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Marching
to a Different Drummer
Unrecognized Heroes of American History
By Robin Kadison Berson
Robin Kadison Berson is
Director of the Upper School Library of Riverdale Country School
in New York City. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, she was a
Woodrow Wilson Fellow at New York University, here she received
a Master of Arts degree in history; she holds a Master of
Science degree from Columbia University of Library Service. She
has taught secondary school history in a variety of settings,
and spent seven years as managing Editor of History of
Education Quarterly.
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Profiling 35 reformers and activists prominent in American history from the
eighteenth to the twentieth century, the author says her work is "a
celebration of the maladjustment that has, small increments at a time, moved
American society closer to the ideals we are proud to profess." Many of
these individuals are familiar only to students of the discipline. They include
such figures as Sara Josephine Baker, George Washington Cable, Florence Kelley,
and Rose Schneiderman. Berson says her selection of subjects was based "not
on material success or achievements (of the subjects), but on the breadth and
quality of the vision that animated these lives."
Reviews
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Tillson, former Confederates, and other racists did not want
the freedmen and especially Tunis G. Campbell to succeed in
their experiment of self-government. There plot was to undermine
and reverse the program set in operation General
William T. Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who
had met with 20 of Savannah's black clergy on Jan. 12, 1865, to
discuss how to help blacks make the transition from slavery to
freedom. Sherman and Stanton mulled over
the response and four days later Sherman issued Special
Field Orders, No. 15., promising all blacks 40 acres of Low
Country property and a military mule. General
Rufus Saxton, director of the South Carolina Freedmen's Bureau implemented
the program, settling over 40,000 blacks on 40-acre tracts.
Tunis Campbell
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With a solid background in Greek, Latin, and upper math, Anna
won easily admittance into Oberlin College in Ohio, located near
Lake Erie. One of the first integrated secondary schools in the
country, Oberlin, founded by abolitionist and free thinkers, was
the first college to admit both blacks and women. Anna was
exceedingly prepared for the rigor of Oberlin. . . .
In 1884, Anna received her undergraduate degree
and
then secured a position at Wilberforce University and during the
summer sessions earned an A.M. in mathematics from Oberlin. To
be near her mother and family, Anna in 1885 returned for a year
to St. Augustine. In 1887 she was employed to teach math and
Latin at Washington High School (later named the M Street High
School) in the nation's capital. In 1901, Cooper became principal of M Street High
School.
Anna Julia Cooper
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Mary White Ovington (1865-1951)
John Swett Rock
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Table of Contents
-- Acknowledgments
-- Introduction
-- Subject Lists
-- William Apess
-- Sara Josephine Baker
-- Smedley Butler
-- George Washington Cable
-- Tunis Campbell
-- Luisa Capetillo
-- Edward Coles
-- Anna Julia Cooper
-- Angie Debo
-- John Lovejoy Elliott
-- Elizabeth Freeman
-- Laura Haviland
-- Thomas Hazard
-- Lugenia Hope
-- Myles Horton
-- Jovita Idar
-- Florence Kelley
-- Thomas Kennedy
-- Susette La Flesche
-- Lucy Laney
-- Benjamin Lay
-- Belva Lockwood
-- Seth Luther
-- Vito Marcantonio
-- Tanya Nash
-- Mary Ovington
-- Jeannette Rankin
-- John Rock
-- Ernestine Rose
-- Rose Schneiderman
-- Tye Leung Schulze
-- David Walker
-- George White
-- Carola Woerishoffer
-- Minoru Yasui
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George Henry White
Lugenia Hope
1871-1947 |
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Months before Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at
Yorktown in October 1781, Elizabeth, known commonly as
Bett or MumBet, began her own social revolution in the
household of her mistress, Hannah Ashley, and the state
of Massachusetts.
Hannah Ashley attempted to strike Lizzie with a heated
kitchen shovel; Elizabeth "interposed her arm, and received
the blow; and she bore the honorable scar it left to the day of
her death" (Berson, 109). Disturbed by her mistress
outrageous behavior, Elizabeth consulted the lawyer Theodore
Sedgwick and cited the revolutionary doctrine of equality.
Elizabeth Freeman
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Lucy entered the first class of
Atlanta University in 1869 at the age of 15. After graduation from Atlanta
University, Laney began a lifelong career as an educator and the
founder of numerous institutions for the uplift of freedmen and
their children. She taught first, for ten years, in the
public schools of Savannah, Macon, and Milledgeville. Much of her
efforts were curtailed by the reactionary phases of Reconstruction
and post Reconstruction Georgia. . . . Believing that she could provide a higher standard of
education than Georgia's public schools for Negroes, Lucy Laney
decided to open her own school with the encouragement of the Christ
Presbyterian Church, USA, and chose the city of Augusta which provided no
schools for black children. Various Negro aid societies
provided some funds. The school opened on January 6, 1883 in the basement
of the Christ Presbyterian Church (10 and Telfair Street), starting with
five children, Laney had within a couple of years over 200
students enrolled in her school. Lucy Laney
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Published by Greenwood Press. Westport
Connecticut. 1994
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updated
22 October 2007 / updated 8 April 2008
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