Robert Page Sims (1872–1944) was an early

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

academic, civil rights leader, scientist, and college president who held positions at

Virginia University of Lynchburg Virginia University of Lynchburg is a private historically black Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. The university is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools and offers instruction and degrees, pr ...

and

Bluefield State College Bluefield State University (Bluefield State) is a university in Bluefield, West Virginia that is an historically black university. It is a part of West Virginia's public education system and converted to a university in the summer of 2022. It ad ...

. Sims was born in Meyerstown, West Virginia, to Charles and Lucy (Page) Sims and grew up working on a farm. Sims graduated from

Storer College Storer College was a historically black college in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, that operated from 1867 to 1955. A national icon for Black Americans, in the town where the 'end of American slavery began', as Frederick Douglass famously put i ...

, a

Freewill Baptist Free Will Baptists are a group of General Baptist denominations of Christianity that teach free grace, free salvation and free will. The movement can be traced back to the 1600s with the development of General Baptism in England. Its formal est ...

school, in

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...

, in 1893 and then

Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is a Private university, private Conservatism in the United States, conservative Christian liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan. It was founded in 1844 by Abolitionism, abolitionists known as Free Will Baptists. Its missio ...

, a Free Will Baptist school in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, in 1897. He also did post-graduate work at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. In 1901 Sims married Professor

Stella James Sims Stella James Sims (1875-1963) was an African-American science professor who held positions at Storer College, Virginia University of Lynchburg, and Bluefield Colored Institute. Stella James was born February 5, 1875, in Washington, D. C. to Lewi ...

, a graduate of

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

, whom he knew from Storer, and they had six children together. Sims taught first at the Virginia Seminary (

) as a science professor. Next he taught at the Douglass School in

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

. He then served five years as assistant principal of

under President

Hamilton Hatter Hamilton Hatter (1856–1942) was an African-American professor at Storer College, first president of Bluefield State College (originally Bluefield Colored Institute) in Bluefield, West Virginia from 1895 to 1906. Hatter was born into slavery in ...

before becoming president himself in 1906. While serving as president he maintained a correspondence and professional relationship with

W.E.B. Dubois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

regarding civil rights issues for African Americans and attended the

Pan-African Congress The Pan-African Congress was a series of eight meetings, held in 1919 in Paris (1st Pan-African Congress), 1921 in London, Brussels and Paris (2nd Pan-African Congress), 1923 in London (3rd Pan-African Congress), 1927 in New York City (4th Pan-Afr ...

in Europe in 1921. Sims stepped down as president of Bluefield in 1936 but continued to stay involved with the school. He died in 1944. He was buried at the Cedar Hill Cemetery in

Bolivar, West Virginia Bolivar ( rhymes with Oliver) is a town in Jefferson County in the U.S. state of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. The population was 1,045 at the 2010 census. The citizens of Bolivar chose to name their town for the South American revolutionary ...

, near Harpers Ferry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Robert Page 1872 births 1944 deaths Hillsdale College alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Free Will Baptists Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Activists from New Hampshire People from Jefferson County, West Virginia Activists for African-American civil rights American academic administrators 20th-century African-American scientists Storer College alumni Bluefield State College faculty