author
William Henry Ferris
1873–1941
A Yale-educated writer, minister, and lecturer, he used history and public speaking to argue for Black achievement and dignity in the early twentieth century. He is best remembered for ambitious works that pushed back against racist ideas and traced the global story of African-descended people.
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About the author
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, William Henry Ferris was an African American author, minister, scholar, and lecturer active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sources found during this search identify him as a Yale graduate who went on to write, preach, edit, and speak on Black history, equality, and culture.
Ferris is especially associated with The African Abroad; or, His Evolution in Western Civilization, a large historical study published in the 1910s. His work aimed to document the accomplishments of people of African descent and to challenge the racist scholarship of his time with research, argument, and moral conviction.
Some sources list his birth year as 1873, while others give 1874, so that detail appears to be reported inconsistently. What is clear is that he was part of an important generation of Black intellectuals who used writing and public life to broaden how American readers understood history and race.