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Mary Jane Patterson

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Mary Jane Patterson
Patterson in 1862
Born(1844-09-12)September 12, 1844
Raleigh, North Carolina, US
Died(1894-09-24)September 24, 1894
Washington, D.C., US
Alma materOberlin College (BA)
Occupations

Mary Jane Patterson (September 12, 1844 – September 24, 1894) was an American educator born to a previously enslaved mother and a freeborn father.[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

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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, successfully, in 1840. 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, to settle in Oberlin, Ohio, an abolitionist town, in 1852.[1][11]

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'.[12][11] Mary Jane Patterson was the first African-American woman to achieve a BA degree;[2] Lucy Stanton Day Sessions graduated twelve years before Patterson but was not enrolled in a program offering the equivalent degree.[13] Four of the Patterson children graduated from Oberlin College and all four became teachers.[14] Henry Patterson, who as a child was friends with future US president Andrew Johnson,[15][16] worked as a master mason in Oberlin. For many years the family boarded large numbers of Black students in their home.[6] The Patterson extended family also owned a grocery in Oberlin called Patterson's Corner.[17]

Her home in Washington D.C.

Teaching career

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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."[18]

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).[19] 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.[20] 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.[21]

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[22] and the school flourished.[23] 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.[24] 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][25][26][17] Neither Patterson nor her sisters ever married.[27][28]

Other pursuits

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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."[29][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][30][31] 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.[32][21]

Death and legacy

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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.[33] Her life was spent giving young African Americans the same educational chances that she had been granted at Oberlin College.[34] Her old home is on the route of Washington, D.C.'s historic walking tour.[35]

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."[36] In 2019, a scholarship was established in Patterson's name as part of the California State University, Long Beach, Teachers for Urban Schools project.[37][38]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Bishir, Catherine (2018). "Patterson, Henry J. (1805-1886) and John E. (1804-1880)". North Carolina Architects & Builders: A Bibliographical Dictionary. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Mary Jane Patterson". oberlin.edu. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  3. ^ Watson, Terri; McClellan, Patrice (June 30, 2020). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press.
  4. ^ Stewart, A (2013). First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School. Chicago, Il: Lawrence Hill Books. p. 32.
  5. ^ Ostrom, Hans (2023). Forgotten African American Firsts: An Encyclopedia of Pioneering History. Greenwood. ISBN 978-1-4408-7535-9.
  6. ^ a b c "Historical profile of Mary Jane Patterson". Dayton Daily News. February 28, 2005. p. 12. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  7. ^ a b Brooks, Robin (August 18, 2018). "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.
  8. ^ a b "Historical profile of Mary Jane Patterson". Dayton Daily News. February 28, 2005. p. 12. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  9. ^ Brown, Stacy M. (February 15, 2017). "Black History Month: Remembering Mary Jane Patterson". The Washington Informer. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  10. ^ "Old Times in Raleigh". The Gazette, (Raleigh, N.C.) . October 10, 1891.
  11. ^ a b Blakemore, Erin (May 23, 2017). "How the Daughter of a Slave Became the First African-American Woman to Earn a Bachelor's Degree". TIME. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  12. ^ Sowell, Thomas, Black excellence -- the case of Dunbar High School," The Public Interest, Spring 1974, p.7.
  13. ^ Garner, Carla (December 3, 2010). "Mary Jane Patterson (1840-1894) •". Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  14. ^ "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 May 22, 2024.
  15. ^ The Papers of Andrew Johnson(Knoxville, Tennessee, 1976) vol.4, pp 537-538
  16. ^ Brown, Stacy M. (February 15, 2017). "Black History Month: Remembering Mary Jane Patterson". The Washington Informer. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Smith, Jessie Carney. "Mary Jane Patterson." Notable Black Women, Book 1. Gale Research 1992.
  19. ^ "Oberlin Heritage Center Blog". www.oberlinheritagecenter.org. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  20. ^ Rixon, Karla (December 7, 2010). "Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (1870- )". Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  21. ^ a b "Patterson, Mary Jane (1840–1894)". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  22. ^ Bobo, Jacqueline; Hudley, Cynthia; Michel, Claudine, eds. (2004). The Black studies reader. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94553-0.
  23. ^ Hundley, M (1965). The Dunbar Story 1870-1955. New York: Vantage Press.
  24. ^ "Mary Jane Patterson, Pioneering Educator Born" African American Registry.<http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/mary-jane-patterson-pioneering-educator-born>.
  25. ^ Garner, Carla (December 3, 2010). "Mary Jane Patterson (1840-1894)". Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  26. ^ "Obituaries". Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). September 25, 1894.
  27. ^ Weatherford, Doris (1994). American Women's History (1st ed.). New York: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-671-85009-8.
  28. ^ Henle, Ellen; Merrill, Marlene (Spring 1979). "Antebellum Black Coeds at Oberlin College". Women's Studies Quarterly .
  29. ^ "Death of Miss Patterson". The Evening Star. September 25, 1894. p. 7.
  30. ^ 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.
  31. ^ 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.
  32. ^ Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. Anna J. Cooper: A Voice From the South. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. ISBN 978-0-87474-528-3.
  33. ^ Henle, Ellen; Merrill, Marlene (Spring 1979). "Antebellum Black Coeds at Oberlin College". Women's Studies Quarterly. 8: 380.
  34. ^ Jones, Tamara Bertrand; Dawkins, LeKita Scott; Glover, Melanie Hayden; McClinton, Marguerite M., eds. (July 3, 2023). Pathways to Higher Education Administration for African American Women. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003446293. ISBN 978-1-003-44629-3.
  35. ^ "19th-century Women's Antislavery Activism in the Lake Erie Borderlands (Tour)". Clio. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  36. ^ 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.
  37. ^ "Mary Jane Patterson Scholars | California State University Long Beach". www.csulb.edu. November 6, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  38. ^ 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

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  • 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)
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