Blackwell, Unita (18 March 1933–13 May 2019), civil rights activist and the first Black woman mayor in Mississippi, was born U.Z. Brown in Lula, Mississippi, in Coahoma County, as the only child of sharecroppers Willie Brown of Louisiana and Virdia Mae Brown of Lula. At age six, she started picking cotton in the summer but went to school in West Helena, Arkansas (where her aunt lived) so she could attend for the full school year instead of missing school to pick cotton (like the other Black children in Lula). She adopted the name Unita Zelma to replace her given initials after her sixth-grade teacher encouraged her to make a name literally and figuratively for herself. She attended school until the eighth grade, when her schooling stopped. In her early twenties, she married Jeremiah Blackwell; had her only child, Jeremiah, Jr. in ...
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Blackwell, Unita (18 March 1933–13 May 2019), civil rights activist and the first Black woman mayor in Mississippi
Rebecca A. Tuuri
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Dow, Neal (1804-1897), politician and social reformer
William H. Brackney
Dow, Neal (20 March 1804–02 October 1897), politician and social reformer, was born in Portland, Maine, the son of Josiah Dow and Dorcas Allen, operators of a tanning business. He received a basic education at the Portland Academy and later at the Friends’ Academy in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He also received an education in social involvement from his parents, who were ardent Quakers, committed to various types of social reform. As a child Neal witnessed escaped slaves moving through his home, which was a station on the Underground Railroad. His father traveled widely in New England in the interests of antislavery, with the support of the Society of Friends. Dow wanted to attend college and become a lawyer, but his parents objected, so he went into partnership with his father in the family business. In 1830 he married Maria Cornelia Durant Maynard; they had nine children, five of whom survived to adulthood....
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Dow, Neal (1804-1897)
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Jones, Samuel Milton (08 August 1846–12 July 1904), manufacturer, mayor, reformer, nicknamed "Golden Rule"
Jon C. Teaford
Jones, Samuel Milton (08 August 1846–12 July 1904), manufacturer, mayor, reformer, nicknamed "Golden Rule", manufacturer, mayor, reformer, nicknamed “Golden Rule,” was born near Beddgelert, Caernarvonshire, Wales, the son of Hugh Samuel Jones, a stone mason and tenant farmer, and Margaret Williams. In 1849 the family immigrated to the United States, settling near Collinsville, New York. During his childhood the young Jones attended school for a total of only thirty months, never studying grammar nor advancing beyond fractions in arithmetic. At the age of fourteen he took a job in a sawmill, and soon after secured a position as wiper and greaser on a steamboat. In 1865 Jones moved to the Pennsylvania oilfields, where he remained for most of the next twenty-one years. Working as a driller, pumper, tool dresser, and pipe liner, he saved enough money to go into the oil business for himself. In 1875 the young oilman married Alma Bernice Curtiss of Pleasantville, Pennsylvania, and during the next ten years three children were born to the couple. In 1881 Jones’s infant daughter died, and his wife’s death followed four years later. Jones characterized these losses as “the greatest trial and severest shock” of his life....
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Landes, Bertha Ethel Knight (1868-1943), reformer and mayor
Doris H. Pieroth
Landes, Bertha Ethel Knight (19 October 1868–29 November 1943), reformer and mayor, was born in Ware, Massachusetts, the daughter of Charles Sanford Knight, a painter and Union army veteran, and Cordelia Cutter. Her father moved the family to Worcester and entered the real estate business in 1873. While a student at Indiana University, Bertha Knight lived for a time with her sister Jessie and brother-in-law ...
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Landes, Bertha Ethel Knight (1868-1943)
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Skaggs, William H. (1861-1947), businessman, mayor, reformer, and commentator
Paul M. Pruitt
Skaggs, William H. (16 September 1861–19 January 1947), businessman, mayor, reformer, and commentator, was born in the North Alabama town of Talladega, the son of James M. Skaggs, a wagonmaker, and Mary Smith Skaggs. The brilliant child of an unpretentious family, Skaggs had the great ambition of making an impact on the world of public affairs. A voracious reader from childhood, he soon developed an interest in government and history. Yet his first career was in business, and for a time he was remarkably successful....
