Heritage Honor Roll

Our Web-based Heritage Honor Roll houses the personal histories and life stories created by social legacy network members (sponsors) to preserve the legacy of people or groups important to them (honorees). The Heritage Honor Roll may contain more than one legacy story for an individual or a group—or the legacy story may appear in more than one language—because members have opted to recognize different contributions of the same individual or group or wanted to share the story with non- or limited-English-speaking audiences. 

Hyperlinks within the legacy story afford access to videos and/or audio recordings and other Web sites significant to the honoree. Moreover, to enable wider distribution, the legacy story can be posted on the Americans All home page of Legacy Partners.

Social legacy network members creating a legacy story are acknowledged in our Sponsor Directory. The entry includes a link to the sponsor’s legacy story on the Americans All Heritage Honor Roll.

Notes to Heritage Honor Roll Visitors

Within the Heritage Honor Roll, individual honorees in the Americans All Heritage Honor Roll are listed alphabetically by last name. If included, maiden names appear between parentheses and nicknames appear between quotation marks. Group honorees are listed alphabetically by the first word the sponsor entered in the “Group Name” field. However, if the legal or popular name of the group is preceded by the word “The,” such as The Anderson Trio, the name of the group will be alphabetized under the letter “T.” The name of the creator of the legacy story (sponsor) appears in square brackets and at the end of the story. If, in the case of an individual, an exact date of birth or death is not known, we add “c.” to indicate it is an approximation. If, in the case of a group, business or organization, the exact date of formation or disbandment is not known, we add “c.” to indicate it is an approximation. If the individual is still alive or the group, business or organization is still active, we leave the field blank. The honoree’s occupation, field, industry or profession is listed at the end. 

Americans All: Program Summary and Community Benefits Maryland (September 17, 1986 - ?) Black Lives Matter, Civil War, Civil Rights, Discrimination, Ethnicity and Culture, Jim Crow, Legacy Stories, Prejudice, Respect, Systemic Racism, Voting, Women’s Suffrage

The protests following the tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and the deep divide in our nation reflected in the 2020 presidential election have awakened much of the public to the plight African Americans, and other people of color, face daily in the United States. Congress and state legislatures have the responsibility to pass legislation to level the playing field, but so far they have lacked the political will to do so comprehensively.

African American Stories (? - ?) Abolitionist, Activists, Athletes, Authors, Blacks, Courts, Civil Rights, Discrimination, Desegregation, Equality, Freedom Rides, Great Migration, Jim Crow, Lynchings, Prejudice, Segregation, Slavery, Underground Railroad, Unemployment, Voting Rights

Americans All provides a website home for African American stories, FREE of cost, so community members and their organizations can create and share their stories, preserve their legacies and add them to the increasingly visible list of major  accomplishments made by African American citizens.

Smithville, Texas Texas (c.1827 - ?) American Town, Bastrop County, Railroad

Smithville, just off State Highway 71 and ten miles a of Bastrop in southeastern Bastrop County, was established by Thomas Gazeley, who in 1827 settled near the present site. Gazeley operated a store there until his death in 1853, and the community that sprang up around the store was named Smithville, after William Smith and his family. J. P. Jones and Frank Smith opened a store in the community in 1867 . . .  

American Inns of Courts "AIC" Virginia (February 2, 1980 - ?)

The American Inns of Court concept was the product of a discussion in the late 1970's among the US' members of the Anglo-American Exchange of Lawyers and Judges, including Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger and Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Burger invited Rex E. Lee, then Dean of the J. Reuben Clark School of Law at Brigham Young University and later justice of the Utah Supreme Court, to test the idea.

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Angel Island Immigration Station California (January 21, 1910 - November 5, 1940) Chinese, Immigration Station, American History

Angel Island in San Francisco Bay was the location of a large and imposing government compound where immigrants seeking entry into the United States via Pacific routes were processed. Often referred to as the Ellis Island of the West, this one-mile-square state park is the largest island in San Francisco Bay. See the video, Island of Secret Memories.

Harry Phillips American Inn of Court Tennessee (c.1990 - ?) AIC, Attorney, Burger, Common Law, English Inns of Court, Judges, Legal Professionals, O’Connor, Rule of Law, Tennessee

The Harry Phillips AIC was founded in 1990 in Nashville. It was the 120th American Inn of Court in the United States. The American Inns of Court (AIC) is an association of lawyers, judges, and other legal professionals from all levels and backgrounds who share a passion for professional excellence. The AIC is the fastest growing legal organization in the country.

Cox-Hyson Home, Smithville, TX Texas (c.1908 - ?) Historic Building, Smithville, Heritage Society, American Town

As a Bicentennial gift and through the generosity of Floyd R. "Skip" Hyson and his wife, Lucille, the newly-organized Smithville Heritage Society received the Cox-Hyson house as a permanent home for the Society in 1976. Built in 1908 for John Cox and his wife, Irene Wilkes Cox, the house was the family home of the John Cox family.

Jim Crow Laws: A Sample From Various States Maryland (January 1, 1877 - ?) American History, Colored, Discrimination, Education, Intermarriage, Marriage, Negro, Post-Civil War, Race, Segregation, Separate-But-Euqual, transportation, White  

From the 1880s into the 1960s, most American states enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws. From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for consorting with members of another race. The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their black and white clientele separated.

Smithville Public Library, TX Texas (September 1929 - ?) Public Library

At a meeting of the Woman's Club in September of 1929, the germ of an idea to establish a public library was proposed; followed by the search for a location. City officials granted space in the Council Chamber and Court Room for storage of books until a better site was determined. The original donation of books came from the private library of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Rodgers of the Upton community.

Post-Civil War: Birth of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Tennessee (May 1866 - ?) African American, Blacks, Carpetbaggers, Catholic, Civil Rights Communists, Confederate, Fraternity, Jewish, Neo-Nazi, Racism, Radical Reconstruction, Republican, Scalawags, Secrecy, Slaves, Terrorists, White Supremacy

Originally the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was established innocuously enough as a social organization by six ex-Confederate officers in the small Southern town of Pulaski, Tennessee in the early summer of 1866. Prior to 1868, the KKK essentially assumed a defensive posture aimed at protecting the white community from the perceived threats represented by Union Leaguers and the state militia. It quickly became one of the nation's most deadly domestic terrorist organizations.