Stephen A. Myers was an African American Underground Railroad activist in Albany, New York. In 1860, Myers coordinated an effort to raise awareness of a ballot measure in New York to rescind the $250 property requirement for black voters. Douglass lent his support to this venture, barnstorming through the state raising awareness of the issue. Douglass even worked at the polls in Rochester on election day trying to drum up support for removing this discriminatory “poll tax”.
“Douglass worked exhaustively for equal voting rights that autumn; but the result left him bitter and disillusioned. While Lincoln carried New York by 50,000 votes, the suffrage measure met a resounding defeat, 337,985 to 197,503.”[1]
Stephen A. Myers died in 1870 at about the age of 69. He was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery in Albany, New York. While Stephen is unmarked in the cemetery, his son has a stone on the same plot.
Section GPS coordinates: 42.711791, -73.733217
[1] David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018), 326.
The Graves of Frederick Douglass 