07/30/2026
Martin Robison Delany was an American Abolitionist and an early influential proponent of Black nationalism. He was also a journalist, physician, military officer, and writer. Trained as a physician's assistant, he treated patients during the cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854 in Pittsburgh, even though many doctors and residents fled the city out of fear of contamination. Starting in 1847, Delany would work alongside Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York to publish the anti-slavery newspaper known as "The North Star". Douglass handled the editing, printing, and publishing while Delany traveled to lecture, report, and generate subscriptions for the paper.
Photo: Major Martin R. Delany, ca. 1865 (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)
