Cynthia Hesdra (1808-1879) was born into slavery.  Her father was described as a “half-breed Indian.” She was described as “mulatto” in Census records.

She married Edward Hesdra who was a free mixed-race man.  The couple purchased Cynthia’s freedom after their marriage.  They spent the early years of their marriage in New York City where Cynthia ran a laundry business and owned several properties.

They went on to move to Nyack, NY where they both continued to amass property and wealth.  Hesdra became involved with Underground Railroad.  Runaway slaves would rest at her house stowing away during the day and then traveling on northward once it was night.

In 1879, Hesdra died. At first, it was said, without a will.  Her husband soon produced a will that spurred litigation with the family.  At the time of her death, her assets valued at well over $100,000. –Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015.

Jeremiah Hamilton (1806/1807) became the only black millionaire in New York in the 1850s according to abolitionist and physician James McCune Smith.

Hamilton dealt in counterfeit coins in his early career.  Laer he became a shrewd real estate investor capitalizing on the misfortune of people who lost everything in the Great Fire of New York.

Hamilton was a successful businessman who amassed incredible wealth but he was not well-regarded.  His nicknames included “The Prince of Darkness” and “N***** Hamilton”.

His wife, Eliza was white and they had 10 children together during approximately 40 years of marriage.

Hamilton’s wealth did not protect him from racism and racist violence.  In 1863, a group of white men broke into his home with the intention of lynching him.  When he died in 1875, Hamilton was proclaimed the richest black man in the United States.  Today he has largely been forgotten.-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015.

Linda Jum ( 1954-2015) was an advocate for multiracial Jewish people.  Her background was Chinese and Chinese-American but she identified as Jewish from a very young age.  In 1990, she helped found the Jewish Multiracial Network.  She founded the Jewish Reconstructionist summer camp in 2001.  “Jews have always been a multi-racial people. I always ask people who think Jews should be Caucasian, ‘What part of Poland did Abraham come from?”” she is quoted as saying in a 2004 interview with the New Jersey Jewish News. She received the Jewish Reconstructionist Federations’ Yehudit Award in recognition of her work with the camp and the Reconstructionist youth movement in 2010.  She died in 2015. –Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015.

Walter Tull (1888-1918) was born in Kent, England to a father who was the son of slaves from Barbados and a Kent-born woman.  Both parents died by the time he was nine and he and his brother were sent to an orphanage.  While there, Tull started playing soccer and became a professional player by 1909.  He was only the second person of color to play soccer professionally.

In 1914 he volunteered for the Army.  He proved himself to be a wonderful soldier and was quickly promoted.  He became the first black combat officer in the British Army.  He was also the first black officer to lead white British troops into Battle.  In 2014, the British Royal Mint released commemorative coins celebrating his achievements as a combat officer and for the ultimate sacrifice of his life in the line of duty in 1918.

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Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015.

Photo credit Hreinn Gudlaugsson.

Ed Thigpen was an American jazz drummer born in 1930.

At 18, Thigpen became a professional musician.  In 1950, he joined Cootie Williams’ band at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City.  He was drafted in 1952 and served in the US Army in Korea and Japan.  After his military service, he joined Dina Washington’s trio.  Known as “Mr. Taste,” he went on to become a fixture in New York’s vibrant jazz scene.

In 1959, he realized a dream to play with the Oscar Peterson Trio.  From the mid-1960s until the mid-1970s, Thigpen accompanied Ella Fitzgerald’s trio and also played as a freelancer in Hollywood for legends such as Johnny Mathis.

Thigpen moved permanently to Denmark in 1974.  He worked with expatriate musicians such as Ernie Wilkins, and Danish jazz artists like Niels-henning Oersted Pedersen.

Thigpen died in 2010 and is buried in Vestre Kirkegaard in Copenhagen.  He is survived by his two kids from his second marriage to a Danish woman.

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015.

Ellen Craft (c.1826-1897), the daughter of a slave and her white master, became a leading abolitionist after she escaped from slavery.  The very light-skinned Craft disguised herself as a white man and escaped with her husband who acted as her man-servant.  In 1860, the couple published a book-length account of their experience called Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom.

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015.

Caroline Bond Day (1889-1948) was mixed-race and her calculation of her heritage was that she was 7/16 Negro, 1/16 Indian, and 8/16 white.  Day received bachelor’s degrees from both Atlanta University and Radcliffe College.

She worked as a teacher, social worker, and secretary.  In her spare time, she collected data about black-white ancestry.  In 1932, she published “A Study of Some Negro-White Families in the United States.” She is considered to be the first African-American anthropologist at Harvard to receive a master’s degree with an authored credit of her research first.  She died in 1948. – Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015.