Martin Delany | |
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| Birth name | Martin Robison Delany |
| Born | May 6, 1812 Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), U.S. |
| Died | January 24, 1885 (aged 72) Wilberforce, Ohio, U.S. |
| Buried | Massies Creek Cemetery, Cedarville, Ohio, U.S. |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service | |
| Years of service | 1863–1865 |
| Rank | Major |
| Battles / wars | American Civil War |
| Spouse(s) | Catherine A. Richards |
Martin Robison Delany (May 6, 1812 – January 24, 1885) was an American abolitionist, journalist, physician, military officer and writer who was arguably the first proponent of black nationalism.[1][2] Delany is credited with the Pan-African slogan of "Africa for Africans."[3] Born as a free person of color in Charles Town, Virginia, now West Virginia (not Charleston, West Virginia), and raised in Chambersburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Delany trained as a physician's assistant. During the cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854 in Pittsburgh, Delany treated patients, even though many doctors and residents fled the city out of fear of contamination. In this period, people did not know how the disease was transmitted.
Delany traveled in the South in 1839 to observe slavery firsthand. Beginning in 1847, he worked alongside Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York to publish the North Star.[4] In 1850, Delany was one of the first three black men admitted to Harvard Medical School, but all were dismissed after a few weeks because of widespread protests by white students.[5][2] Delany dreamed of establishing a settlement in West Africa. He visited Liberia, a United States colony founded by the American Colonization Society, and lived in Canada for several years, but when the American Civil War began, he returned to the United States. When the United States Colored Troops were created in 1863, he recruited for them. Commissioned as a major in February 1865, Delany became the first African-American field grade officer in the United States Army.
After the Civil War, Delany went to the South, settling in South Carolina. There he worked for the Freedmen's Bureau and became politically active, including in the Colored Conventions Movement. Delany ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor as an Independent Republican. He was appointed as a trial judge, but he was removed following a scandal. Delany later switched his party affiliation. He worked for the campaign of Democrat Wade Hampton III, who won the 1876 election for governor in a season marked by violent suppression of black Republican voters by Red Shirts and fraud in balloting.
- ^ "Martin Delany Home Page". Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved June 21, 2009. Profile] Libraries.wvu.edu; accessed August 29, 2015.
- Stanford, E. Martin R. Delany (1812–1885). (2014, August 6). Encyclopedia Virginia - ^ a b "Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885) •". 2007-03-03. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
- ^ Carlisle, Rodney P., (con. Sage Publications, Thomson Gale (Firm)), Encyclopedia of Politics, SAGE, (2005), page 811, ISBN 9781412904094 [1] (last retrieved 9 December 2018)
- ^ "Martin R. Delany (1812–1885) – Encyclopedia Virginia". Retrieved 2022-03-06.
- ^ Wilkinson, Doris Y. (Fall 1992). "The 1850 Harvard Medical School dispute and the admission of African American students". Harvard Library Bulletin. 3 (3): 13–27. ISSN 0017-8136. PMID 11612967.