Black Facts: Unlocked

East Side Renaissance & Banking

Erie's Black Wallstreet

Erie's 145-year Black History Gap

Some of Erie’s most important Black stories were never given the spotlight they deserved. That’s why facts like this matter. Our latest Erie Facts You Should Know shines a light on how much Black history in Erie went und

Harborcreek Black Population

Erie Pontiacs

St. James AME Church

Erie's Black Origins

Emma Howell

New Jerusalem

Albert Vosburgh

One of the better-known residents of Erie in the nineteenth century was Albert Vosburgh, a prominent barber, businessman, and savvy real estate investor. Samuel P. Bates, in his 1884 book History of Erie County, Pennsylv

Jacquline Radcliff Brown

Jacqueline Yvonne Ratcliff Brown (1950–2022) was a trailblazing Erie, PA native and the first African American and first female Deputy Chief of Detectives for the Erie Bureau of Police. Serving for 31 years (1974–2005),

The Colfax Massacre

The Colfax massacre occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, when a white mob—including former Confederate soldiers and KKK members—murdered an estimated 62–153 black men, many of whom were surren

Oliver Hazard Perrys Black Crew Members

Approximately 12% to 25% of Oliver Hazard Perry’s crew during the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie were Black sailors, playing a critical role in the victory. Despite initially expressing reservations, Perry praised their fearle

The Black Seminoles

Black Seminole Indians. Black Seminole Indians, sometimes known as American Indian Blacks, Black Muscogulges, or Seminole freedmen, emerged as a distinct ethnic group in seventeenth-century Florida. During the early part

Atty. Larry Meredith

Atty. Larry Meredith, a beloved community leader, advocate, and the first Black Erie City Councilman and first Black Erie City Council President. Atty. Meredith served as the Deputy Director of the John F. Kennedy Center

Black Women Astronauts

Black women at NASA, known as "human computers," were pivotal to the success of early U.S. spaceflight, overcoming racial and gender barriers to calculate trajectories for Alan Shepard’s 1961 flight, John Glenn’s orbit,

Rev. Paul P. Martin

An Erie Black History moment in 1966 with the late Rev. Paul P. Martin, a trailblazer for Social Justice, an Entrepreneur in his time, President of the Erie Branch NAACP, served as board chair of the Erie Human Relations

Mary Ellen Pleasant

Mary Ellen Pleasant was an American entrepreneur, financier, real estate magnate, and abolitionist. She was arguably the first self-made millionaire of African-American heritage, decades before Madam C. J. Walker. She id

Bill Cole

Bill Cole former Chair of Erie County Democratic Party. Bill was the first African American to Chair any of Pennsylvania’s 67 Counties.

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