Harry Sythe Cummings standing

Description

Three-quarters length portrait of Harry Sythe Cummings (1866-1917). Cummings was a lawyer, fraternal leader, and the first Black councilman in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Cummings received his early education in Baltimore City public schools and at the age of sixteen enrolled at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, earning his A.B. degree in 1886. He then entered the University of Maryland Law School and in 1889 he became one of the first two Black men to receive their Bachelor of Law degrees from this institution. Entering politics as a Republican, Cummings was the first African American to serve in the City Council of Baltimore, being elected in 1890. He was reelected in 1891, 1896, and served continuously from 1907 until his death in 1917. In 1899, Cummings married Blanche Theresa Conklin (d.1955) and the couple had two children, Harry Sythe Cummings, Jr (1905-1997) and Louise Virginia Cummings Dorcas (1912-2006).

Inscribed with the note "For my Friend Doc, From Jack"