Jacob G. Revels: Portland, Michigan's "colored barber" (and inventor)
Jacob G. Revels Jacob G. Revels (1863-1944) is one of the many people I profiled in my book, The Portland Area, 1869-1939. Along with Pedro Pratt, previously discussed in an earlier Brainsplotch blog post, Revels was one of a handful of African-Americans to live in Portland, Michigan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I guess for this reason, he became of special interest to me. Okay, not just "of special interest"--who am I kidding? I became completely fascinated with Jacob Revels. The first time I ever saw the above portrait of Revels, in the 1969 centennial history of Portland, the questions flooded my brain. How did this man end up in, of all places, Portland, Michigan? What led him to Portland? What was it like to be one of the only black people in a rural Michigan village only a few decades after the end of the Civil War? Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to answer these questions, but it hasn't stopped me ...