William A Goolsby
Chapter 1: Son of the Wilderness (1789–1812)
In the crisp autumn light of November 9, 1789, a child was born in a place called Goose Pond, Georgia—though at the time, it was barely a place at all. Just streams, trees, and silence, broken only by the sounds of wildlife and the quiet work of settlers who had come to claim what wasn’t yet theirs.
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Seventeen children. A life stretched across war, freedom, and sweeping change. She lived through slavery, emancipation, Reconstruction, and the dawn of a new century.
Read MoreHarriet Goolsby was a steadfast Southern matriarch who endured slavery, war, and Reconstruction while raising a large family across rural Georgia. From spinning wool in antebellum fields to witnessing early civil rights sparks in urban Atlanta, she embodied the quiet strength of Black womanhood through a century of profound change.
Read MoreBorn into the shadows of slavery, Essex Suggs spent his life working Mississippi’s cotton fields, raising nine children through the trials of Jim Crow and sharecropping. He lived long enough to witness the dawn of civil rights, leaving behind a legacy rooted in endurance and quiet strength.
Read MoreTed was the backbone of a large and thriving family, working hard his entire life to give his children a better future
Read MoreBorn as the Civil War ended, James Alexander was part of the first generation of African Americans born free in Mississippi. He weathered the brutality of Jim Crow, the hardship of sharecropping, and the weight of raising over 20 children through sheer grit and unwavering devotion. A farmer, father, and survivor, he built a life in Rankin County with his lifelong partner Hollie, carving out dignity from oppression. His legacy lives on in the generations that followed—a testament to endurance, labor, and love in the face of systemic injustice.
Read MoreFrom Chicago’s South Side to the Michigan State Capitol, she rose from drugstore clerk to civil rights trailblazer—shattering racial barriers, raising twelve children, and becoming the first Equal Employment Opportunity Officer in the state. A true matriarch of justice and resilience.
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