Do You Know ME? Help us find descendants of 100 important Harrisburgers

In partnership with the Commonwealth Monument Project, we are launching a campaign via Facebook, Twitter, and this blog to track down direct descendants of 100 influential African-American citizens who called Harrisburg their home in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Our collaborators in the project, history detectives Mr. Calobe Jackson, Lenwood Sloan, and Jeb Stuart, among others, have combed the federal census records, city directories, and historic newspapers to identify 100 important voices of Harrisburg’s historical black community, who were movers and shakers in their own day.

Such prominent men and women include professionals such as ministers, teachers, physicians, and attorneys, and state workers. They include artists, singers, writers, and baseball players. They include businesswomen and store keepers, as well as ordinary occupations like carpenters, hairdressers, barbers, and domestic servants. One had an occupation as “abolitionist,” another was known to be a fugitive slave. All were influential in their own day. These 100 voices from historic Harrisburg will be inscribed on the monument that will be dedicated in August 2020.

The Commonwealth Monument Project seeks to honor living relatives of these important 100 voices. If you are a descendant of any of these individuals, or know someone who is, please contact us at digitalharrisburg@messiah.edu.

For more information about each of the individuals below, visit our 100 Names page, or “like” our Old Eighth Ward Facebook Page or follow us on Twitter (@digharrisburg). We will be releasing all names during the month of March.

For more background to the Commonwealth Monument Project, read this previous post by Rachel Williams or the excellent overviews published by Elizabeth Hardison in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star and by Diane McCormick in The Burg. The Commonwealth Monument Project is also known as the IIPT Harrisburg Peace Promenade 15th Amendment Project and is funded through The Foundation for Enhancing Communities and the Humanities Research for the Public Good grant through the Council of Independent Colleges.