Benjamin F. Bowles

Benjamin Franklin Bowles (1869–1928),[1] 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.

Not to be confused with Benjamin F. Bowles (1824–1892), who was married to Ada Chastina Bowles.

Biography

Benjamin Franklin Bowles was born on a farm near Cooperville in Pike County, Ohio.[2] His parents were Delia (née Nash) and John H. Bowles.[2] Bowles attended Wilberforce University, and received a A. M. degree in 1905.[2] He had been married twice, first to Annie R. Anderson, followed by Caroline "Carrie" King Johnson.[2] In total he had five children.[2]

Early in his career he taught grammar school in Du Quoin and Metropolis, Illinois.[2] He served as principal of Lincoln High School in East St. Louis from 1896 to 1914.[3][2] He also worked as faculty at Lincoln University, a public historically black land-grant university in Jefferson City, Missouri.[4]

In 1921, Bowles signed a NAACP petition as a representative in Missouri, in support of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill.[5]

Bowles founded Douglass University in St. Louis in 1926, which he operated until the late 1920s due to a decline in his health.[6][7] The school remained active off-and-on for decades after. At the time of the university's founding, no other college in St. Louis County admitted black students.[8] The first university in the state of Missouri allowing black students to attend was Lincoln University (founded in 1866), which was followed by Douglass University.[9] It was also only one of two schools in the United States offering full law degrees to black students.[7]

Death and legacy

Bowles died in September 1928.[1] W. E. B. DuBois wrote to Benjamin F. Bowles' wife Carrie after Bowles death requesting an obituary writeup for The Crisis.[10]

References
  1. "Burial Permits". Newspapers.com. The St. Louis Star and Times (St. Louis, Missouri). October 3, 1928.
  2. Mather, Frank Lincoln (1915). Who's Who of the Colored Race: A General Biographical Dictionary of Men and Women of African Descent. Vol. 1. Chicago, Illinois. p. 32.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. Dowden-White, Priscilla A. (2011-03-23). Groping toward Democracy: African American Social Welfare Reform in St. Louis, 1910-1949. University of Missouri Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-8262-7226-3.
  4. "Negroes Plan College Here; Douglass University to Open Classes in Temporary Quarters Feb. 1". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1926-10-23. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  5. Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt (1921). Crisis. Vol. 23–27. Crisis Publishing Company. p. 23.
  6. Wright, John Aaron (2002). Discovering African American St. Louis: A Guide to Historic Sites. Missouri History Museum. pp. 51–52. ISBN 9781883982454.
  7. "St. Louis Negros Are Working Without Pay to Found Douglass University". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1928-02-12. p. 74. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  8. Early, Gerald Lyn (1998). Ain't But a Place: An Anthology of African American Writings about St. Louis. Missouri History Museum. pp. 307–314. ISBN 978-1-883982-28-7.
  9. "Douglass University Opening". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1926-12-13. p. 18. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  10. "Letter from W. E. B. Du Bois to Mrs. B. F. Bowles, October 16, 1928". Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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