Mary Jane Patterson | |
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Born | |
Died | |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Oberlin College (BA) |
Occupations |
Mary Jane Patterson (1844 –1894) was an American educator born to a previously enslaved mother.[1] She is notable because she is claimed to be the first African-American woman to receive a B.A degree. In 1862, she completed the four-year 'gentlemen's course' at Oberlin College.[2] She first taught at the Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth. She then went on to teach at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, known today as Dunbar High School, in Washington, D.C.. She became its first Black principal.[3][4][5] She was a lifelong advocate for Black education, helping to found the Colored Woman's League which later became the National Association of Colored Women.[6][7] A humanitarian, Patterson also devoted time and money to Black institutions in Washington, D.C.[8]
Early life and education
[edit]Mary Jane Patterson was the oldest of Henry Patterson and Emeline (or Emmeline) Eliza (Taylor) Patterson's children. There is conflicting data on how many siblings she had, but most sources cite between seven and ten.[6][9] Henry Patterson worked as a bricklayer and plasterer. Although some accounts relate that he gained his freedom from slavery in 1852, he was in fact freeborn.[1][10] Having bought his enslaved intended wife, Emeline, he petitioned to emancipate her in 1838 and again in 1840, according to the Legislative Petitions of North Carolina State Archives which also stated that he was born free. The couple waited to have children until after Emeline was freed, in 1840 or 1841. Their eldest child, Mary Jane Patterson, was born in 1844. Thus despite some accounts stating that the family were runaway slaves, they were in fact free when they moved north from Raleigh, North Carolina, settling in Oberlin, Ohio, an abolitionist town, in 1852.[1][11] Oberlin had a large community of black families, including freeborn and emancipated people and some fugitive slaves. The town was a popular place to settle as, from 1835, Black men could enroll at Oberlin College and, from 1837, Black women could also.[12] Thus the town then had a racially integrated liberal arts co-ed college. It was rare in the pre-reconstruction era[13] for both young African American men and women to get a good education. In 1833, an American clergymen John Jay Shipherd had founded the college community and named it after an Alsatian pastor and philanthropist called John Frederick Oberlin. Four of the Patterson children graduated from Oberlin College and all four became teachers.[14] Mary Jane Patterson was the first African-American woman to achieve a BA degree.[2] Henry Patterson, who as a child was friends with future US president Andrew Johnson,[15][16] then worked as a master mason. For many years the family boarded large numbers of Black students in their home.[6]
In 1857, Patterson took a one year preparatory course at Oberlin. She did not follow that up with the usual academically less challenging two year course for ladies at Oberlin. She elected instead to follow a degree course including modules on Greek, Latin, and higher mathematics, a course designed for 'gentlemen'.[17][11]
Patterson had the support of an extended family who owned a grocery in Oberlin called Patterson's Corner.[18]
The influential abolitionist Lucy Stanton Day Sessions was a fellow Oberlin alumna alongside Mary Jane Patterson. Stanton graduated twelve years before Patterson but was not enrolled in a program offering the equivalent degree.[19]
Teaching career
[edit]After graduation, Patterson was listed as teaching in Chillicothe, Ohio. On September 21, 1864, she applied for a position in Norfolk, Virginia at a school for Black children. On October 7, 1864, E. H. Fairchild, principal of Oberlin College's preparatory department from 1853 to 1869, wrote recommending her for an "appointment from the American missionary Association as a ... teacher among freedmen." In this letter he described her as "a light quadroon, a graduate of this college, a superior scholar, a good singer, a faithful Christian, and a genteel lady. She had success in teaching and is worthy of the highest ... you pay to ladies."[20]
Although the African American educator Fanny Jackson Coppin had graduated from Oberlin College with a bachelor's degree three years after Patterson, Patterson became an assistant to Coppin in 1865 at the Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania).[21] In 1869 to 1871, Patterson taught in Washington, D.C., at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, known today as Dunbar High School. Dunbar was the first public high school for African Americans in the USA.[22] Patterson served as the school's first Black principal, from 1871 to 1872. She was demoted and served as assistant principal under Richard Theodore Greener who was the first Black Harvard University graduate and was the father of Belle da Costa Greene.[23]
When Greener left after one year, Patterson was reappointed as principal and served from 1873 to 1884. During her administration, she was mentor to many Black women educators[24] and the school flourished.[25] It grew from fewer than 50 students to 172, the name "Preparatory High School" was dropped, high school commencements were initiated, and a teacher-training department was added. Patterson's commitment to thoroughness as well as her "forceful" and "vivacious" personality helped her establish the school's strong intellectual standards.[26] In 1884, the administrators of the school decided however that a school of such size would be better headed by a male principal. Patterson was forced to step down for the second time. She continued to teach at the High School until her death.[2][27][28] [18] Neither Patterson nor her sisters ever married.[29][30]
Other pursuits
[edit]Patterson was a humanitarian and active in many organizations. She devoted time and money to Black institutions in Washington, D.C. Her obituary in the Evening Star said she "co-operated heartily in sustaining the Home for the Aged and Infirm Colored People in this city and other Kindred organizations."[31][8] Patterson also worked in 1892 with Mary Church Terrell, Anna Julia Cooper, Josephine Beall Bruce, and others, all supporters of the education and development of Black people at a local and national level, to form the Colored Woman's League of Washington D.C., which was committed to the "racial uplift" of colored women.[7][32][33] The league later became the National Association of Colored Women. The league focused on kindergarten teacher training, rescue work, and classes for industrial schools and homemaking.[34][23]
Death and legacy
[edit]Patterson died at her Washington, D.C. home, September 24, 1894. She is recognized as a pioneer in Black education, paving the way for other Black female educators and leaders such as Fanny Jackson Coppin, Mary Church Terrell and Anna Julia Cooper.[35] Her life was spent giving young African Americans the same educational chances that she had been granted at Oberlin College.[36] Her old home is on the route of Washington, D.C.'s historic walking tour.[37]
In Terrell's words, "She was a woman with a strong, forceful personality, and showed tremendous power for good in establishing high intellectual standards in the public schools. Thoroughness was one of Miss Patterson’s most striking characteristics as a teacher. She was a quick, alert, vivacious and indefatigable worker.”[38]
In 2019, a scholarship was established in Patterson's name as part of the California State University, Long Beach, Teachers for Urban Schools project.[39][40]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Bishir, Catherine (2018). "Patterson, Henry J. (1805-1886) and John E. (1804-1880)". North Carolina Architects & Builders: A Bibliographical Dictionary. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
- ^ a b c "Mary Jane Patterson". www2.oberlin.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ Watson, Terri; McClellan, Patrice (30 June 2020). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Stewart, A (2013). First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School. Chicago, Il: Lawrence Hill Books. p. 32.
- ^ Ostrom, Hans (2023). Forgotten African American Firsts: An Encyclopedia of Pioneering History. Greenwood. ISBN 978-1-4408-7535-9.
- ^ a b c "Historical profile of Mary Jane Patterson". Dayton Daily News. 2005-02-28. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
- ^ a b Brooks, Robin (2018-08-18). "Looking to Foremothers for Strength: A Brief Biography of the Colored Woman's League". Women's Studies. 47 (6): 609–616. doi:10.1080/00497878.2018.1492407. ISSN 0049-7878.
- ^ a b "Historical profile of Mary Jane Patterson". Dayton Daily News. 2005-02-28. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ Brown, Stacy M. (2017-02-15). "Black History Month: Remembering Mary Jane Patterson". The Washington Informer. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
- ^ "Old Times in Raleigh". The Gazette, (Raleigh, N.C.) . 10 October 1891.
- ^ a b Blakemore, Erin (2017-05-23). "How the Daughter of a Slave Became the First African-American Woman to Earn a Bachelor's Degree". TIME. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ Horton, James O (1985). "Black Education at Oberlin College: A Controversial Commitment". The Journal of Negro Education. 54 (4): 480. doi:10.2307/2294710. JSTOR 2294710.
- ^ Patterson, S.L., 2018. Black intellectual cultures and ideals: educational philosophy in nineteenth-century African American literature, 1856-1910 (Doctoral dissertation, University of Delaware).
- ^ "Mary Jane Patterson, first black woman to be granted a bachelor's degree in the U.S. (Oberlin College, 1862)". ohio5.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
- ^ The Papers of Andrew Johnson(Knoxville, Tennessee, 1976) vol.4, pp 537-538
- ^ Brown, Stacy M. (2017-02-15). "Black History Month: Remembering Mary Jane Patterson". The Washington Informer. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ Sowell, Thomas, Black excellence -- the case of Dunbar High School," The Public Interest, Spring 1974, p.7.
- ^ a b Evans, Stephanie Y. (2008). Black women in the ivory tower, 1850 - 1954: an intellectual history (1. paperback ed.). Gainesville: University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-3268-9.
- ^ Garner, Carla (2010-12-03). "Mary Jane Patterson (1840-1894) •". Retrieved 2024-04-01.
- ^ Smith, Jessie Carney. "Mary Jane Patterson." Notable Black Women, Book 1. Gale Research 1992.
- ^ "Oberlin Heritage Center Blog". www.oberlinheritagecenter.org. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
- ^ Rixon, Karla (2010-12-07). "Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (1870- ) •". Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ a b "Patterson, Mary Jane (1840–1894) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ Bobo, Jacqueline; Hudley, Cynthia; Michel, Claudine, eds. (2004). The Black studies reader. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94553-0.
- ^ Hundley, M (1965). The Dunbar Story 1870-1955. New York: Vantage Press.
- ^ "Mary Jane Patterson, Pioneering Educator Born" African American Registry.<http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/mary-jane-patterson-pioneering-educator-born>.
- ^ Garner, Carla (2010-12-03). "Mary Jane Patterson (1840-1894) •". Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), September 25, 1894 (25 September 1894). "Obituaries". Evening Star (Washington, D.C.).
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Weatherford, Doris (1994). American Women's History (1st ed.). New York: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-671-85009-8.
- ^ Henle, Ellen; Merrill, Marlene (Spring 1979). "Antebellum Black Coeds at Oberlin College". Women's Studies Quarterly .
- ^ "Death of Miss Patterson". The Evening Star. 25 September 1894. p. 7.
- ^ Perkins, Linda M. (October 1983). "The Impact of the "Cult of True Womanhood" on the Education of Black Women". Journal of Social Issues. 39 (3): 17–28. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00152.x. ISSN 0022-4537.
- ^ White, Deborah Gray (1999). Too heavy a load: Black women in defense of themselves, 1894-1994 (1. ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-31992-7.
- ^ Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. Anna J. Cooper: A Voice From the South. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. ISBN 978-0-87474-528-3.
- ^ Henle, Ellen; Merrill, Marlene (Spring 1979). "Antebellum Black Coeds at Oberlin College". Women's Studies Quarterly. 8: 380.
- ^ Jones, Tamara Bertrand; Dawkins, LeKita Scott; Glover, Melanie Hayden; McClinton, Marguerite M., eds. (2023-07-03). Pathways to Higher Education Administration for African American Women. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003446293. ISBN 978-1-003-44629-3.
- ^ "19th-century Women's Antislavery Activism in the Lake Erie Borderlands (Tour)". Clio. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
- ^ Terrell, Mary Church (July 1917). "History of the High School for Negroes in Washington". The Journal of Negro History. 2 (3): 209–344. doi:10.2307/2713767. JSTOR 2713767.
- ^ "Mary Jane Patterson Scholars | California State University Long Beach". www.csulb.edu. 2019-11-06. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
- ^ Rosenberg, David, and Tara Anderson. "Frequent, growth-oriented feedback at DC public schools." Education Resource Strategies. https://www. k12blueprint. com/sites/default/files/ERS-frequent-growth-oriented-feedback-At-dcps. pdf (2017).
Further reading
[edit]Jessie Carney Smith, ed., Notable Black American Women, Book 1 (Detroit: Gale Research, 1992)
Dorothy Sterling, We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984)
Mary Gibson Hundley, The Dunbar Story (1870-1955) (New York: Vantage Press, 1965)
Weatherford, Doris. American Women's History. (New York: Prentice Hall, 1994)
Baumann, Roland M. 'Patterson, Mary Jane.' in African American National Biography. Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham.(W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and Oxford University Press, 2013)