Jeff Z. Klein (Niagara Frontier Heritage Project)

James Monroe Whitfield was a remarkable figure in a remarkable time: a free Black man who owned his own home and his own business in pre-Civil War America; a renowned Romantic poet; and a leading voice in the abolitionist movement.

Gerda Weissmann Klein lived a life of unimaginable sadness, loss, and misery, yet paradoxically, one of soaring hope, happiness, and achievement.

Imagine driving across the continent on unpaved roads, railroad ties and trackless wastes… in an open car with no heat, no windshield, no nothing.

Chauncey Olcott, a son of Buffalo and Lockport, did not set foot in the Emerald Isle until he was 40 years old.

Today, if you own a home across the Western New York suburbs and even in certain neighborhoods in Buffalo itself, you may still find “racial covenants” in your deed.