Born: May 6, 1812, Charles Town, VA

Education: Chambersburg, PA public schools; Harvard Medical School, 1850–51

Died: June 24, 1885, Wilberforce, OH

Born to an enslaved father and free mother, a literate freeman, Delany became one of the most important nineteenth-century black spokesmen.

He advocated abolition, emigration, and colonization. As editor of the Pittsburgh Mystery and coeditor of the Rochester North Star, he called for Federal sanctions against the Slave Power. He co-organized National Negro conventions (1840s) and African Emigration conferences (1850s). His books and other writings promoted African American resistance, self-help, and an independent black nation in the Caribbean or Africa. Delany also criticized white abolitionists for their racism and they denounced his colonizing ventures. A major in the Union army, he served as its highest ranked black officer in the Civil War. He excelled in recruiting and commanding US Colored Troops. In leadership and influence, he was second to none, except Frederick Douglass. African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) Bishop Daniel A. Payne deemed him “too intensely African to be popular,” adding that “had his love for humanity been as great as his love for his race” (Sellman, 2005, p. 354) he would be Douglass's equal. Influential in Republican politics during Reconstruction, Delany remained at the forefront of struggles for equal citizenship.