Kicha's photos with the keyword: Vintage Portrait

Photo signed by Ms. Brown, "To Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune "The Greatest Woman I Know" Sincerely, Willa B. Brown 6/9/1943 [Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation, Daytona Beach, Florida] [Willa Beatrice Brown Chappell. RICHES of Central Florida] A portrait of Willa Beatrice Brown Chappell, which is housed at the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation, located at 640 Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard in Daytona Beach, Florida. Chappell was the first African-American woman in the United States to earn a commercial pilots license and the first black female officer in the Civil Air Patrol. Brown was born on January 22, 1906, in Glasgow, Kentucky. She graduated from the Indiana State Teachers College in 1927 and received a Master's of Business Administration from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, in 1937. After pursuing careers in education and social work, she later decided to take flying lessons from Cornelius R. Coffey, who she would later marry. The couple co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics at Harlem Airport in Chicago. Brown, Coffey, and Enoch P. Waters also established the National Airmen's Association of America in 1939. The NAAA's main objective was to persuade the United States military to allow black aviation cadets. As an equal rights activist, Coffey lobbied the government for the integration of the Army Air Corps and the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Congress later voted to allow "separate but equal" participation in civilian flight training programs, designating the Coffey School as the facilitator of the African-American program. Brown became the coordinator for the CPTP in Chicago and the Coffey School later provided training for the Tuskegee Airmen. Brown also served the Civil Aeronautics Authority as a coordinator and the Federal Aviation Administration's Women's Advisory Board as a member. She died on July 18, 1992.

A group of students (names unknown) pose on the steps of Storer College, in Harpers Ferry. [Source: Jane Dunlap Collection] wvculture.org Info: Harper's Ferry, National Historical Park, West Virginia : Following the Civil War, the Reverend Dr. Nathan Cook Brackett established a Freewill Baptist primary school in the Lockwood House on Camp Hill. Brackett's tireless efforts to establish freedmen's schools in the area inspired a generous contribution from philanthopist John Storer of Sanford, Maine, who offered $10,000 for the establishment of a school in the South. The donation was offered on the condition that the school be open to all regardless of sex, race or religion. On October 2, 1867, "Storer Normal School" was opened, and two years later, in December 1869, the federal government formally conveyed the Lockwood House and three other former Armory residences on Camp Hill to the school's trustees. Frederick Douglass served as a trustee of Storer College, and delivered a memorable oration on the subject of John Brown in 1881. By the end of the 19th century, the promise of freedom and equality for blacks had been buried by Jim Crow laws and legal segregation. To combat these injustices, Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and other leading African-Americans created the Niagara Movement, which held its second conference on the campus of Storer College in 1906. The Niagara Movement was a forerunner of the NAACP. In 1954, legal segregation was finally ended by the landmark school desegregation decision handed down by the Supreme Court in Brown v. The Board of Education. The decision, however, brought an end to federal and state funding for Storer College, and a year later it closed its doors. Today the National Park Service continues the college's educational mission by using part of the old campus as a training facility.

This well dressed African American woman is Lucy Davis. She was an entrepreneur, a land owner, and a sugar beet farmer. She's also the Great Grandmother of legendary actress Pam Grier. [ Photograph was tweeted by Ms. Grier on April 20, 2016]

Portrait of a young African American woman identified as Helen Jones. Photographed circa 1915 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Portrait of a handsome African American man identified as Mr. Sanford. Photographed circa 1906 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Portrait of an African American family identified as the Bohmer Family. Photographed circa 1912 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Portrait of a young African American woman identified as Mrs. Will Richardson. Photographed circa 1907 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Portrait of two African American women identified as sisters, Florence Ann Bell and Grace E. Bell. Photographed circa 1908 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas The two women are sisters Florence Ann Bell and Grace E. Bell. Florence married Lloyd William Henson Hardin in 1893 at the age of nineteen. They had a total of five kids. Her husband -was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He passed in 1950; Florence passed in 1976 at the ripe old age of 102. Florence's sister Grace, taught music in the Kansas City school system until she married John Muse and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota and later to Chicago. After her husband passed, she returned to Kansas City where she sang in the Allen AME Church Choir and taught music until she died six months shy of her 100th birthday in 1978.

Beautiful portrait of an African American couple and their child identified as the C.E. Wilson family. Photographed circa 1912 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Portrait of a handsome African American man identified as William Powell, M.S.S. (1882-1960). At one time he was an instructor with the Mounted Service School, where cavalrymen werfe trained. He served in the U.S. Army until WWI; he retired as a Sergeant, and eventually ended up in the Old Soldiers' Home in Fort Leavenworth. The above photograph was taken circa 1913 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Circa 1904 photograph of a beautiful little girl. Frances Ruth Williams was the daughter of Sarah William and John Palmer. Born in Junction City, Kansas on September 8, 1898. She lived with her grandmother, Mrs. Clara Williams. She graduated from Junction City High School in 1917 and worked in the Fort Riley area as a stenographer. She and her grandmother moved West to Oakland, California. In 1921 she married a building contractor named Clarence A. Wilkes, the couple had a daughter named Rita Jane. Frances Ruth passed away in San Francisco on February 2, 1984. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Portrait of an African American family identified as the Laffertys. Photographed circa 1907 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Portrait of a young African American woman identified as Ora Asbury. Photographed circa 1907 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas. Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas