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Christina Proenza-Coles

@proenzacoles.bsky.social

4.6K followers 1.3K following 450 posts

Author of AMERICAN FOUNDERS: How People of African Descent Established Freedom in the New World. I study, research, teach, & post American history.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · Jul 17

"Slavery, Freedom, Public History & National Identity: Charlottesville, Curaçao, Cartagena" explores these locations as Black spaces whose histories help us better appreciate the communities we are today.

uva-center-for-cultural-landscapes-newsletter-features.mailchimpsites.com/african-dias...

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 6d

In 1799 Revolutionary War veteran John Chavis attended what is today Washington & Lee University. In 1808 he opened a highly regarded school in Raleigh, NC for Black & white students. See Helen Orthow, John Chavis: African American Patriot, Preacher, Teacher, & Mentor 1763-1838.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 7d

Dr. Matilda Evans performs surgery in the operating room of Taylor Lane Hospital which she founded in South Carolina in 1901.

Dr. Evans was a public heath pioneer & benefactor who treated Black & white patients. She was an advocate & practitioner of health care as a human right.

Grainy black and white image of women in nurses uniforms as they observe and assist Dr. Evan’s surgery (South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia)

Undated portrait of Dr. Evans (Legacy Center Archives & Special Collections, College of Medicine, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA)

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 9d

Congressman George Henry White (b. 1852), son of a formerly enslaved mother, was an educator & lawyer as well as a U.S. Representative from North Carolina In 1900. White was the 1st member of Congress to introduce legislation making lynching a federal crime.

Portrait of a man coat, vest, and white tie gazing to toward the light.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 10d

George Brown holding John Teter Jr., son of one of Brown's employees at the Cleveland Marine Steam Railways. Brown, an entrepreneur & carpenter, purchased substantial property & established key businesses as a founder of Punta Gorda. He paid his employees according to their skill rather than color.

A smiling mustachioed gentleman in suspenders and shirt sleeves holds an infant boy in front of a porch and foliage in Punta Gorda, Florida in the first half of the 20th century.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 10d

"African Americans played a tremendous role in the establishment, history, & growth of Punta Gorda. Nearly half of the city’s original setters were African American. Despite Jim Crow norms, the pioneers created a society where shared prosperity & mutual respect prevailed." Blanchard House website

KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 10d

Charlotte County, Florida's only African American history museum, celebrated its 100th anniversary over the weekend.
www.wgcu.org/top-story/20...
The Blanchard House Museum recently reopened after a three-year hiatus due to Hurricane Ian and the pandemic.

Charlotte County's only African American museum celebrates its centennial

The Blanchard House Museum is celebrating its 100th anniversary and provides a glimpse into the journey that led to this milestone.

www.wgcu.org

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 12d

“Portrait of Frederick” c. 1840 now in the Mississippi Museum of Art.

After the Civil War, Frederick took the surname Baker and was ordained as a minister.

www.mississippifreepress.org/rare-portrai...

Three quarter portrait of an enslaved man dressed in coat, vest, and tie. The portrait was in the possession of the family for whom he labored as an enslaved overseer.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 12d

Barzillai Lew (b. 1743) served with distinction during the American Revolutionary War. He purchased the freedom of his future wife, Dinah Bowman, for $400 in 1767. The 1790 census lists him as head in a household of 14 free people of color. Their house became a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Oil on canvas portrait of a young man in 18th century clothing once identified as Barzillai Lew. Now the National Portrait Gallery lists both the sitter and the artist as "unknown."

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 12d

So unrelentingly bad.

Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 13d

During Reconstruction, South Carolina congressman Robert Elliot put his own life at risk to enact measures to litigate & suppress Klan terrorism. He delivered a powerful speech in 1875 in support of the Civil Rights Act that banned discrimination in public transit, accommodations, & schools.

Etching of a mustachioed man in suit jacket, vest, and bow tie with the signature "Robt. B. Elliot" above text "Honorable Robert B. Elliot" and "Library of Congress"

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 14d

In the 1880s, Florida Ruffin Ridley wrote for the Boston Globe, organized a national conference for Black women, & edited the newspaper, The Women’s Era. “We the women of the Women’s Era Club enter the field to work hand in hand with women, generally for humanity and humanity’s interests.”

Grainy black and white portrait of a young woman in hat and gloves.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 16d

“Woman seated wearing a white cotton blouse and skirt with a dark fur stole around her shoulders” c. 1915 from the Missouri State Archives.

A beautiful young woman gazes directly, meaningfully, at the viewer. She is not identified by name in the archive.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 17d

The Roett family. Young Catherine Juanita Roett on the right became a pediatrician & opened a practice in 1952, shared an office with her father Rupert, a surgeon from Barbados who founded a Houston hospital. By 1956 she was faculty at Baylor College of Medicine & staff at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Studio portrait of three formally dressed women and two children. Houston Public Library, African American History Resource Center, Roett Family Collection.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 18d

"Terrell and her fellow activists saw the need for a national organization to provide a network of women-led initiatives, among them voting rights and racial justice. Terrell...was among the principals in the 1953 Supreme Court case that desegregated restaurants and stores in Washington, DC."

KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 18d

Discover the legacy of Mary Church Terrell, cofounder of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, educator, and women’s rights advocate who fought segregation. www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smiths...

Activist and Writer Mary Church Terrell Led the Charge for Desegregation

Discover the legacy of Mary Church Terrell, cofounder of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, educator, and women’s rights advocate.

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 18d

In the 1890s Fannie Barrier Williams founded a hospital, cofounded the National Association for Colored Women, served on the Chicago Public Library board & in the Chicago Women's Club (despite threats). A champion of voting rights, she was asked to eulogize Susan B. Anthony.

Sepia portrait of a woman with drop earrings and an elaborate lace collar c. 1885. The photograph is in the Library of Congress.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 19d

Marian Anderson (b. 1897 in Philadelphia) was a singer & international diplomat of democracy who inspired admirers worldwide. She is depicted here in a 1965 portrait by Harlem Renaissance modernist & abstract expressionist painter, Beauford Delaney (b. 1901 in Knoxville).

Very yellow painting of a woman gazing at the viewer, her hands are clasped.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 20d

Lincoln University

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 20d

Josephine Silone Yates was a professor of chemistry & among the 1st women in the US to head a university science department. She was also a journalist & editor & served as the president of the National Association of Colored Women in 1901.

Woman seated holding a fan in a formal portrait gazing at the viewer. Library of Congress.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 21d

C. R. Patterson, formerly enslaved in Virginia, founded a vehicle production company in Ohio, “an industry leader in winter buggy design,” that operated for 3 generations (1865-1939). With his son, Frederick, at the helm, the prosperous company produced automobiles, trucks, & buses.

Man in front of an early model car. See Christopher Nelson, The C. R. Patterson and Sons Company.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 22d

Frances Harper (b. 1825) author & educator, advocated equal rights, women’s suffrage, education & abolition in her writing, lectures & civic work. At the 1866 inaugural meeting of the American Equal Rights Association she urged “justice is not fulfilled so long as woman is unequal before the law.”

1898 portrait of a woman posed in formal clothes standing next to a chair.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 23d

Charles Ray advocated for the rights of all Americans. He attended Wesleyan University in 1832, edited The Colored American in 1838, & supported the pro-abolition Liberty Party in the 1840s. “We are all alike constituents of the same government,” he argued, “and members of the same rising family.”

1887 portrait of a man in jacket, waistcoat, & bow tie. The image is signed "Yours truly, Charles B. Ray." Schomburg Center, New York Public Library.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 24d

Political scientist Ralph Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. He & Barack Obama descended from John Punch, an enslaved African who had a son with a European indentured servant in 1630s VA. The family bifurcated into the “white” Punches of VA (Obama’s mom's line) & the “colored” Bunches of NC.

Black and white photo of Ralph Bunch smiling at the camera wearing a suit and tie.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 25d

“If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence.”

Bayard Rustin

Black and white photo of a bespectacled man gazing directly at the viewer.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 26d

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler earned her degree in medicine in 1864. After the Civil War she joined the many Black professionals who moved South to work with formerly enslaved individuals. In 1883 she published A Book of Medical Discourses focusing on maternal health.

Title page that reads "A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts" by Rebecca Crumpler, M.D. with pub date 1883 & a purple stamp from the Surgeon Generals Office Library.

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 27d

3,800 years ago in Peru flourished “one of the world's first great civilisations….the Caral people adapted to climate disaster without turning to war….a society built on trade, music, ritual and consensus….living in harmony with nature and relating to other cultures with respect.”

Ignacio GHOULup-Diaz @igallupd.bsky.social · 27d

"The newly discovered desert city [in Peru] that's rewriting the history of the Americas"

The newly discovered desert city that's rewriting the history of the Americas

The discovery of Peñico in Peru's Supe Valley is reshaping our understanding of the Caral civilisation – a peaceful society that survived climate catastrophe 4,000 years ago.

www.bbc.com

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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 28d

After buying her freedom in 1855, Elizabeth Keckley established a clothing business in Washington DC favored by the elite. During the Civil War she established an organization to assist formerly enslaved Americans. After Lincoln’s assassination she published a memoir to raise funds for his widow.

Sepia full length portrait of a woman standing in a beautiful gown in 1861. Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.

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