Amanda Ann Thomas Wall

Amanda Ann Thomas Wall (c. 1837 - 1902) was an educator and suffragist who worked for African-American women's rights in the Reconstruction period. She and her husband, Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall, were part of the African-American elite in Washington D.C. while he was the first African-American justice of the peace and police magistrate.

Biography Wall was born in Loudoun County, Virginia in about 1837 to her mother Charlotte. They lived in Cincinnati for a time, and in 1854 they moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where Wall attended Oberlin College.

She befriended classmate Charlotte Wall at Oberlin. Charlotte's brother, Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall (OSB), also attended Oberlin. The couple met in 1854 and they married the day after Charlotte married John Mercer Langston. In Charleston, she likely met Frances Rollin (later Whipple) as they worked in similar circles.

By 1867, Wall and her family moved to Washington D.C., where she resumed teaching freed people and was an agent for Frederick Douglass' New National Era.

As OSB received his law degree and was appointed the first Black Justice of the Peace, Wall and their family became leading "aristocrats of color." They built a house on Howard Hill where they hosted dinner parties for luminaries such as George Washington Williams, Susan B. Anthony, and Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Douglass.

In 1869, Wall joined the women's suffrage movement and attempted to register to vote. She marched in demonstrations from at least 1871 to 1874, including some that featured Frederick Douglass. In 1874, she joined Susan B. Anthony and other women who "placed on record" their support for woman suffrage.

OSB was nearly killed in an assault in 1871, and the family maintained their high status in social and civic life. They featured prominently in Empanciation Day ceremonies, and joined charitable efforts with other notable women of color. In later years, OSB faced charges of corruption and their star dimmed. At the end of their lives, the Walls struggled financially.

OSB died in 1891 following a stroke. Wall died in DC in November 1902. The couple are buried together at Arlington Cemetery.

After Wall's death, the couple's children crossed the color line to live as white.