Four Influential African American People

Susan B. Anthony
Born in Adams, Massachusetts on February 15,1820. As a child she was an activist of slavery. She was raised as a Quaker and was brought up as a slavery activist. She also was a temperance activist in the Daughters of Temperance (prohibition of alcohol). Since only men were able to speak at temperance rallies she was not able to be there. Susan B. Anthony suddenly became a woman suffragist. She performed many woman rights acts along with her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They both organized the first woman’s state temperance society. They spoke all over the nation trying to persuade the government to treat men and women equally. She became vice president of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association (was combined with American Woman Suffrage Association) and then president at 1892. She devoted her entire life being an activist to woman rights. She died within her home in Rochester, New York on March 13, 1906 due to pneumonia and heart failure.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Borna on November 12,1815 in Johnstown, New York. She was a social activist and an abolitionist. She protested along with her husband, Henry Brewster Stanton. After the American Civil War she protested for woman rights. She was mainly concerned with the women’s parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce laws and economic health of family and birth control. Along with Susan B. Anthony, she protested against the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. She became the president of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1869 until 1892. She died of heart failure on October 26,1902. That was 20 before women were able to have the right to vote. 5

Scott Joplin
Born near Linden, Texas between July 1867- January 1868. He was called the father of ragtime or the “King of Ragtime. He wrote 44 ragtime pieces, a ragtime ballet and 2 operas (Guest of Honor and Treemenshia). His known pieces “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer”. He traveled in the south his music career performing. In 1976 he was given the Pulitzer Prize. He died in April 1, 1917.

Frank Lloyd Wright
Born in Richland Center, Wisconsin on June 8,1867. He was a famous American architect, interior designer, and educator. He designed offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels and museums. He built over 400 structures. He created the idea of the prairie house. He also created interior elements (furniture). He wrote 20 books and articles. A known building is Guggenheim Museum. He died on April 9,1959.