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WHEREAS, Martin Delany was born in 1812 in Charlestown, in what was then the Commonwealth of Virginia, and moved to Chambersburg, PA in 1820; and
WHEREAS, he left home at the age of 19, and after a season in Bedford, arrived in Pittsburgh where he joined several anti-slavery associations; and
WHEREAS, Martin Delany became the apprentice of Dr. Andrew McDonald, assisting in medical procedures and eventually opening his own practice; and,
WHEREAS, in 1843, he published the first edition of the Mystery, Pittsburgh's black newspaper with the motto “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians”; and,
WHEREAS, in 1850, Martin Delaney was accepted to Harvard medical school, and was shortly thereafter expelled by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. when the student body petitioned to refuse entry to blacks and women; and,
WHEREAS, returning to Pittsburgh, Martin Delany helped save the city from a cholera epidemic and was presented by City Council with a scroll testifying to his skill as a doctor; and,
WHEREAS, in 1852 he submitted a patent application for a device that would enable locomotives to cross the Allegheny mountains without the aid of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, but was denied because as a black man he was ineligible to hold a patent; and,
WHEREAS, Martin Delany was credited with convincing Abraham Lincoln to use black troops in the Civil War, and was commissioned a major in the United States Army; and,
WHEREAS, after the Civil War, Martin Delany served a term as lieutenant governor of South Carolina, and died in Wilberforce, Ohio in 1885; and,
WHEREAS, the extraordinary life of this Pittsburgher will be honored at the 200th anniversary of his birth with the production of Martin R. Delaney Lives, which was written by and stars Pittsburgher Wali Jamal with music by singer-songwriter Mike Stout and will run from May 1st through 6th at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.
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THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of...
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