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Black History Month
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These selected items recognize the experiences of African Americans in Ohio. You can also view all items in the African American Ohioans subject category.

Thomas Rotch Letter to Isaac Pierce Regarding Settlement of Freed Slaves in Ohio

Rotch responds to Pierce's query about the possibility of settling free slaves in Ohio, citing a law prohibiting African American from gaining residency.
Massillon Public Library

Common Pleas Record of Blacks and Mulatto Persons

This register contains the names of African Americans in Pickaway County. From 1804-1857, African Americans in Ohio had to register their freedom papers with county courts of common pleas.
Ohio Historical Society

Gist Settlement Newspaper Article

Samuel Gist freed his 900 slaves, some of whom settled in Ohio, in Brown and Highland counties.
Union Township Public Library

Brief Exposition of the Views of the Society for the Colonization of Free Persons of Colour in Africa

This pamphlet from 1827 urged the people of Ohio to support the movement of former slaves to the African nation of Liberia. Ross County Historical Society

John Rankin House Freedom Stairway Photograph

The 100 steps leading from the Ohio River to John Rankin's House in Ripley, a station on the Underground Railroad, were called the "Freedom Stairway."
Ohio Historical Society

Ripley Anti-Slavery Society Minutes

The goal of the society was to "convince their fellow citizens that slaveholding is a heinous sin."
Ohio Historical Society

Letters on American Slavery

John Rankin's letters to the editor, published as Letters on American Slavery, denounced slaveholding.
Ohio Historical Society

Union School Petition Against Admission of African American Children

The petition states that African Americans should "be debarred the privilege and benefits of said Union School erected expressly for the white children of s[ai]d Town of Massillon."
Massillon Public Library

Wilson Bruce Evans Home

Evans' home in Oberlin was a focus of anti-slavery activity, and likely sheltered fugitive slaves.
Lorain Public Library System

John Mercer Langston Photograph

Oberlin College graduate Langston became the first African American lawyer in Ohio, and successfully pursued many career interests including law, politics, public service, and education.
Ohio Historical Society

Blue Hole, Little Miami River Painting

Duncanson was one of the first successful African American artists. The Blue Hole is a mirror-like pool in the Little Miami River.
Cincinnati Art Museum

Oberlin-Wellington Rescuers Photograph

The photograph shows participants in the rescue of John Price, a 17-year old fugitive slave from Kentucky.
Oberlin College Archives

Manumission Papers of America and Sam Barnett

In 1859, Robert Barnett of Kentucky took his slaves America and Sam to Cincinnati and gave them their freedom.
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center

Oberlin-Wellington Rescuers Victory Celebration Poster

This poster announces a victory celebration to be held in the honor of the rescuers, who were released from the Cuyahoga County Jail after charges against them were dropped.
Oberlin College Archives

National Colors of the Black Brigade of Cincinnati

This wool flag was presented in 1862 to the African American men of Cincinnati who were part of the first organized group of black men employed for military purposes in the North.
Ohio Historical Society

Black Brigade of Cincinnati

This book, published in 1864, is a history of the Black Brigade of Cincinnati and a list of the men who were part of the first organized group of black men employed for military purposes in the North.
Ohio Historical Society

Albany Enterprise Academy Lintel and Cornerstone

The Albany Enterprise Academy was owned and operated by and for African Americans, many of whom were former slaves.
Athens County Historical Society and Museum

Ohio's First African American Civil War Regiment Photograph

This photo shows the 127th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the first African-American regiment recruited in Ohio during the Civil War.
Ohio Historical Society

William Allen Speech on the Enlistment of Negro Soldiers

William Allen delivered this speech to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1863. He opposed recruiting African Americans to fight in the Civil War.
Ohio Historical Society

Attack on Fort Wagner Engraving

This engraving by Thomas Nast shows the 1863 Civil War battle at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, which demonstrated the courage of the 54th Massachusetts, an African American regiment.
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center

Daniel Payne Photograph

In 1863 Payne became first African American president of Wilberforce University.
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center

Robert Clark Letter To Arvine Wales on the Conditions of an African American School

Clark shares his observations of unfair treatment of African American children in the Glendale school system in Hamilton County with Wales, chairman of the Ohio Senate committee on common schools.
Massillon Public Library

McIntire Children's Home Baseball Team Photograph

Ten boys, two of whom are African American, made up the McIntire Children's Home baseball team in the late nineteenth century.
Ohio Historical Society

Cleveland Fifteenth Amendment Celebration Invitation

In 1877, Cleveland's African American community commemorated the passage of the 15th Amendment, which declared that race could not be used as a factor in determining voting rights.
Cleveland City Council Archives

Running the Gauntlet Editorial Cartoon

This editorial cartoon illustrates the challenges faced by African American students at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Two of the first three black graduates had connections to Wilberforce, Ohio.
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center

Emancipation Proclamation Anniversary Celebration Broadside

In 1881, the African American community in Preble County celebrated the 18th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Ohio Historical Society

Charles Young Photographs

Young won appointment to West Point in 1884 and in 1889 became the third African American graduate from the school.
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center

Dayton Central High School Class of 1890 Photograph

Pictured here are two of Dayton's most notable citizens, Orville Wright and Paul Laurence Dunbar. The Wright Brothers published Dunbar's Tattler, Dayton's first African-American newspaper.
Wright State University

Lew and Ben Snowden Playing Banjo and Fiddle Photograph

As part of the Snowdens, Lew and Ben Snowden performed popular songs for both African American and white audiences throughout rural central Ohio between 1850 and 1900.
Ohio Historical Society

Paul Laurence Dunbar Photograph

A Dayton native, Dunbar is acknowledged as the first significant African American poet in the United States.
Ohio Historical Society

Underground Railroad Painting

Webber's painting, created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, celebrates abolitionists' efforts to end slavery.
Cincinnati Art Museum

Paul Laurence Dunbar Typewriter

Paul Laurence Dunbar used a Remington Standard typewriter to compose poetry and lyrics.
Ohio Historical Society

Charles Follis and the Wooster High School Football Team Photograph

Nicknamed the "Black Cyclone," Follis became the first African-American to sign a professional football contract when he signed on with the Shelby Athletic Club.
Wayne County Public Library

National Anti-Mob and Lynch Law Association Brochure

The Springfield, Ohio-based association sought to ensure a trial by jury for African Americans through petitioning Congress and the states to enact laws against lynching.
Ohio Historical Society

Charles A. Garlick Postcards

Charles A. Garlick (1827-1912) was an Ashtabula County, Ohio resident for fifty years. He was born a slave in Virginia in 1827, and escaped to Ohio in 1843 via the Underground Railroad.
Henderson Memorial Library, Jefferson

Negroes of Xenia, Ohio: A Social Study

This 1902 report provides information Xenia's African American community and offers corresponding data from two southern towns.
Ohio Historical Society

Wilberforce University Black Cats Group Photograph

This photograph is the only known image of the "Black Cats," or the men of Beta Kappa Sigma at Wilberforce University. The "Black Cat Club" was a club with the purpose of fostering good times among the members.
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center

Ohio's African American World War I Regiment Photographs

photographs taken in April 1919 show the 372nd Infantry Regiment of the 93rd Infantry Division marching on High Street in Columbus. The regiment was Ohio's African American unit in World War I.
Ohio Historical Society

Oxford, Ohio Panthers Basketball Team Photograph

Because Oxford Public High School did not allow African Americans to play on its basketball team, these young men formed their own team in 1919. Called the Panthers, they traveled to play other teams in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.
Smith Library of Regional History

Mills Brothers Telegram

The Mills Brothers began their career in Piqua, singing in their father's barber shop. After appearing on Cincinnati's WLW radio station in the late 1920s, the Mills Brothers moved on to the New York broadcasting business and had their first hit song "Tiger Rag" in 1931.
Flesh Public Library and Museum

William Hannibal Thomas Photograph

William Hannibal Thomas (1843-1935) was the first African American to enroll at Otterbein College (then Otterbein University).
Otterbein College

David Wilborn Ex-Slave Narrative

Former slave Wilborn shared his life story with an interviewer employed by the Ohio Federal Writer's Project. He learned to read and write after the Civil War, worked as a newspaper reporter, and served in the Spanish American War, then became an undertaker.
Ohio Historical Society

Lucy Ann Warfield Ex-Slave Narrative

When interviewed by an employee of the Ohio Federal Writer's Project, Warfield guessed her age to be 117. She described her life during slavery and after, when she learned to read the Bible and became a licensed evangelist.
Ohio Historical Society

Joe Smith Obituary

Joe Smith was born into a musically talented family in Ripley, Ohio and became one of the best-known sidemen in the jazz world in the 1920s-1930s. He played for Fletcher Henderson's band and was purported to be Bessie Smith's favorite trumpet man.
Union Township Public Library

Betty Brown Photographs

Betty Brown became the first African American graduate of Notre Dame College in 1938.
Notre Dame College

Toni Morrison Yearbook Photograph

This circa 1945 Lorain High School yearbook photograph shows Noble Prize winning author Chloe Wofford, better known as Toni Morrison.
Black River Historical Society

National Association of Colored Women Convention Photographs

Three photographs document Ella Stewart of Toledo on her trip to the National Association of Colored Women convention in Los Angeles in 1952.
Bowling Green State University--Center for Archival Collections

Wayne Embry Photograph

Wayne Embry, shown here in his Miami University basketball uniform, played eleven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and later became executive vice president and general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Miami University

Martin Luther King, Jr. at Ohio University Photograph

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. visited the Ohio University campus in 1960 to speak at the 18th Ecumenical Student Conference on the Christian World Mission, an international church collegiate youth conference.
Ohio University

Freedom Summer Volunteers in Oxford, Ohio Photograph

This photograph shows young civil rights workers relaxing and singing on the Western College Campus in Oxford, Ohio, while training to go to the South to register black voters.
Smith Library of Regional History

Gegner's Barbershop Protest Photographs

These two photographs show the demonstration that resulted in 1964 after a Lewis Gegner, a barber in Yellow Springs, Ohio, refused to cut the hair of African American clients.
Antioch College

Akronite News Magazine Featuring Article on Tolerance

This edition of The Akronite, an African American monthly news magazine published in the 1960s, features an article titled "Intelligence Eliminates the Need for the Word 'Tolerance'." Akron-Summit County Public Library

Maurice Rocco Photograph

Born in Oxford, Ohio, Maurice Rockhold (1915-1976) later became known as a jazz musician who played the piano while standing up. He performed briefly with Duke Ellington before adopting the stage name Maurice Rocco.
Smith Library of Regional History