He has been foremost in every struggle for equal public rights. He was a man that had pride of race uppermost in his efforts of reform, but never forgot the rights of other races
– Mark R. DeMortie, friend of Lewis Hayden
”Boston’s African Methodist Episcopal Church was filled to capacity for the 1889 funeral of Lewis Hayden. At her death, four years later, Harriet Hayden left a bequest to Harvard College that supports the education of students of color to this day.
- City of Boston, Registry
Obituary for . . .
Harriet Bell Hayden was a partner in all of Lewis’s activities. She died on December 24, 1893. Since her only son died in the Civil War, Harriet left her estate, valued at “some four or fi ve thousand dollars,” to Harvard College to found a scholarship for black students. By the terms of her will a medical student would be preferred. The fund remains active to this day, a living legacy from the life of Lewis and Harriet Hayden.
- Courtesy of the Ohio History Connection
Obituary . . .
New York Times obituary for Lewis Hayden, April 7,1889
- New York Times
African Methodist . . .
The African Methodist Episcopal Church on Charles Street in Boston, site of Lewis Hayden’s funeral.
- Massachusetts Archives photo
The Bequest of Harriet Hayden . . .
“The net income of the fund shall be used each year to aid needy and worthy colored students in the Harvard Medical School, if any such there be...If there be no such student in the Medical School in any year, the net income of the fund shall be used to aid any poor and honest colored students who may happen to be in any of the departments of Harvard College.”
- Harvard University, Recording Secretary’s Office