Our 20th Century African American Photograph archive features family photographs, African American communities, and African Businesses from 1900 to 1970.
This photo was taken of Karen Batchelor's paternal grandparents, Beatrice Parker and Eddie Walton Batchelor with their daughter Mary Batchelor on the day they arrived in Detroit as part of the Great Migration of Blacks from the South.
The promise of a job in Detroit's auto factories motivated Eddie and Beatrice to leave Harris County, Georgia and head North. The picture was taken by an unknown photographer at the station in Detroit when they got off the train from Georgia and faced a new life.
Gladys Adams Ford Buffington born 4 February 1924 in Waterford, Marshall County, Mississippi to Daniel David Adams (1885-1947) and Ethel Echols (1893-1982). She married (1) Robert Ford; and (2) Lawrence T. Buffington (son of John and Ida Walker Buffington). Gladys and Lawrence made their home in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.
Joseph C. Sheffey, Jr., the son of Daniel Henry Sheffey, Jr. (1844-1914) and Jane A. White (1860-1912), was born on 25 September 1881.
He married 1) Nannie E. Buford, and 2) Susan "Susie" Julia Roane.
Joseph C. Sheffey, Jr. was a professional African American jockey in his young adulthood. He is pictured here wearing his winter jockey silks. He was known to have jockeyed in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and New Jersey. While he lived in Virginia, New Jersey and New York over the course of his life, he passed in 1959 in his native Wytheville, Wythe County, Virginia.
Joseph P. Sumter (about 1848-1920). He was born, raised, and died in Sumter County, SC, and also served in 104th USCT.
The photograph belonged to my mother Mary Louise Burgess Ghee (1924-2014) who was born and raised in Sumter, SC. She spent the last 60 years of her life in New York City.
My Great-great-grandmother Sarah Richardson was born about 1831 in South Carolina. She was the widow of Mark Richardson, Sr. who was born about 1840 in South Carolina. She and many of her immediate family left South Carolina for Florida after the death of her husband Mark.
Sarah worked as a midwife. She had moved from South Carolina to Fort McCoy, Marion County, Florida with her twin sons Mark and Matthew, as well as two of her grandchildren Arthur and Esther Richardson. Her son Robert, his wife Martha, and their three children - and her only daughter and son-in-law- also moved with Sarah to Florida.
Colorized by John Smith
Thelma and O C Richardson were the parents of William and Hutchinson Richardson. This is the only picture of O.C. Richardson the family has of him. O.C. Richardson was kidnapped and later died being held in a chain gang in Alabama after the birth of his 2 sons.
