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Mixed Historical Figures Page 2

Edward W. Brooke	Brooke became the first African –American in the United States to be elected as a state’s Attorney General, serving from 1963 through 1966. In 1966, Brooke became the first African-American popularly-elected to the United States Senate and became the first African-American to serve since the Civil War.
Robert Purvis	The son of a White man and a free Mulatto woman. In 1833 Purvis helped establish the Library Company of Colored People and the Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. In 1834 he embarked on a tour of England where he made speeches and raised funds for the Anti-Slavery cause. On his return to Philadelphia he was active in the campaign to repeal the new state law that barred African-Americans from voting. Purvis was involved in the Underground Railroad and served as chairman of the General Vigilance Committee (1852-57) that helped assist fugitive slaves. He was also elected president of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society (1845-50).
James Augustine Healy	His mother was a Mulatto slave and his father was White. He was born as a legal slave in the State of Georgia, he became the first person of African-American decent to become a Roman Catholic bishop in the United States. He graduated from Holy Cross College in 1849, and in 1854 was ordained a priest at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
Ludwig Von Beethoven	This is a hotly debated one, we don't know for sure that he had some African ancestry but there are many clues that point to it, so I'm claimin' him. What They Never Told You In History Class by Indus Kamit-Kush also claims that Beethoven was a Mulatto. Urbanlegends.com refutes the story that Beethoven had any Black in him. I'll let you decide for yourself.
Jan Matzeliger	Born in Dutch Guiana in 1852. His father was a White (Dutch) engineer his mother was African. The shoe-lasting machine invented by Jan Matzeliger not only revolutionized the shoe industry but also made it possible for ordinary citizens to purchase shoes. Matzeliger died when only 37, long before he had the chance to realize a share of the enormous profit derived from his invention.
John VI	His mother was Portugese his father (Pedro III) was possibly African or of mixed race himself. He was the king of Portugal from 1816-1826. Laure Junot, wife of Napoleon's Marshall Junot who fought the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Trafalgar, had met John VI in person. She described him as having "Negro hair, an African nose, thick lips, and swarthy skin." Portugal had imported many thousands of black African slaves from 1440 to 1773. The nobility commonly adopted black children, and used them as pets and pages. When they reached the age of majority, black women were married to men of noble rank and black men inherited titles and married Portuguese women of noble status. It is this way that black blood managed to find its way into the Portuguese royal house. John VI was the maker of modern Brazil. In Brazil he founded a botanical garden, built new roads, built Rio's first public library, ended restrictions on trade between Brazil and her neighbors, and allowed manufacturing and the importation of books for the first time. Information provided by the Eurocentric Myths website.
Robert Smalls	His father was White his mother was Black. The fame of Robert Smalls is linked to his capture of the Confederate cotton steamer, the Planter. He was a "trusted" slave and had obtained a position on the Planter as a wheelman. He used his status to flee from slavery by impersonating the captain of the Planter and sailing toward the Union blockade ships. He surrendered and was taken in by Union vessels. During the remainder of the Civil War, he worked as a recruiter of African American troops from the sea islands to serve in the Union Army. During the Reconstruction Era, Captain Smalls became a respected South Carolina politician. He was elected to five terms in the United States Congress beginning with the 44th Congress.
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback	His father was White his mother was Black. In 1872, he became the first black to serve as governor of a state of the United States. He became lieutenant governor of Louisiana in 1871. He served as acting governor for six weeks in 1872 and 1873 following the impeachment of Governor Henry C. Warmoth. He won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1872 and to the United States Senate in 1873. His opponents charged that laws had been violated in both of the elections. Both the House and the Senate denied Pinchback membership, though white Louisiana officials who were chosen by the same procedures were declared legally elected. From 1870 to 1881, Pinchback published a weekly newspaper, The (New Orleans) Louisianian.
Marie Laveau	She was supposedly the daughter of Charles Laveau, a wealthy white planter, and Darcantel Marguerite, a slave. Laveau was a free woman of color with African, Indian, French, and Spanish blood. She is the most famous and powerful Voodoo Queen in the world. She was highly respected and equally feared by the those such as the Catholic Church and the St. Louis Cathedral, where she attended mass every day. Laveau began her career in New Orleans as a hairdresser, visiting the homes of wealthy white women. She soon became the first commercial Voodoo Queen and thrived financially as a result. Through her successful efforts to free a customer's son from a murder charge, she acquired the house of Rue Ste. Anne, where she lived the rest of her life. Laveau's grave in New Orleans is visited daily by curiosity seekers and true believers of voodoo.
John James Audubon	The illegitimate son of a French sea merchant and his Creole mistress (according to The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition). American ornithologist and artist whose extensive observations of eastern North American avifauna led to the publication of The Birds of America (1827–1838), a collection of his engravings that is considered a classic work in ornithology and American art.
William Wells Brown	His father was a White plantation owner, and his mother was a Black slave. William served several slave-masters before escaping in 1834. He became a conductor on the Underground Railroad and worked on a Lake Erie steamer ferrying slaves to freedom in Canada. In 1843 Brown became a lecturing agent for the New York Anti-Slavery Society. After obtaining a reputation as one of the movement's best orators, Brown was employed by the American Anti-Slavery Society. Brown, who settled in Boston, published his autobiography, Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, in 1847. He obtained a living lecturing on slavery and temperance reform in America and Europe. This inspired his book, Three Years in Europe (1852). In 1853 Brown published Clotel, a story about Thomas Jefferson's relationship with a slave mistress Sally Hemings. The book is believed to be the first novel to be published by an African-American. Brown also wrote a play, The Escape (1958) and several historical works including The Black Man (1963), The Negro in the American Revolution (1867), The Rising Son (1873) and another volume of autobiography, My Southern Home (1880).
George William Gordon	The son of a planter and one of his female slaves. He was one of the original founding members of the Jamaica Mutual Life Society, an insurance company. As a member of the Jamaica Assembly, his defense of the social and moral rights of the oppressed made him an enemy of the Colonial establishment. Gordon was arrested and charged for complicity in what is now called the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865. He was illegally tried by court martial and, inspite of a lack of evidence, convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed on October 23,1865. The Morant Bay Rebellion and the resultant death of Gordon precipitated the beginning of a new era in Jamaica's development. The British government became compelled to make changes including outstanding reforms in education, health, local government, banking and infrastructure.

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