Society of the First African Families of English America
2023 Society Honorees

KEITH F. ANDERSON of the great state of Virginia.  Principal Chief of the Afro-Indigenous Nansemond Indian Nation. A founder of the Nansemond Indian Patriots Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, the first chapter composed predominantly of Native and mixed-race American men. The Nansemond Indian Patriots Chapter is the first chapter of the male lineage society consisting of predominantly Native American members. Anderson's honor is conferred by virtue of his life work, and by descent from Afro Indigenous Revolutionary War patriot William Taborn Senior, a Private/Teamster with the North Carolina Militia under Captain James Saunders and Colonel William Taylor.

CRISPUS ATTUCKS posthumously of the great state of Massachusetts. Known as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre and, as a result, the first American killed in the American Revolution. Attucks a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry, died in Boston on March 5, 1770, after British soldiers fired two musket balls into his chest. His death and that of four other men at the hands of the 29^th Regiment became known as the Boston Massacre. Death instantly transformed Attucks from an anonymous sailor into a martyr for a burgeoning revolutionary cause.

ED CARTER of the great state of North Carolina. Co-founder and the first president of the Isaac Carter Chapter of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the first chapter in the male lineage society consisting of predominantly African American men. Ed Carter served as the chapter’s first president named after his ancestor Isaac Carter a Forgotten Patriot of the Revolutionary War.

ANTONIO D. CHARITY of the great state of California. After graduating from Howard University, Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts he performed on stage at St. Luke’s Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, The Negro Ensemble Company, New Federal Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre and many other Off-Broadway, regional and community theatres around the country. As an acclaimed actor his EXTENSIVE credits include appearances on every major award-winning television shows and movies where his portrayals of characters of strong Americans of African descent reflect his strong family lineage to the 1670s Charity family of Surry County, Virginia where he was raised. In his upcoming documentary he will document his ancestral roots of nearly four hundred years in English America.

MARIA COLE of the great state of Tennessee. Founder of the Forgotten Patriots luncheon of the Daughters of the Revolution; for her service as a docent for fifteen years at the Daughters of the American Revolution; She was a co-founder and established the Isaac Carter Chapter of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, named after an African American patriot of the Revolutionary War and is the first chapter in the male lineage society consisting of predominantly African American men. Ms. Cole descends from two Forgotten Patriots of the Revolutionary War, patriot Absalom Martin and patriot Isaac Carter.

ANDREA DAVIS of the great province of Nova Scotia, Canada.  Executive Director of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society, in Birchtown, Nova Scotia. The Black Loyalists were the approximately 3,000 African American supporters of the British during the American Revolutionary War who were repatriated to Nova Scotia, British Canada at the end of the war. Andrea is a direct lineal descendant of multiple entries of the Book of Negroes, a complete record of each person's name, the master they formerly belonged to, and details that would help to “denote their value.”  

EUNICE RUSS AMES DAVIS, posthumously of the great state of Massachusetts. Founding member of the Boston Female AntiSlavery Society, president of the first independent Baptist Female Society. In 1896, The New York Times named her the "oldest living female abolitionist in the world". She was a “Real” Daughters of the American Revolution, meaning that she was an actual daughter of a Forgotten Patriot of the American Revolution, Private Prince Ames of Massachusetts. 

JAMES FORTEN, posthumously of the great state of Pennsylvania. A Forgotten Patriot of the American Revolution. An African American abolitionist and wealthy businessman who made his fortune after the American Revolutionary War. He used his wealth and social standing to work for civil rights for African Americans nationwide, including opposition to the colonization movements, particularly that of the American Colonization Society. He was a major contributor to the William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. Membership is conferred by virtue of his Revolutionary War patriotic service.

PRINCE HALL, posthumously of the great state of Massachusetts.  A Forgotten Patriot of the American Revolution, and an American abolitionist and leader in the free black community in Boston. Now known as the “Father of Civil Rights,” on March 6, 1775, outside of Boston, Prince Hall and fourteen other Free Blacks became members of the British Army Lodge No 441 and became the founder of the Prince Hall Freemasonry. Hall lobbied for education rights for African American children and was active in the back-to-Africa movement. Membership is conferred by virtue of his Revolutionary War patriotic service.

STEVE HAMMOND of the great state of Virginia. In-depth research on his third great-grandmother Nancy Syphax enslaved by the renowned Alexandria, Virginia’s tavern keeper John Gadsby. Working with scholars across the nation, Steve was able to connect his third great-grandmother Nancy and her brother Charles and his wife Maria Carter Custis to the family of President George Washington and his wife Martha Custis Washington. Steve is retired from the United States Department of Interior after many years of service as an earth scientist. A genealogist and family historian, Hammond has spent decades researching, writing, and lecturing about the Syphax Family and their place in Virginia history.

RITA HEINEGG of the great state of Pennsylvania. The inspiration for the researching the family histories of nearly eight hundred free and distinct African American families in Virginia and North Carolina during the earliest colonial period of America resulting in the publication of the award-winning series the Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia. She descends from multiple early colonial ancestry, including her 1600 enslaved Kee family of Virginia and her free Tann (Kecatan) family found in the 1650s colonial records of Charles City County, Virginia.

MARVIN TUPPER JONES of the great District of Columbia. Founder of the Chowan Discovery Group whose mission is to research, document, preserve and present the 400+ year-old history of the land-owning tri-racial people of color of the Winton Triangle, an area centered in Hertford County, North Carolina.   The Winton Triangle digital collection now has over 90,000 files of photographs, and has documents, maps, audio and video recordings to preserve the four-hundred-year history of the people of color in this part of eastern North Carolina. 

CALVIN PEARSON of the great state of Virginia. Founder and president of the Virginia based nonprofit organization Project 1619 and brining national awareness to the arrival of the first documented Africans of English America at Point Comfort (present day Hampton, Virginia) over four hundred years ago. A descendant of the first Africans, Calvin brought to light the historic contributions of the fist Africans and ensured that they were properly commemorated and honored in 2019, for their contributions to American history. Descends from multiple early 1700 Virginia and North Carolina ancestry.

CALVIN RAMSEY of the great state of New York. Playwright and book author, with works including the musical Bricktop and Ruth and The Green Book, the picture book inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film, The Green Book shedding light on a time in America when Jim Crow and separate but equal was the law of the land. His work was inspired by Victor Hugo Green, who published the Jim Crow-era “Negro Motorist Green Book.” Descends from Revolutionary War Forgotten Patriot John Epps, Private, Guilford County, North Carolina Regiment.

ROHULAMIN QUANDER of the great District of Columbia. Founder and president of the Quander Family Foundation, as an author and for his research of the Quander family over a 300-year history in the states of Maryland and Virginia, and the family’s history of involuntary servitude to President George Washington at his Mount Vernon plantation. A multiple descent from the enslaved families at General George Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation.