The Quiet Force of Emma Lawrence The story of Erie's first Black female business owner by Erin Phillips Erin Phillips In the preface to Sarah Thompson's Journey from Jerusalem — one of the few books to be written about Black history in Erie — she begins: "The history of the City of Erie begins in 1795. The history of African Americans in Erie begins at the same time, but, in the unfortunate tradition of US history, standard accounts of the past two hundred years present a one-sided picture which does not adequately represent their presence or contributions." As I began researching the life of Emma Gertrude Lawrence — Erie's first Black female business owner, founder and operator of Lawrence Dyeing and Cleaning for 50 years, and matriarch of a legendary Erie family — I felt these words before I read them. Soon after beginning the pursuit of Emma's ancestry, I was struck by the white privilege that is genealogical information in America. In order to research the life of this woman, a woman of color, born pre-Civil War to a Black mother and a Native American father, I would have to consult other resources.