In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

xi ing the race with uppercase spelling of the term “black” when used to identify African Americans as a specific racial group. Though it is not our choice, but because we are following the Chicago Manual of Style, in this history, we have followed the prevailing convention, which is to capitalize names of ethnic and national groups (such as African Americans) and lowercase designations of racial groups based on color, such as black or white. Appiah and Gates, writing in the twentieth century in the United States, noted that, as contemporary African Americans became increasingly aware of the centrality of a positive racial identity, along with this awareness came an accompanying rise in black consciousness and how African Americans as a people viewed themselves. Suddenly, there was such pride in being black in America that even the terms used to describe and define the race changed. Negro became Afro-American, and, in the s, when Stokely Carmichael burst on the scene, the phrase “Black is Beautiful” became a household phrase, prominent in spoken English among those once known as “colored” or “negroes” and even among other Americans who supported equality. A few years later, words used to identify the race changed again and rather than Afro-American, African American came into vogue. Still later, in the s, the words used to identify the race were again modified and African American became Black and/or African American , used interchangeably. How the Project Began In , President Runnels conceived the idea of an oral history project, the outcome of which would produce a book to tell the St. Philip’s story and tell how the college I wrote this book with one thought in mind: to preserve the history of St. Philip’s College. Dr. Angie Runnels, former president of this college, had the foresight to ensure that this rich history be recorded, and she set in motion the mechanism to accomplish that. This book grew out of her vision to publish the history of St. Philip’s College, for she said, “This story must be told because no other school has a history like this.” It was my good fortune that Dr. Runnels selected me to record the account of St. Philip’s history and accomplishments. Rather than use the term, “write the history,” I use “record this account,” for in truth, those who grew up with the school and others who kept St. Philip’s on its course were the ones who wrote this history . Much like the lives of many African Americans and others who are the oppressed, recognition for St. Philip’s did not come easy. St. Philip’s came on the scene in America when, so as not to honor the race, even the terms used for identification, colored and negro, were written using lowercase characters. Recognizing that it may be offensive to some reading this book but wishing to retain the authenticity of the documents used as reference, the lowercase spelling and use of the words “negro,” “colored,” and “black” appear as in the original. Henry Hampton, in his oral history of the civil rights movement, wrote of the dilemma he faced in the s and the s regarding the convention of the period, which was (and is) to lowercase the term “black” when referring to African Americans as a racial group. Much like Hampton and his dilemma with the issue of whether to use the upper- or lowercase when using the term “Black” to describe the race, in this book we are faced with the same issue. We are now in the twenty-first century and America has not settled the issue of recognizing and dignifyPreface xii • Preface insisted, “We have more to tell you.” They invited us to return and we happily did so. In several instances, when face-to-face interviews were not possible, we used material gathered in our research from secondary sources: families of interviewees, when we could locate them, old school catalogs, school newspapers, and yearbooks. Many persons important to the St. Philip’s story were deceased, such as Artemisia Bowden, Clarence Norris Sr., James Steptoe Johnston, Bishop Capers, some faculty, and many of the students. Again, we contacted secondary sources: families, friends, acquaintances, libraries, newspapers, and the Internet—wherever we could find information written about them. Although we tried to keep the use of secondary sources to a minimum, in these cases, we found secondary sources to be most helpful. During the interviews, the participants shared their recollections of events...

Share