William Howard Day was a black abolitionist, editor, educator and minister.
Background
Day was born in October 16, 1825, in New York City His mother was Eliza, a founding member of the first AME Zion Church and an abolitionist. His father, John, was a sail maker, veteran of the War of 1812 and Algiers, in 1815. They asked his mother to allow them to educate him.
Education
Day went to Oberlin College and graduated in 1847.
Career
The Willistons of Northampton, Massachusetts raised him. In 1834, the young Day joined Henry Highland Garnet and others in forming the Garrison Literary and Benevolent Association. He dedicated his life to the rights of Blacks in the United States. In 1848 he was in Cleveland where he became the secretary of the National Negro Convention and he also published one of the first newspapers for black Americans titled the Alienated American.
In 1858, Day was elected president of the National Board of Commissioners of the Colored People by the Black citizens of Canada and the United States.
Day was also active in the cause of the civil rights of the northern black minority. In the 1858 case Day v.
Owen, the Republican-dominated Michigan Supreme Court ruled against him and upheld segregation. Day left for a European lecture tour the same year and returned to the United States of America after the end of the American Civil War.
He rose to be an lead the local school board.
Day died in Harrisburg on December 3, 1900, at the age of 75. William Howard Day Cemetery was established in nearby Steelton in the 1900s as a burial place for all people, including people of color who were denied burial at the nearby Baldwin Cemetery. lieutenant remains a popular burial site for local African American families.