1866 Adverts by Three Black Businessmen
By Betty Hoover DiRisio (LCHS Board Member & Volunteer) – originally posted on our Facebook page February 18, 2021 Three Black Businessmen's ads in the 1866 New Castle City Directory…
Leader in Abolitionist Movement – Rev James Duncan
By Betty Hoover DiRisio (LCHS Board Member & Volunteer)The first pastor of Mahoning Presbyterian Church in Pulaski, Lawrence County, was Rev. James Duncan who began serving there in 1800, and…
Rookie of Year & MVP
By Betty Hoover DiRisio (LCHS Board Member & Volunteer) Richie “Dick” Allen Richie “Dick” Allen was born on March 8, 1942 in Wampum Pennsylvnaia and attended Wampum High School. He…
Mt Jackson Soldier & US Congressman
By Betty Hoover DiRisio (LCHS Board Member & Volunteer) On May 12, 1862, 22 year-old Robert Smalls, a slave who was to soon go down in history, was working onboard…
African Storytelling
Join us February 12 as we celebrate Black History Month with African Storytelling Charlotte Sheffield wears many hats. She is a teacher, a funeral director, an advocate and board director,…
The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen
By Stephanie Fulena (LCHS volunteer) "In 1925, an Army War College Study of black troops in World War l concluded that "blacks would never have what it takes to fly…
The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen
JOIN US 7 pm On Wednesday, February 7, 2018 when Jean Speight, local historian and a retired New Castle School District teacher, presents, "The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen." The…
William A. Stewart – An Overly Qualified Barber
By Betty Hoover DiRisio (LCHS volunteer) William A. Stewart was born in 1834 in Mercer County to Lemuel B. and Margaret Stewart. He married Isabelle Berry and they had two…
New Wilmington’s Village Barber
By Betty Hoover DiRisio (LCHS volunteer) Henry Williamson Brooks was born in Ross Township, Allegheny County on July 3, 1846 to John and Eliza (Turbin) Brooks. Henry learned the “tonsorial”…
Traveling Shoes: Looking at African American Migration
The migration saw the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to parts of the North, Midwest and West. The year 1910, when 7 million…
Book Signing at the Ice Cream Social
Signing to Benefit Lawrence County Historical Society Coauthors, Susan Urbanek Linville and Elizabeth Hoover DiRisio, have scheduled a book signing for their new publication, In Hot Pursuit, The Hidden History…
Twenty Extraordinary African American Women!
"The history of women's contributions to this nation has not been limited to the struggle of women's right alone. Our nation owes whatever prosperity, enlightenment and success it has achieved…