Information Panel: Pilgrimage

Information panel "Pilgrimage"

NPS / Claire Hassler

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

In July 1896, members of the National League of Colored Women traveled here from Washington, D.C. posed for their picture in front of John Brown's Fort. The women came to pay homage to Brown and his raiders, establishing a pilgrimage tradition for other civil rights organizations.

Photo caption: Mary Leary Langston (third woman seated from the left) was the widow of Lewis Leary, one of John Brown's men mortally wounded during Brown's raid. With this journey she returned to the town where her husband died fighting for the freedom of American slaves.

Photo caption: Mary Church Terrell, the League's first president, helped lead its fight against lynchings and racial segregation. She described the organization's mission as: "lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go . . . we knock at the bar of justice asking an equal chance."