Memorable Photos - Illustration

Ebony, July, 1999

One of the first human beings to reach the North Pole, explorer Matthew A. Henson was selected by Admiral Robert E. Peary, in a triumph of merit over racism, to accompany him on the historic April 6, 1909, expedition. At Harvard University in 1987; the explorer, who was the only member of the American crew who spoke the Eskimo language, was honored posthumously.

After a successful campaign led by Dr. S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation, in 1988--33 years after Henson's death--the Artic explorer (who had been buried in New York's Woodlawn Cemetery) was reentered with full military honors at Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery, the country's largest and most hallowed national burial ground.