The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page F1

tor and part of the Black Brigade, a group of black soldiers. The Fossetts helped hundreds of slaves escape to freedom by way of Cincinnati and were co-founders of the First Baptist Church of Cumminsville. In Septem- er 1862, when the Confederate Army was heading north to Cincinnati from Lexington, Kentucky, all men were ordered to volunteer to efend the city. While free African Americans were willing to serve, many Union soldiers balked at the idea of serving side by side with lack soldiers. Without warning, more than 400 African-American men were rounded up and held in a holding pen on Plum Street.

They were marched across the river and orced to build fortifications in Northern Kentucky. Abolitionists citywide complained and the men ere released. Then, they voluntarily answered the call to build fortifica- a picture is worth a thousand words, then a photographer is worth a quote from modern-day philosopher Tupac Shakur. photographic memory sometimes fades when it comes to he rich heritage of its African American community. Here are five African Americans who left their mark in Cincinnati but a re probably unknown to most of us today: 1 Sarah Mayrant Fossett (18261906) tried to get on a Cincinnati treetcar in 1860.

The conductor would not let her aboard. After he dragged her for more than a block, she sued the streetcar company and won. Her decision made it possible or African-American women to ride streetcars in Cincinnati. African- American men still were not allowed ride because they were viewed as the stronger sex and more capable of alking. This speaks to the power of well-coiffed women.

Little did the conductor know that Fossett was both married to a conductor for the nderground Railroad and also the hairdresser to the rich and famous in the Queen City. Abolitionists citywide came to defense, but so did white women unwilling to lose a ccess to their stylist. 2 husband, Peter Farley Fossett (1815-1901), a former lave of President Thomas Jefferson, was an entrepreneur, pas- tions to protect the city, causing the enemy to retreat. Many of those soldiers, known as the Black Brigade, later enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, led by Robert Gould Shaw. a monument to he Black Brigade in Smale Riverfront Park.

3 The concept of an integrated workplace was somewhat fore ign to employees in the mid-1800s in Cincinnati unless you worked for Henry Boyd (1802-1886). Boyd owned a four-building complex a Broadway and Eighth Street. He hired 50 employees of any race to work side by side in his bed-making factory. Some were so opposed to his hiring practices that they burned own his factory three times, but he kept rebuilding. In 1862, after the third fire, Boyd could not get insur- 5who shaped Cincinnati GINA RUFFIN MOORE Gina Ruffin Moore is the author of Black America Arcadia Publishing (2007).

The 1800s produce leading figures in gaining public transit to the battlefield From left: Sarah Mayrant Fossett, Peter Farley Fossett, Henry Boyd, Peter H. Clark and James Pressley Ball BLACK HIST OR MONTH THE ENQUIRER 2016 1F forum CINCINNATI.COM FACEBOOK.COM/ENQUIRER OPINION EDITOR: Cindi Andrews,.