George Washington Williams

George Washington Williams (1849–1891) was an American soldier, minister, lawyer, legislator and historian. Born in Pennsylvania, he enlisted in the Union army at fourteen, fought in the Civil War, and then graduated from Newton Theological Institution, becoming a Baptist pastor in Boston and Cincinnati. In 1879 he was the first Black member of the Ohio legislature. His two-volume History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880, published in 1882, was the first comprehensive history of Black Americans. In 1890 he traveled to the Congo and wrote an open letter exposing the atrocities of Leopold II's regime.