Origins

The record behind the Atlas

Acknowledgement

The information presented in this Atlas comes from a variety of published and archival sources, including Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War (2008). That research grew from the 1984 settlement of Lena Santos Ferguson's membership discrimination complaint against the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

Mrs. Ferguson challenged her own exclusion and the DAR's membership practices that discouraged African American applications. Her nephew, Maurice A. Barboza, advocated for more than two decades for the completion of the research and its public availability. Nearly 40 years later, in 2023, the Society honored Mrs. Ferguson’s contributions by installing a permanent plaque in a garden beside Constitution Hall.