Early Lansing African American History
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The Lansing State Republican newspaper regularly published news on the city’s African American community in the 1870s. Some of these clippings have been curated here for easy access and research.
Frederick Douglass speech in Lansing
February 20, 1867 - View
Jubilee Singers
January 23, 1874 - View
Hampton Singers
May 25, 1875 - View
Hampton Singers
June 1, 1875 - View
Lucy Karney 116th birthday reception
January 4, 1877 - View
Sojourner Truth speech at Capitol
April 13, 1877 - View
Sojourner Truth speech at Capitol
April 17, 1877 - View
George W. Lowther, House of Representatives cloak room keeper at Capitol
November 16, 1877 - View
Colored Ladies
January 29, 1879 - View
Lansing A.M.E. Church
October 15, 1879 - View
Capitol African American workers
October 22, 1879 - View
Lucy Karney obituary
December 31, 1879 - View
Lansing A.M.E. Church
January 8, 1880 - View
Father Little
February 14, 1880 - View
Lansing A.M.E. Church Festival
March 19, 1880 - View
Lansing Blue-Stockings Baseball Team
May 25, 1880 - View
Lansing A.M.E. Society
August 3, 1880 - View
William Dyer, Ingham County Juror
January 20, 1881 - View
Joseph Ford
February 19, 1881 - View
Colored Dramatic Amateurs
March 12, 1881 - View
Colored Dramatic Amateurs
March 17, 1881 - View
Sojourner Truth speech at Capitol
June 2, 1881 - View
Colored Church Benefit
June 4, 1881 - View
Sojourner Truth speech at Capitol
June 4, 1881 - View
Sojourner Truth talks Capital Punishment in Lansing
June 4, 1881 - View
Father Little
June 7, 1881 - View
Colored Knights Templar
July 16, 1881 - View
Lansing A.M.E. Church Building Fundraiser
October 13, 1881 - View
Lansing Bricklayers Union repairs A.M.E. Church Building
December 3, 1881 - View
Lansing Bricklayers Union repairs A.M.E. Church Building
December 6, 1881 - View
Lansing Bricklayers Union repairs A.M.E. Church Building correction
December 6, 1881 - View
Grand Lodge of Colored Masons
January 28, 1882 - View
John Taylor Lynching
The August 1866 lynching of Civil War veteran and formerly enslaved teenager John Taylor took place in Ingham County between the communities of Mason and Delhi Township. Delhi Township (Holt) renamed a park in Taylor’s honor in 2018 and erected a Michigan Historical Marker in 2019. Read more about Taylor’s story on the website of our friends at the Holt-Delhi Historical Society: www.holthistory.org/john-taylor-memorial-park.
Read “Reckoning with a Troubled Past: The John Taylor Lynching” by HSGL board member Jacob McCormick, which appeared in a 2021 Chronicle magazine by the Historical Society of Michigan. The article was recognized with a 2021 Michigan History Award from the HSM.
Publications
“Evolution of a Permanent Negro Community in Lansing”
By Douglas K. Meyer
Professor, Department of Geography, Eastern Illinois University
Appeared in Michigan History, Vol. LV, No. 2, 1971.
Click Here to read.
Hallmarks in Black Achievement
Developed by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
Published by Ingham County Bicentennial Commission, 1976
Digitized by Capital Area District Libraries Local History
Click Here to read.
Michigan Manual of Freedmen’s Progress
Compiled by Francis H. Warren, Secretary of Freedmen’s Progress Commission, 1915
Click Here to read.
