighters" were the first all black regiment that helped change the American public's opinion on African American soldiers and helped pave the way for future African American soldiers. Federalized in 1917, the 369th prepared for service in Europe and arrived in Brest, France in December. The next month, the regiment became part of the 93rd Division (Provisio

Enlightened Free Thinking Nubian Kings And Queens

Search This Blog