Anacostia Community Museum Library

Grace Miller is a Social Media Intern for the Smithsonian Libraries. She is currently a senior at McDaniel College and is pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree in English and Writing.

An activist, a teacher, a poet — Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an extraordinary figure in American history. She was born free in the city of Baltimore in 1825, orphaned at the age of three, and grew up under the tutelage of her uncle Rev. William Watkins.

John Wesley Cromwell was an influential African American lawyer, educator and activist. He was also an early advocate for a concept librarians and educators still struggle with today: representation of historically marginalized voices in American literature.