Our 20th Century African American Photograph archive features family photographs, African American communities, and African Businesses from 1900 to 1970.
Full-length portrait of Beatrice Parker, Eddie Walton Batchelor, and Mary Batchelor.
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.
Portrait of Callie White Sheffey (4 August 1889-January 1967), Elnora Vivian Sheffey (30 November 1896-11 February 1998) Janie B. Sheffey (8 December 1897-28 December 1925).
The Sheffey family was born and raised in Wytheville, Wythe County, Virginia, United States.
Callie White Sheffey was married first to William "Willie" Tolton Turner and later to John Alfred Floyd in Wytheville, Wythe County, Virginia.
Elnora V. Sheffey married Charles Henderson Clark in Wytheville, Wythe County, Virginia.
Janie B. Sheffey married Harold Lee Crockett in Wytheville, Wythe County, Virginia.
Photograph of Gladys Adams Ford Buffington and two others in front of business.
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 Robert Ford and, later, Lawrence T. Buffington (son of John and Ida Walker Buffington). Gladys and Lawrence made their home in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.
Full-length portrait of Joseph C. Sheffey wearing his jockey uniform.
Full-length portrait of Joseph C. Sheffey (25 September 1881-8 February 1959), the son of Daniel Henry Sheffey, Jr. (1844-1914) and Jane A. White (1860-1912), was born on 25 September 1881.
He married was married to Nannie E. Buford, and later, to Susan "Susie" Julia Roane.
Joseph C. Sheffey 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, United States
A copy of a framed portrait of Joseph P. Sumter (~1848-1920). He was born, raised, and died in Sumter County, South Carolina, and also served in 104th USCT.
The photograph belonged to Mary Louise Burgess Ghee (1924-2014) who was born and raised in Sumter, South Carolina. She spent the last 60 years of her life in New York City.
Portrait of Mildred Evelyn Simmons Adamson.
Mildred was born 14 November 1930 in Charleston, South Carolina. She and her husband, Frank Adamson, lived in New York and Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
Photograph of Pauline Matthews and Joseph Thurman Turner in front of building.
Pauline Matthews (25 October 1912-1989), born in Edgefield County, South Carolina was the great-granddaughter of Lewis Matthews. She married Joseph Thurman Turner (10 March 1910-2004) of Washington, DC.
Copy of portrait of Sarah Carter Richardson, hand-colored.
Sarah Richardson (~1831-unknown) 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. Her only daughter and son-in-law also moved with Sarah to Florida.
Colorized by John Smith
Full-length portrait of Thelma Berry and O. C. Richardson.
Thelma and O. C. Richardson were the parents of William and Hutchinson Richardson. This is the only known photograph of O.C. Richardson. O.C. Richardson was kidnapped and later died being held in a chain gang in Alabama after the birth of his second son.
