William H. Crogman

William Henry Crogman (May 5, 1841 – October 16, 1931) was an African American pioneering educator and classicist at Clark University of Atlanta in the United States. The William H. Crogman School in Atlanta is named for him. He was the 11th president of Clark College (now known as Clark Atlanta University).

Early life and education

William Henry Crogman was born May 5, 1841, in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten an island in the Dutch Caribbean.Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p694-698 He was orphaned at 12 and moved to the United states at the age of 14 with a man named B. L. Boomer. He attended schools in Massachusetts and had the chance to travel the world, visiting ports in Asia, Europe, Australia, and South America. After the American Civil War he entered Pierce Academy in Middleborough, Massachusetts, led by John Whipple Potter Jenks. He finished his study, and in 1870, started teaching at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. After three years of teaching, in 1873, he enrolled at Atlanta University and in 1876 graduated as a part of the first class of the school. He then took a position at Clark University of Atlanta where he became professor of Greek and Latin. He was the first person to receive a Doctor of Letters from Atlanta University, which was awarded as an honorary degree. He also received an honorary Doctor of Laws.

Career

He was a gifted orator and gave numerous important speeches, including a speech before the American Missionary Association at Chicago and the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal church at Ocean Grove, New Jersey's pulpit at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York, which were printed in pamphlet form.

In the mid 1880s, he was a delegate to the National Association of Teachers convention in Madison, Wisconsin, and as a layman represented the Savannah Conference in the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1884, he was elected secretary of the conference. He was also appointed a delegate to the Ecumenical Council of Methodism in London. In 1892, the General Conference selected him to be a member of a University Senate chosen by the bishops to determine the minimum requirements for the baccalaureate degree from associated schools.

He was highly respected and beloved at Clark University, and worked for equality in education and civil rights. Rather than ride segregated streetcars, he walked the several miles between his home and the campus.Grant, Donald Lee. The way it was in the South: The Black experience in Georgia. University of Georgia Press, 1993. p245 He was secretary of the Board of Trustees at Clark for many years. From 1903 to 1910, he was president at the school.L. M. Hershaw, George A. Towns, J. R. Van Pelt and Edward A. Arnold, Notes, The Journal of Negro History Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1934), pp. 211-224

In 1895, he was a driving force behind the Negro exhibit at the Cotton Exposition in Atlanta and was Chief Exposition Commissioner for African Americans from Georgia. He was also a trustee at the Gammon Theological Seminary He was a participant in the March 5, 1897, meeting to celebrate the memory of Frederick Douglass which founded the American Negro Academy led by Alexander Crummell.Seraile, William. Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings of John Edward Bruce. Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2003. p110-111

Later life, death, and legacy

Crogman retired in 1921 and was awarded a lifetime pension by the Carnegie Foundation.Tillery, Carolyn Quick. Southern homecoming traditions: Recipes and remembrances. Citadel Press, 2006.
pages 326-328

He was married to a woman named Lavina Mott. When he retired, he moved to Philadelphia and lived with his daughter, Lottie Crogman Wright. Wright was the wife of Richard Wright, president of Wilberforce University in Ohio. He had two other daughters, Edith and Ada. Crogman died in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 16, 1931, followed in a few days by his wife. He was buried in Atlanta.

Clark also erected the gothic Crogman Chapel in his honor. The William H. Krogman Cottage is named after him.

References

Further reading

*W. H. Crogman ''Talks for the Times'' South Atlanta, Georgia: Franklin, 1896, 45-69.

Works

*Crogman, W. H. (1884) ''Negro Education: Its Helps and Hindrances''
*Crogman, William Henry. Talks for the Times. Press of Franklin Printing & Publishing Company, 1896.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Crogman, William H.
1841 births
1931 deaths
19th-century African-American academics
19th-century American academics
20th-century African-American educators
20th-century American educators
Activists for African-American civil rights
American people of West Indian descent
Classics educators
Presidents of Clark Atlanta University