Celebrating Black History Month: Henry Highland Garnet, first African American to speak to the US House of Representatives

Henry Highland Garnet, born December 23, 1815 in New Market, Maryland, was a slave, who escaped from slavery in Maryland with his family, and grew up in New York. He attended African Free School until 1828, when he went to sea as a cabin boy, a cook, and a steward, for a year.  He returned to New York City, but had to flee to Long Island when slave catchers tried to capture him.

He began attending Sunday school at the First Colored Presbyterian Church and was baptized. In 1842, he became pastor of the Liberty Street Presbyterian church in Troy, New York. Garnet and his friend William G. Allen, published the National Watchman, an abolitionist newspaper, and became an advocate for abolishing slavery.

He began speaking at abolitionist conferences, where he said that slaves should act for themselves to achieve emancipation. In 1861, he secured secured a US passport from Secretary of State William Seward, declaring him a citizen of the US.

During the Civil War, he helped the federal government with recruiting US Colored Troops.  He moved his family to Washington, DC to support black soldiers and the war effort.

On February 12, 1865, he preached to the US House of Representatives about the end of slavery, on occasion of the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Although the House was not in session, he was the first black minister to preach to them.

He continued his advocacy throughout his life, until he passed away in February 1882 of malaria in Liberia.

Celebrating Black History Month: Martin Delany, first African-American major in US Army

On February 8, 1865, Martin Delany, born as a free man in Charles Town, Virginia January 24, 1812, was commissioned as a major in the US Army, becoming the first African-American field officer.  

Growing up, Delany and his siblings learned to read and write by their mother, despite the prohibition of educating black people.  His mother moved them to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to ensure their continued freedom and learning. His father joined them a year later, after he was allowed to buy his freedom.

At 19, Martin traveled to Pittsburgh, where he attended the Cellar School of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and apprenticed with a white physician.  He was one of four black men accepted into Harvard Medical School, but were dismissed after white supremacists complained.

Delany continued to be active in medicine and politics, attending his first National Negro Convention in 1835. He began publishing The Mystery, the first black-owned newspaper printed west of the Appalachians. 

In 1856, he moved his family to Chatham, Ontario, Canada, where he assisted in the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves who reached freedom in Canada. 

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called for a military draft.  Delany began recruiting black men for the Union Army, and raised thousands of enlistees, forming the new United States Colored Troops.  In early 1865, Delany was granted an audience with Lincoln and proposed a corps of black men led by black officers, who could win over black Southerners to the Union.

He was commissioned as major February 8, 1865 as the first black major in the US Army, and achieving the highest rank a black man would reach during the Civil War. 

Read more on this amazing man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Delany

Celebrating Black History Month: John S. Rock, first African-American lawyer to practice in US Supreme Court

John Stewart Rock, born October 13, 1825 Salem, New Jersey, was a teacher, doctor, dentist, lawyer, and abolitionist.  His parents were free African-Americans and they encouraged him to study and provided him with formal schooling.  At 19, he became a teacher in Salem, teaching in a one-room school.  During this time, he began studying medicine under two white physicians, but was denied entry into medical school based on his race.

He transferred to dentistry and did an apprenticeship with a white dentist.  Rock opened  his dental practice in Philadelphia in January 1850. He was finally admitted to medical school, and graduated from American Medical College in Philadelphia in 1852, becoming one of the first African-Americans to attain a degree in medicine.  

He moved to Boston in 1853 and opened his dentist and medical practice, treating many fugitive slaves making their was to Canada via the Underground Railroad.  After a trip to Europe to seek treatment for health problems, he gave up his medical and dental practices and began to study law.  In September 1861, Rock gained admittance to the Massachusetts Bar where he advocated for the rights for African-Americans. 

On February 1, 1865, the day after Congress approved the Thirteenth Amendment to end slavery, Charles Sumner introduced a motion that made Rock the first black attorney to be admitted to the bar of the US Supreme Court.  He became the first African-American to be received on the floor of the US House of Representatives.

Rock passed away in December 1866 from tuberculosis at the age of 41. 

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: Philip Bazaar, Civil War Hispanic Medal of Honor recipient

Philip Bazaar, a Chilean-born American, was a US Navy seaman in the Civil War and was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration in the US. 

He joined the Union Navy in Massachusetts and was assigned to the USS Santiago de Cuba, a wooden, side-wheel steamship commanded by Rear Admiral David Porter.

In late 1864, General Grant ordered an assault on Fort Fisher, a Confederate stronghold, in North Carolina.  Rear Admiral Porter was in charge of the naval attack.  When that failed, a Grant ordered a second assault in January 1865.  Bazaar carried dispatches during the battle, experiencing heavy fire from the Confederates to Major General Terry, in charge of the ground assault.

According to his citation:  

"On board the U.S.S. Santiago de Cuba during the assault on Fort Fisher on 15 January 1865. As one of a boat crew detailed to one of the generals on shore, O.S. Bazaar bravely entered the fort in the assault and accompanied his party in carrying dispatches at the height of the battle. He was 1 of 6 men who entered the fort in the assault from the fleet."