Amanda Lyles

ID: 902

This file appears in: Early Entrepreneurs

Wife of successful Saint Paul undertaker and civic leader who co-founded the Western Appeal newspaper in 1885 with Robert James Hilyard. Amanda continued to operate the mortuary after the death of her husband in 1920.

Date: Approximately 1913

Image courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society

This file appears in: Early Entrepreneurs

Early Entrepreneurs

By CultureBrokers Foundation, Inc. 2008. "Points of Entry: The African American Heritage Guide to Saint Paul."

Even though pre-Civil War legislation attempted to restrict the movement of African Americans to Minnesota, free blacks and fugitive slaves continued to come. The highest concentration of blacks resided in the downtown commercial districts where…