Willis Augustus Hodges

Willis Augustus Hodges (February 12, 1815 – September 24, 1890) was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, and political organizer who became prominent in Brooklyn, New York. Born to free parents in Virginia, Hodges became an outspoken advocate for enslaved African Americans during the Antebellum period, giving aid to the Underground Railroad in the North after a move to New York, and collaborating with such notable figures as William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown and Frederick Douglass. He also published an antislavery newspaper, ''The Ram’s Horn.''

Following the Civil War, when he served in the Union Army, Hodges was active in Reconstruction politics in Virginia, attending the State Constitutional Convention of Virginia as a delegate from 1867 to 1868. He returned to New York in 1881, after conservative whites regained dominance in Virginia. Provided by Wikipedia