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.

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. 1 2 "Burial Permits". Newspapers.com. The St. Louis Star and Times (St. Louis, Missouri). October 3, 1928.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 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. 1 2 "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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