William Henry Myers was born in Virginia, August 17, 1848 and was enslaved on a cotton plantation. In 1860, at the age of twelve, he was sold to a Louisiana cotton farmer. He would work there for three years. At the age of fifteen Myers escaped from that plantation. Word...
Edward Hesdra is hailed for operating an Underground Railroad safe house in Nyack, NY. The UGRR was a secret operation since the penalties for assisting fugitive slaves were severe for the slave as well as the abolitionist. Few records exist that tell us about the activities of agents, conductors...
Ethel Roseboro hailed from North Carolina. She moved to Hillburn in order to teach the third and fourth grades.
Cicely Savery Gunner was the daughter of William Savery, a former slave and master carpenter whose desire to educate his children after the civil war led to the building of the first school for African Americans in Talladega County, Alabama. This school later became Talladega College. Today, visitors to...
News 12 highlights first Black female principal in East Ramapo In honor of Black History Month, News 12 is featuring a woman who made her mark in Rockland County education and beyond. Dr. Arlene Clinkscale moved to Rockland County 60 years ago and became the first Black teacher in...
Dear Friends: We pray that this note finds you and yours well and that 2022 will be a beautiful new beginning for us all. We are inviting you to attend the African American Historical Society of Rockland County (AAHS) for this past year’s annual meeting being held virtually on...
Dear Friends: This year has been one of great challenges. We know that many in and around Rockland have suffered a variety of losses. We hope that this note finds you and yours well and that 2021 will be a beautiful new beginning for us all. We are inviting you to...
This video is courtesy of LOHUD. An advertisement will play before the video starts. Ramapo Film documenting desegregation battle “Two Schools in Hillburn” recounts the 1943 struggle to integrate the village’s Main School for white students and the Brook School, where “colored” students were sent. Joe Allen’s film recounts the...
This is a true story about two separate by equal elementary schools in Hillburn, New York — one white and one black elementary schools. In the 1940s, Thurgood Marshall played an important role in this gripping story, 11 years before his well-known involvement in the Brown v. Board of...
In an interview with John Lewis, he recalls his days in Selma, the Voting Rights Act, and the urgency of our votes being counted today. This video is an excerpt from a longer video of a program presented in February 2013 by The African American Historical Society of Rockland...
Birth of the African Grove Theater Based of the true story of the first black theater company established in New York in 1821, and the first to perform Othello with a Negro actor. With… Keith Bulluck, Dimitri Cambronne, Phil Gist, John DeBlasio, Drusilla Kinzonzi, Barbara Cepeda, Bruce Pearl, Anne...