A daily Black History Month fact that has nothing to do with George Washington Carver, MLK, Jr., or Harriet Tubman. Promise!
A loyal reader* and graduate of the Mary Ann Shadd Academy in Montreal pointed me toward Mary Ann Shadd Carey for today's obligatory BHM post. Carey was born in 1823 in Delaware to parents who were free blacks and leaders in their community. Her father worked for William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator and was a key figure in the Underground Railroad.

As an adult, Shadd opened a school for black children in Westchester, PA, but emigrated to Canada in 1850. There, she founded a racially integrated school and became the first black woman to edit a North American newspaper when she launched her anti-slavery publication, The Provincial Freedom. She moved back to the states and opened another school for black children, this time in Washington, D.C., where she also got her law degree from Howard University. When she graduated in 1870, she became the first black female lawyer in the United States. She dedicated her law career to fighting for women's, particularly black women's, rights.

This concludes your daily dose of BHM.

*Feel free to send me your BHM suggestions at lauren AT stereohyped.com.