Frances Ellen Watkins Harper - was born on September 24, 1825, in Baltimore, Maryland. Harper is credited for introducing the tradition of African American protest poetry. She used her prestige and writings to fight racism and also make strong feminist statements. Harper is credited today as an American abolitionist, suffragist, poet, temperance activist, teacher, public speaker, and writer. In 1853, Watkins joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and became a traveling lecturer for the group. She delivered many speeches during this time and faced much prejudice and discrimination along the way. In 1854, Watkins delivered her first anti-slavery speech called "The Elevation and Education of Our People." The success of this speech resulted in a lecture tour in Maine for the Anti-Slavery Society. She recalled New England warmly: "Dear old New England! It was there kindness encompassed my path; it was there kind voices made their music in my ear. The home of my childhood, the burial-place of my kindred, is not as dear to me as New England." She continued to travel, lecturing throughout the East, the Midwest, and Canada from 1856 to 1860. Of Pennsylvania's treatment of the African-American people, Harper stated: "Now let me tell you about Pennsylvania. I have been traveling nearly four years, and have been in every New England State, in New York, Canada, and Ohio; but of all these places, this is about the meanest of all.

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Her poem "Bury Me in a Free Land" was recited in Ava DuVernay's film August 28: A Day in the Life of a People, which debuted at the 2016 opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture