General Oliver Otis Howard

Howard University in Washington, D.C., is named for Oliver Otis Howard. During the U.S. Civil War (1861–65), Howard was a colonel in volunteer forces and was soon named brigadier general in the regular army. In 1865, President Andrew Johnson tapped Howard to lead the Freedmen’s Bureau, which had been established by the War Department to assist people who had been enslaved or displaced. In his role, Howard emphasized the importance of land ownership and helped pave the way for some formerly enslaved people to purchase plots of land in Barry Farm, part of the Southeast quadrant.