Who was a Civil Rights leader that was born into slavery?
Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church located at Smith and Cottage Streets in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York. It is the oldest predominantly African-American church in Dutchess County, NY. The church was a part of The Underground Railroad led by Civil Rights leader Harriet Tubman. The first black female judge in America, Ms. Jane Bolin, was a member of this church, along with other influential people. The church has experienced phenomenal new growth under the leadership of their Pastor, Reverend Edwrin Sutton. The Church as a ministry began in 1836. The church building was built between 1908 and 1910, with the parsonage added in 1914. The one-story, rectangular Gothic Revival church has an attached two-story bell tower topped by a pyramidal roof and a raised basement. The brick building features pointed arched openings and stained glass windows.
Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, or Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It changed the federal legal status of more than 3 million enslaved people in the designated areas of the South from slave to free. As soon as a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, by running away or through advances of federal troops, the slave became legally free. Eventually it reached and liberated all of the designated slaves. It did not cover slaves in Union areas that were freed by state action (or by the 13th amendment in December 1865). It was issued as a war measure during the American Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the executive branch (including the Army and Navy) of the United States.