Black History Month: Chronicling Lynchburg's roots

Lynchburg’s many contributions to American history can be measured in the biographies of those who were born and raised in — or directly connected to — the Hill City who rose to prominence and distinction abroad. This series, which will continue in The News & Advance on Sundays in February, features a few of the many well-known African Americans with Lynchburg roots.

Marian Anderson
(1897-1993)
Distinguished contralto singer

Marian Anderson’s family has deep roots in the Lynchburg area, although she herself was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mother Annie Rucker Anderson was born in the city, and the Rucker family had lived in Lynchburg and Boonsboro for several generations.

Anderson was one of the most famous African-American singers of the 20th century. She sang at major venues across the United States and around the world, performing a vast repertory ranging from operatic arias to traditional “Negro spirituals.” In 1955 she became the first African American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Anderson is equally well known as a symbol of the early civil rights movement in America. In 1939, President Roosevelt allowed her to give a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after she was denied permission to perform at two other local venues because of her race. Years later Anderson returned to the Lincoln Memorial to sing during the famous March on Washington in 1963.

Anderson’s mother Annie attended Virginia Theological Seminary and College in Lynchburg and taught in local public schools before moving to Philadelphia in 1895. Anderson’s grandfather Robert Rucker owned a successful livery stable in downtown Lynchburg for 40 years.

Maria Perkins Lawton
(1864-1946)
President of Empire State Federation of Women’s Clubs, 1916-1926

Maria Perkins Lawton

Maria (or Mariah) Lawton was born a slave in Lynchburg during the Civil War. She lived most of her adult life in Brooklyn, N.Y., where her husband William was a Presbyterian minister. The Lawtons were among Brooklyn’s most prominent African-American residents.

Maria is considered a central figure in the national women’s club movement of the early 20th century. She is best known as the dynamic president of the Empire State Federation of Women’s Clubs, the primary association of African-American women’s groups in New York state. She was the namesake of the federation’s Albany chapter, the “Maria C. Lawton Civic and Cultural Club,” which is still active today.

Lawton was a graduate of Lynchburg public schools and Howard University. While raising seven children, she worked for many years as a newspaper columnist and Republican party activist.

Lawton was the daughter of Robert A. and Mildred Coles Perkins, who lived near the corner of Sixth and Polk streets. Shortly after Emancipation, her father - who had taught himself to read and write - was a teacher in the Freedmen’s Bureau schools in Lynchburg. He later became the first African-American head clerk in the U.S. Railway Postal Service.

Eugene Kinckle Jones
(1885-1954)
President of National Urban League, 1918-1941

The name “Kinckle” was once often heard in Lynchburg, but has long since faded into obscurity. It originated with the Rev. William H. Kinckle, the popular rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in antebellum Lynchburg. Eugene Kinckle Jones, grandson of one of Kinckle’s slaves, spent most of his life in New York, but always used his middle name in a subtle nod to his family’s Lynchburg roots.

For the two decades between World War I and II, Jones was president of the National Urban League. The League was organized in New York City in 1910, largely in response to the “Great Migration” of black families from the rural south to northern cities. Its mission was to promote the social and economic advancement of African Americans.

As president of the League, Jones was one of the most influential black leaders of his day. He was a member of President Roosevelt’s informal “Black Cabinet” of advisors on race and public policy.

Both of Jones’s parents were born slaves in Lynchburg. His mother Rosa Daniel Kinckle taught in Lynchburg public schools before the family moved to Richmond. His father Joseph E. Jones was a Baptist minister and professor at what is now Virginia Union University.

Jones’s grandfather “Uncle John” Kinckle was a respected porter at Lynchburg’s railroad depot for many years. During the Civil War people were instructed to send supplies and care packages for soldiers to Kinckle’s attention, and he would deliver them to local hospitals.

Eugene Kinckle Jones

Ted Delaney is Archivist & Curator, at the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg. If you would like more information about any person featured in this series, or if you would like to suggest a person to be featured, please contact Ted Delaney, ted@gravegarden.org