Martin R. Delany is one of the most interesting people you’ve never heard of. He was, over the course of a long life (1812-85), a writer, editor, abolitionist, Harvard medical student, physician, judge, acquaintance of John Brown, and the first African American commissioned a major in the Army. He is also widely considered America’s first black nationalist, the forerunner of Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, and Malcolm X.