Timothy Thomas Fortune (1856–1928), journalist, publisher, and founder of the National Afro-American League John Mercer Langston (1829–1897), Virginia attorney, U.S. House representative, and president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University). Isaac Myers (1835–1891), trade unionist, founder of Colored National Labor Union Robert Smalls (1839–1915), Civil War Union Army hero, U.S. House representative from South Carolina and founder of the Republican Party of South Carolina. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842–1924) editor, organizer, suffragist and founder of the Woman's Era, the first newspaper by and for African-American women Sojourner Truth (1797–1883), speaker and activist Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), educator, author, and first head of the Tuskeegee Institute.