Downing, George T. (George Thomas), 1819-1903

found: NUCMC data from Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University for His Papers, ca. 1840-ca. 1930(Downing, George T. (George Thomas); African-American businessman and abolitionist active in Newport, R.I., New York, N.Y., and Washington, D.C.; b. 1819; d. 1903)

found: Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass, accessed December 17, 2014, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Downing, George Thomas; abolitionist, restaurateur, civil rights activist, hotel owner / manager; born 30 December 1819 in New York, New York, United States; graduated from Hamilton College in Oneida County, New York; joined Frederick Douglass to advocate the recruitment of African American soldiers into the Union army (1861); he and Douglass paired up again as part of a delegation urging President Andrew Johnson to adopt a more stringent Reconstruction policy; built a summer catering business in Newport, Rhode Island (1846); owned a large piece of real estate on Bellevue Avenue and a Newport street was named after him (by 1888); died 24 November 1903 in Newport, Rhode Island, United States)