Richard Bogle was born in Jamaica in 1835, where, at 12 years old, he stowed away on a ship to New York. On January 1, 1863, the day President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Bogle married America Waldo. The couple moved to Walla Walla, where he opened a barbershop on Main Street, becoming the first Black businessman in Walla Walla as the “proprietor of the tonsorial parlors at No.3 Second Street.”
Walla Walla was a segregated city when the Bogles arrived. African Americans could not get rooms at a hotel or eat in public dining rooms. Mr. Bogle often gave African Americans who were temporarily in town a place to stay in the rear of his shop, where they could keep warm and cook an occasional meal. Mrs. Bogle was said to be “a lady of estimable character, noted for her deeds of charity to the poor and suffering.”

Richard Bogle is portrayed by Earl Gooding Jr.