William Henry Steward
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William Henry Steward (July 26, 1847 – January 3, 1935) was a civil rights activist from Louisville, Kentucky. In February 1876, he was appointed the first black letter carrier in Kentucky. He was the leading layman of the General Association of Negro Baptists in Kentucky and played a key role in the founding of Simmons College of Kentucky by the group in 1879. He continued to play an important role in the college during his life. He was also co-founder of the ''American Baptist'', a journal associated with the group, and Steward went on to be the journal's editor. He was a leader in Louisville civic and public life, and played a role in extending educational opportunities in the city to black children. In 1897, his political associations led to his appointment as judge of registration and election for the Fifteenth Precinct of the Ninth Ward, overseeing voter registration for the election. This was the first appointment of an African American to such a position in Kentucky. He was elected president of the Afro-American Press Association in the 1890s He was a close associate of
Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
, and in the late 1890s and early 1900s, Steward was a prominent member of the
National Afro-American Council The National Afro-American Council was the first nationwide civil rights organization in the United States, created in 1898 in Rochester, New York. Before its dissolution a decade later, the Council provided both the first national arena for disc ...
, which was dominated by Washington. He was president of the council from 1904 to 1905. He was a lifelong opponent of segregation and was frequently involved in anti-
Jim Crow law The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
activities. In 1914 he helped found a Louisville branch of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP), which he left in 1920 to become a key player in the
Commission on Interracial Cooperation The Commission on Interracial Cooperation (1918–1944) was an organization founded in Atlanta, Georgia, December 18, 1918, and officially incorporated in 1929. Will W. Alexander, pastor of a local white Methodist church, was head of the organizatio ...
(CIC). He was also a prominent
freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
and twice elected Worshipful Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky.


Early life

William Henry Steward was born a slave on July 26, 1847, in Brandenburg, Kentucky.Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p603-607 He and his parents were light-skinned.Wright, George C. William Henry Steward: Moderate Approach to Black Leadership, in Litwack, Leon F. Black leaders of the nineteenth century. University of Illinois Press, 1991. p275-290 At the age of nine, his master brought him to Louisville, Kentucky.Smith, Gerald L., Karen Cotton McDaniel, and John A. Hardin, eds. The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky, 2015. p481 He was allowed to attend school, and attended schools taught by
Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fr ...
, William H. Gibson, and R. T. W. James. run by the First African Baptist Church. As a young adult, he taught schools at
Frankfort, Kentucky Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city; the population was 28,602 at the 2020 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the prin ...
and Louisville, and for three years he taught at the Eastern Colored School. An uncle helped him find a job as laborer of the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...
, and he was promoted to messenger in 1875 for the cashier and purchasing agent of the Railroad. In 1867 he was Baptized into the Baptist Church and was an active member, leading the choir at the Fifth Street Baptist church in Louisville and teaching in the Sunday School.


Early career

In February 1876, he left the railroad and became a letter-carrier in the Louisville post-office, becoming the first black letter-carrier in Kentucky. He was respected in this position and was elected to represent the state in the National Letter-Carrier's Association meeting in 1882 in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. Steward was frequently involved in religious and secular conventions. In 1873, he was secretary of the Kentucky Baptist State convention in 1873, statistical secretary of that body in 1876, and secretary of the General Association of Colored Baptists of Kentucky from 1877 until after 1887. He was a member of the board of directors of the Louisville Orphans' Home, which he helped found in 1877. In 1879, Steward was the leading layman of the General Association of Negro Baptists in Kentucky and played a key role in the founding of Simmons College of Kentucky, first called Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute and opened on November 25, 1879. Steward chose the location of the school on a -acre tract on Kentucky Street between Seventh and Eighth Streets in Louisville. For most of the rest of his life, Steward served as chairman of the board of trustees at Simmons College. He also was a music instructor at the school. Also in 1879 the journal, ''American Baptist'', was created by Steward and the General Association and from that time Steward was associated with the paper. He served as city editor, associate editor, and then as editor and business manager. In 1881, Steward joined the Masonic Fraternity. He became well respected in the group, and was made Worshipful Master of United Lodge No 12, High Priest of Enterprise Chapter no. 4, Eminent Commander of Cyrene Commandry No. 1, and was twice elected Worshipful Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. He was associated with public schools in Louisville and promoted their growth and development, particularly in securing appointments for African American teachers. He also was a strong supporter of a black
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
in the city which formed in 1892. In 1893, he opposed African American teacher William T. Peyton's attempt to gain the principalship of Central High School. In part, the opposition was based on Peyton's ambition and disloyalty, as Peyton had denounced the Republican Party and joined the Democrats in an effort to gain a patronage based appointment to the position. Steward was successful, and three years later Peyton was dismissed from the school system. Steward felt that the Democrats were responsible for Jim Crow laws and much of the discrimination of blacks, and were opposed to Republican sponsored 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments increasing the civil rights of African Americans. Until the mid-1890s, Steward generally worked with white politicians of both parties. However, Steward's support for Republicanism played an important role in the 1897 victory of the Republican party in local elections. During the campaign, a black political organization called the Elliott Club named for recently deceased Robert Brown Elliott was formed, it was claimed, to sow dissent among black Republicans. Steward shared the suspicion and opposed the club and its effort to discredit Louisville Mayor
George Davidson Todd George Davidson Todd (April 19, 1856 – November 23, 1929) was Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky from 1896 to 1897. Early life George D. Todd was born on April 19, 1856, in Frankfort, Kentucky. His descendants were early settlers of Kentucky, and h ...
. Steward gained Todd's ear, and had some influence over patronage appointments made by the mayor. Shortly after the meeting, Steward was appointed judge of registration and election for the Fifteenth Precinct of the Ninth Ward, overseeing voter registration for the election. This was the first appointment of an African American to such a position in Kentucky.


National activities

Steward's role in the ''American Baptist'' greatly increased his national reputation. He was elected secretary of the National Baptist convention in St. Louis on August 25, 1886, and continued to hold officer positions at numerous later conventions. He was a delegate to the
1892 Republican National Convention The 1892 Republican National Convention was held at the Industrial Exposition Building, Minneapolis, Minnesota, from June 7 to June 10, 1892. The party nominated President Benjamin Harrison for re-election on the first ballot and Whitelaw Reid of ...
in Minneapolis, where he supported
Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...
, who won the nomination but lost the election to
Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
. In the 1890s he was elected president of the national Afro-American Press Association. In 1896, as president of the group, Steward was active in supporting the candidacy for president of
William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
. As a leader in the community, Steward was consistently involved in issues of race relations. His methods were generally moderate, seeking to further African American interests without offending his white supporters. Even before Booker T. Washington became a national figure, Steward became associated with Washington; and as with Washington expressed a philosophy of racial self-help and of working with whites, even when white viewpoints were paternalistic. Like Washington, he frequently worked behind the scenes, and did so with Washington's help in 1904 in opposing a bill to disfranchise blacks in the Kentucky Legislature. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Steward was a prominent member of the National Afro-American Council. He was president of the council from 1904 to 1905, following Journalist
Timothy Thomas Fortune Timothy Thomas Fortune (October 3, 1856June 2, 1928) was an orator, civil rights leader, journalist, writer, editor and publisher. He was the highly influential editor of the nation's leading black newspaper ''The New York Age'' and was the leadin ...
and preceding Bishop
Alexander Walters Bishop Alexander Walters (August 1, 1858 – February 2, 1917) was an American clergyman and noted civil rights leader. Born a slave in Bardstown, Kentucky, just before the Civil War, he rose to become a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal ...
in that position. The council was dominated by Washington and included a number of important leaders including W. E. B. Du Bois who went on to form the NAACP and anti-lynching activist
Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for ...
.


Later life in Louisville

In 1906, leading Louisville African Americans including Steward, Rev. Charles H. Parrish, and Rev. John H. Frank formed the Cave Dwellers Life Association, a life insurance company. In January 1910, Steward, school principal Albert E. Meyzeek, and Rev. Charles H. Parrish met with white Louisville
streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
officials and civic leaders regarding protests and boycotts of streetcars by blacks in response to a Jim Crow streetcar ordinance. Whites had called for the ban of blacks from the cars complaining that black men were sitting next to white women. Steward's efforts to calm the situation prevented three efforts to ban blacks between 1910 and 1918. In 1914, a Louisville branch of the NAACP was founded by Steward, Parrish, and several other local ministers, continuing Steward's anti-segregation and pro-education work. In November 1917, Steward worked with the NAACP and other black leaders in litigation which went to the
US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...
where Louisville's Residential Segregation Ordinance was overturned. In 1920, Steward and Parrish were ousted from the executive board of the branch due to pressure from businessman Wilson Lovett over a bond issue. The pair left the NAACP and began working on the Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC). The group worked for similar goals, but frequently broke with the NAACP. For instance, when Louisville officials adopted an ordinance disallowing blacks from public parks in June 1924, the NAACP denounced the ordinance, while the CIC called for opening parks in black neighborhoods. When city officials soon after opened a new park with a swimming pool, the CIC praised the mayor and park commissioners, in-spite of the fact that other parks blacks lacked basic facilities and were simply vacant lots.


Death, honors, and legacy

Later in his life, Shaw University gave Steward an honorary Master of Arts degree. In 1917,
Alabama A&M University Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. AAMU is a member-school of the Thurgood Marsha ...
awarded Steward a LL. D. degree, a degree of doctor of laws. Steward died on January 3, 1935 in Louisville. His funeral was at Fifth Street Baptist Church. He was buried alongside his wife, Mamie E. Lee Steward in Louisville's
Eastern Cemetery Eastern Cemetery is a historic cemetery at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Congress Street in the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Established in 1668, it is the city's oldest historic site, and has more than 4,000 marked ...
. In 1935, the
University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...
acquired the four-story brick Simmons theological building of Simmons University and renovated it with classrooms. The school named it Steward Hall in honor of Steward.Cox, Dwayne D., and William J. Morison. The University of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky, 2015. p89-90


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steward, William Henry 1847 births 1935 deaths People from Louisville, Kentucky Activists for African-American civil rights Shaw University alumni Alabama A&M University alumni African-American journalists American male journalists People from Brandenburg, Kentucky Kentucky Republicans