2 minute read
Chokmah - May 2023 | Issue 2
A POWER COUPLE OF THE LITERARY AND MASONIC WORLD
ROBERT LEWIS PENDLETON AND LEILA AMOS PENDLETON
Advertisement
Written By LL Catrice Vandross
Robert Lewis Pendleton was born in Marianna, Jackson County, Florida, on July 16, 1865, to Robert Lewis and Hastie (Armstead) Pendleton. Working parents of a family of eight, his father was a shoemaker, and his mother a laundress. Their family included five sons Robert, Howard, Armstead, Lewis, and Love, and two daughters, Catherine “Kate” and Rosa.
While segregation still existed in Washington, it was more tolerable than it was in the South. Eight months before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, over 3,000 enslaved persons were emancipated in DC This gave DC the distinction of
North, in search of new opportunities and prosperity. In New York, Pendleton became the publisher of the New York Globe. He moved to Washington, DC in search of what was called a “GGJ,” a good government job. In DC, he found a growing Black cultural scene with Howard University as an educational magnet.
Pendleton was a pioneer printer in Washington, DC. He began his printing career at the age of sixteen while living in Florida. As the years progressed, he joined the thousands, that would migrate
being the only part of the United States to have compensated slave owners for freeing the enslaved people they held in bondage. The compensation to every slaveholder, who was loyal to the Union was $300 per slave. Congress made payments totaling $900,000. Emancipation in DC allowed the nation to rededicate itself to the founding principles and become a vanguard of freedom, equality, and justice.
Throughout Reconstruction, segregation continued to exist in DC, while more tolerable than in the South. There were no signs that said, “colored only” or “whites only.” African Americans knew what the rules were, they knew the boundary lines, and they knew their “place.” Thus, DC became a haven for African Americans seeking the promises of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment.
