#ThisIsAppalachia: Black History Month 2022

All profiles are sourced directly from Wikipedia

 Dred Scott born in Virginia (c. 1799 – September 17, 1858) was an enslaved African-American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for freedom for themselves and their two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott decision".The Scotts claimed that they should be granted their freedom because Dred had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years, where slavery was illegal, and laws in those jurisdictions said that slaveholders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period.The case persisted through several courts and ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decision incensed abolitionists, gave momentum to the anti-slavery movement and served as a stepping stone to the Civil War. The Clinton 12In January 1956, federal judge Robert L. Taylor ordered Clinton High School in East Tennessee to desegregate with "all deliberate speed" in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.On August 27, 1956, 12 African-American students became the first to integrate a previously all-white school in Tennessee. The twelve black students who attended Clinton High School that fall became known as the "Clinton 12". The twelve students were Jo Ann Boyce, Bobby Cain, Theresser Caswell, Minnie Ann Jones, Gail Ann Upton , Ronald Hayden, William Latham, Alvah J. Lambert, Maurice Soles, Robert Thacker, Regina Smith, and Alfred Williams.A bronze statue of the "Clinton Twelve" is now displayed outside a newly remodeled front entrance to the former Green McAdoo School, where the twelve students had attended elementary school. Willa Beatrice Brown born in Kentucky (January 22, 1906 – July 18, 1992) was an American aviator, lobbyist, teacher, and civil rights activist. She was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license in the United States, the first African American woman to run for the United States Congress, first African American officer in the Civil Air Patrol, and first woman in the U.S. to have both a pilot's license and an aircraft mechanic's license.She was a lifelong advocate for gender and racial equality in the field of aviation as well as in the military. She not only lobbied the U.S. government to integrate the United States Army Air Corps and include African Americans in the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), she and Cornelius Coffey co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics, distinguishing it as the first private flight training academy owned and operated by African Americans in the United States. Lucy (Carter) Parson born in Virginia (1851 – March 7, 1942) was an American labor organizer, radical socialist and anarcho-communist. She is remembered as a powerful orator. Parsons entered the radical movement following her marriage to newspaper editor Albert Parsons.Following her husband's 1887 execution in conjunction with the Haymarket affair, Parsons remained a leading American radical activist, as a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and member of other political organizations.   J.R. Clifford (September 13, 1848 – October 6, 1933) was West Virginia's first African-Americanattorney. Clifford was also a newspaper publisher, editor and writer, schoolteacher, and principal. He was a Civil War veteran, grandfather, as well as a civil rights pioneer and founding member of the Niagara Movement (forerunner to the NAACP). Despite boundaries derived from racial discrimination, Clifford's accomplishments were great, reflecting his ability and determination.   Alexander Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of black American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.Late in life he had acquired a small farm in Clinton, Tennessee. The farm is a few miles from the Museum of Appalachia, and Haley lived there until his death. After he died, the property was sold to the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), which calls it the Alex Haley Farm. Elizabeth Simpson Drewry born in Virginia (September 22, 1893 – September 24, 1979) was an American politician from the state of West Virginia.In 1910, Elizabeth began teaching in the black schools of coal camps along Elkhorn Creek. Her career teaching in the McDowell County black public school system spanned almost fifty years.  From early on in her career, Drewry was active in state and local educational association as well as political and civic organizations.In 1950, she became the first African American woman to be elected to the West Virginia Legislature. She served eight terms in the House of Delegates.