John Cheatham was born to an enslaved family in Missouri in 1855. His parents came up the Mississippi and settled in Minneapolis shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation banned slavery during the Civil War in 1863. They were among the first Black families in the city.
John Cheatham was born to an enslaved family in Missouri in 1855. His parents came up the Mississippi and settled in Minneapolis shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation banned slavery during the Civil War in 1863. They were among the first Black families in the city.
The former south Minneapolis street known as Dight Ave. was renamed Cheatham Ave. for the man believed to be the first Black firefighter in city history.