Inman E. Page

Last updated
Inman E. Page
Inman E. Page, Brown University class of 1877.jpg
Page in 1877
Born(1853-12-29)December 29, 1853
DiedDecember 21, 1935(1935-12-21) (aged 81)
Alma mater Howard University, Brown University
Occupation(s) Minister, educator
Political party Republican
Personal
Religion Baptist

Inman E. Page (December 29, 1853 - December 21, 1935) was a Baptist leader and educator in Oklahoma and Missouri. He was president of four schools: the Lincoln Institute, Langston University, Western University, and Roger Williams University and principal of Douglass High School in Oklahoma City. He and George Milford were the first black students at Brown University.

Contents

Early life

Inman Edward Page was born a slave in Warrenton, Virginia, on December 29, 1853, to Horace and Elizabeth Page. [1] His obituary had the name of the slave owner as Fanshot. [2] In late 1877, Horace Page made a compensation claim to the Federal government for losses during the American Civil War (1861-1865). In this report, his father reported his master as a man named Alexander Craig, who died in 1859, and thereafter his wife, Mrs. Craig, and the executor of their estate, William H. Gaines. As a slave, Horace hired himself out and was running a livery stable in Washington, D.C., before the start of the war and had business in Warrenton and in Fauquier County. He had a number of horses and other supplies taken by the Union Army during the war and provided some manual labor. He was able to buy his freedom with money from his business. He did not finish paying until after the Emancipation Proclamation, but decided to pay the full agreed amount because the deal for his freedom was made before the war began. [3] Horace and his family moved to Washington, D. C. in 1862 and Inman attended the school of George F. T. Cook, brother of John F. Cook Jr. He also took hired work to support his family and later attended night school taught by George Boyer Vashon. He then took work at Howard University, grading the campus grounds, in order to pay for his schooling there. He was promoted to janitor at the school, and when Oliver O. Howard was working to close the Freedmen's Bureau, of which Howard had been a part, Page was hired as one of Howard's clerks. In this way, he was a student at Howard until 1873. [1]

Brown University

In the fall of 1873 he and his friend George W. Milford became the first black students to enroll at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The pair faced great discrimination, but at the end of his sophomore year he won an oratorical contest which endeared him to his classmates. His popularity increased and he was made class orator at the end of his senior year. Page delivered the class-day speech on the "Intellectual Prospects of America" and among the audience was D. W. Phillips who offered Page a position at the Natchez Seminary in Natchez, Mississippi, run by the American Baptist Home Mission Society. He graduated from Brown in the fall of 1877 and moved to Natchez. In 1880 he received a A. M. (a master's degree) from Brown. [1] In 1918, Brown president William Faunce honored Page with an honorary master's degree. [4] Later he was awarded honorary degrees of doctor of law from Wilberforce University and from Howard University. [5]

Family

In Providence in the winter of 1877-1878 he married Zelia R. Ball who had graduated in 1875 from Wilberforce University. [1] They had three children, Zelia, Mary, and Inman E. Page, Jr. Page Jr. died at age seven. [5] Zelia, later Zelia N. Breaux, became a widely known music teacher and Mary married Nolan Pyrtle, a professor at Wilberforce University. [6]

Career

Page in 1887 Inman E Page.jpg
Page in 1887

Lincoln Institute

In 1878 he moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, and took a position as teacher at the Lincoln Institute. For his first two years at the Lincoln Institute, he was the only black regular teacher, but in 1880, the board of trustees decided to change strategies and have the school taught by black teachers and installed Page as school president. Page quickly began to grow the school, increasing enrollment from 97 to 153 in his first year, reducing student expenses, and securing appropriations from the state legislature to build two dormitories, one for men and one for women and an increase in bi-ennial state appropriations. [1] In 1883 he was elected president of the Missouri State Teachers' association and was reelected to multiple successive terms. [1]

In 1887, the university added college work to its curriculum and in 1891 it was designated a land-grant institution and embarked on additional building construction, and the school expanded again in 1895. [5] One of the first professors Page hired was Josephine A. Silone, who arrived in 1881 and taught chemistry, elocution, and English literature. [7] Among the students Page influenced at Lincoln were physicians William J. Thompkins and J. Edward Perry [8] and bishop William Tecumseh Vernon. [2] In 1898, Page resigned from the presidency at the Lincoln Institute after facing political pressure to leave. [5]

Langston University

In 1898, Page was lured to Oklahoma Territory to become the president of the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma. The school became known as Langston University, and Page was its head for 18 years. [5] At Langston, Page was a success and the student population and the campus grew. [9] However, Page did not avoid controversy. In 1903 Page was tried for incompetency and mismanagement and was completely exonerated. [10] In 1916 Page, a lifelong Republican, was removed from presidency by Democratic state politicians . [5] He was replaced by Isaac McCutcheon for nine months and then by John Miller Marquess. [9]

Later career

From 1916-1918, Page was president of the Colored Baptist College of Macon, Missouri, which was later known as Western Baptist Bible College and moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He then moved to Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee, to serve as its president. [5]

Page's health failed and he moved to Oklahoma City in 1920. In 1921 and 1922 he was supervising principal of the city's black elementary school and principal of Douglass High School. [5] In 1922 he briefly returned to Lincoln Institute, then renamed Lincoln University of Missouri, when the board there pushed out then president Richardson, [11] but he resigned in August 1923 and returned to Douglass High School. He remained in Oklahoma City's public schools for the rest of his life. In June 1935 he retired with the honorary title of "principal emeritus". [5]

Death and legacy

Page-Robinson Hall at Brown University Page-Robinson Hall entrance.jpg
Page-Robinson Hall at Brown University

On December 21, 1935, he died of old age [2] at the home of his daughter, Zelia, in Oklahoma City. He was buried on the campus of Lanston University, [5] and the tract where his remains were laid was called "Page Memorial Park". [2] Multiple buildings in Oklahoma have been named in Page's honor. On May 19, 1950, Lincoln University named its library for Page. [5] In 2018, Brown University renamed a six-story academic and administrative facility after Page and fellow alum Ethel Tremaine Robinson. [4]

Ralph Ellison was a student of Page's at Douglass High School and the two had a difficult relationship at that time. However, Ellison was inspired by Page and later in his life was deeply moved and inspired by a watercolor portrait of Page he saw at Brown's Rockefeller Library in 1979. [12]

The has been an Inman E. Page Library at Lincoln University. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Ellison</span> American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer (1913–1994)

Ralph Ellison was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Langston University</span> Historical Black college

Langston University (LU) is a public land-grant historically black university in Langston, Oklahoma. It is the only historically black college in the state and the westernmost HBCU in the United States. The main campus in Langston is a rural setting 10 miles (16 km) east of Guthrie. The University also serves an urban mission, with University Centers in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln University (Missouri)</span> University in Jefferson City, Missouri, U.S.

Lincoln University is a public, historically black, land-grant university in Jefferson City, Missouri. Founded in 1866 by African-American veterans of the American Civil War, it is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. This was the first black university in the state. In the fall 2022, the university enrolled 1,833 students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)</span> University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, US

Lincoln University (LU) is a public state-related historically black university (HBCU) near Oxford, Pennsylvania. Founded as the private Ashmun Institute in 1854, it has been a public institution since 1972 and is the second HBCU in the state, after Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Lincoln is also recognized as the first college-degree granting HBCU in the country. Its main campus is located on 422 acres near the town of Oxford in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. The university has a second location in the University City area of Philadelphia. Lincoln University provides undergraduate and graduate coursework to approximately 2,000 students. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Woodson</span> American academic

Lewis Woodson was an educator, minister, writer, and abolitionist. He was an early leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Woodson started and helped to build other institutions within the free African-American communities in Ohio and western Pennsylvania prior to the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William J. Simmons (teacher)</span> American journalist and educator

William J. Simmons was an American Baptist pastor, educator, author, and activist. He was formerly enslaved person, who became the second president of Simmons College of Kentucky (1880–1890), for whom the school was later named.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Hare</span> American sociologist, psychologist and activist; pioneer of Black studies

Nathan Hare is an American sociologist, activist, academic, and psychologist. In 1968 he was the first person hired to coordinate a Black studies program in the United States. He established the program at San Francisco State. A graduate of Langston University and the University of Chicago, he had become involved in the Black Power movement while teaching at Howard University.

Nathaniel Clark Smith was an important African-American musician, composer, and music educator in the United States during the early decades of the 1900s. Born on the Army base at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Smith began his music education very early organizing bands in Wichita starting in 1893. His strict military style leadership led to prominence and over the next 30 years he would lead bands in Chicago, Wichita, Kansas City, the Tuskegee Institute, and in St. Louis. He was an important educator for many of the prominent early Jazz musicians from Kansas City, Chicago, and St. Louis. He died in 1935 as the result of a stroke. Many primary documents about Smith's life have been lost as a result of a fire that destroyed most of his personal documents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josephine Silone Yates</span> American chemist

Josephine Silone Yates was an American professor, writer, public speaker, and activist. She trained in chemistry and became one of the first black professors hired at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. Upon her promotion, she became the first black woman to head a college science department. She may have been the first black woman to hold a full professorship at any U.S. college or university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zelia N. Breaux</span> American music instructor and musician

Zelia N. Breaux was an American music instructor and musician who played the trumpet, violin and piano. She organized the first music department at Langston University in Oklahoma and the school's first orchestra. As the Supervisor of Music for the segregated African American schools in Oklahoma City, Breaux organized bands, choral groups and orchestras, establishing a music teacher in each school in the district. She had a wide influence on many musicians including Charlie Christian and Jimmy Rushing, as well as novelist Ralph Ellison. Breaux was the first woman president of the Oklahoma Association of Negro Teachers and was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma YWCA Hall of Fame, Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Bandmasters Association Hall of Fame. The Oklahoma City/County Historical Society made a posthumous presentation of its Pathmaker Award to Breaux in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Milton Turner</span> American diplomat

James Milton Turner was a Reconstruction Era political leader, activist, educator, and diplomat. Appointed consul general to Liberia in 1871, he was the first African-American to serve in the U.S. diplomatic corps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zelia Ball Page</span> American teacher (1850–1937)

Zelia Ball Page was a freeborn African-American teacher who spent her career teaching African-American youths in Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Her husband was the first head of Langston University and she was the first matron.

Western Baptist Bible College is Baptist college in Kansas City, Missouri, United States with branches in St. Louis, Missouri, and several branches in Kansas: Junction City, Olathe, Topeka, and Wichita. The school was founded by African-American Baptist ministers in Independence, Missouri, in 1890. Two years later, it moved to Macon, Missouri, before moving to its present location in Kansas City in 1921. It was the "first and only Christian Institution west of the Mississippi River founded by blacks exclusively."

Richard Baxter Foster was an American abolitionist, Union Army officer, and initial head of a college for African Americans in Jefferson City, Missouri. During the American Civil War, Foster volunteered to be an officer for the 1st Missouri Regiment of Colored Infantry regiment of the U.S. Army, largely recruited in Missouri, and helped set up educational program for its soldiers. In 1866 Foster headed the new college in Jefferson City, the Lincoln Institute, with financial support from his former regiment. The college is now named Lincoln University.

Frederick A. Douglass High School is a public high school in the city of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The school is known for its role in serving African-American students in the state of Oklahoma and has produced a variety of academic researchers and civic leaders as well as military figures. Frederick Douglass Moon, the longest-serving principal at the school, went on to play a major role in the desegregation movement in the middle of the 20th century. Working from 1940 to 1961 at the High School, he went on to be elected to the Oklahoma City Board of Education in 1972 and served as its first African-American president in 1974. It is also known for its music program and the teacher, Zelia Breaux, who created the program that helped produce several notable musicians. The school began as a segregated school. It is named for Frederick Douglass.

Inman Armogen Breaux Sr. was an American college football player and coach and a college administrator. He was born in 1908 and was the son of music educator Zelia N. Breaux. Breaux played football at Virginia Union University (1926–1929) and later served as the head football coach at North Carolina A&T University (1932–1939), compiling a record of 28–24–8. At the time of his death, he was serving as a physical education faculty member and financial aid director at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wade Ellis</span> American mathematician

Wade Ellis was an American mathematician and educator. He taught at Fort Valley State University in Georgia and Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1944. He carried out classified research on radar antennas at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and taught at Boston University and Oberlin College, where he became Full Professor in 1953. The same year, he was elected to the Board of Governors of the Mathematical Association of America.

Benjamin Franklin Bowles (1869–1928), commonly written as B. F. Bowles, was an African American civil rights leader, teacher, high school principal, and the founder and president of Douglass University, a 20th-century college for African Americans in segregated St. Louis, Missouri.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. G.M. Rewell & Company, 1887, pp. 474-480.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Dr. I. E. Page, Oklahoma's Grand Old Man, Dies at the Age of 83, The Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) January 4, 1936, page 7, accessed October 13, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7005906//
  3. NARA M2094. Approved case files of claims submitted to the Commissioners of Claims (known as the Southern Claims Commission) from the State of Virginia, 1871-1880. Publication Number: M2094, Record Group: 217, Source Publication Year: 2005, Fold3 Publication Year: 2009, Fold3 Job Number: 09-023, Roll: 0019, p. 32-55, accessed October 13, 2016 at http://www.footnotelibrary.com/image/234990980
  4. 1 2 Hyde-Keller, O'rya (22 September 2018). "Newly renamed Page-Robinson Hall will honor Brown's first black graduates". Brown University. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Christensen, Lawrence O., William E. Foley, and Gary Kremer, eds. Dictionary of Missouri Biography. University of Missouri Press, 1999, pp. 590-591.
  6. Franklin, John Hope, and John Whittington Franklin, eds. My life and an era: The autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin. LSU Press, 2000, p. 53.
  7. Kremer, Gary R. Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri. University of Missouri Press, 2014, p. 44.
  8. Kremer 2014, p. 188.
  9. 1 2 Brooks, F. Erik, and Glenn L. Starks. Historically black colleges and universities: An encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 126.
  10. Page Exonerated, The Leavenworth Weekly Times (Leavenworth, Kansas) June 18, 1903, page 1, accessed October 13, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7005660/page_exonerated_the_leavenworth_weekly/
  11. Holland, Antonio Frederick. Nathan B. Young and the Struggle Over Black Higher Education. University of Missouri Press, 2006, p. 128.
  12. Rampersad, Arnold. Ralph Ellison. Vintage, 2007, pp. 27, 523.
  13. Glick, Elisa (30 March 2010). Materializing Queer Desire: Oscar Wilde to Andy Warhol. State University of New York Press. ISBN   9781438427386.