Martin Robinson Delany

Delany, Martin Robinson (1812–85), African-American journalist, physician, and army officer. A newspaper publisher until 1849, he received a medical degree from Harvard in 1852. He wrote and worked for abolitionist causes. During the Civil War he became an army surgeon and was the first African-American to reach the rank of major. He later joined the Freedmen's Bureau and became a trial judge in Charleston, S.C.