Portrait from The Afro-American Press and Its Editors. Springfield, MA: Willey & Co., 1891.
Born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Benjamin W. Arnett (1838-1906) was a young teacher when he attended the Syracuse convention. Committed to the civil rights struggle, Arnett quickly joined the newly established National Equal Rights League and was elected its secretary in 1866. He also became a member of the Republican Party, whose platform supported abolition and black citizenship. From 1886 to 1887, he served a term in the Ohio House of Representatives, helping to pass legislature that desegregated public schools. Arnett also served as a religious leader. He was ordained to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1865 and elected a bishop in 1888.