History of the American Negro: West Virginia Edition

Minnie H. Watson

258 history american negro In politics he is a Republican and holds membership in the Masons. On September 1, 1920, he was married to Miss Minnie G. Hopkins of Virginia, a story of whose work appears below. Minnie H. Watson This is the day of equal rights for women and therefore when, as we often do, we find a woman doing good work she is fully entitled to her place in the record. Mrs. Minnie Hopkins Watson, formerly a teacher of Rocky Mount, Va., has done good work already although a young woman and gives promise of much larger usefulness in the future. Mrs.Watson was born in Rocky Mount on March 31, 1893, daughter of Jack and Ollie Warren Hopkins. Her father was a merchant. Her paternal grandparents were Jack and Harriett Hopkins; on the maternal side Steve and Caroline Warren, all natives of Franklin County and all slaves prior to 1865. Mrs. Watson attended public and private schools of Rockymount and Roanoke, Va., and completed her studies at Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, Petersburg, Va., from which she was graduated in 1914, and has attended summer schools in Virginia and West Virginia, and is affiliated with the West Virginia Teachers Association. Upon her completion of her schooling she entered upon the career of a teacher. Her first work was a ten week's term at a small salary in the country. The following year she changed from rural schools and for three terms was in the town school at Rocky Mount. The encouraging feature in this record was the fact that the length of terms steadily increased and also the salary. Mrs. Watson thinks that the deciding factor in her choice of a vocation was her ability to realize the need of leadership in her race. She has travelled quite a bit in our eastern States and has been an extensive reader, especially along the lines of race assimilation, race uplift, education, history, etc. west virginia edition 259 She is a Baptist in religion, and while in Virginia she was a member of the State Teachers Association, Secretary Franklin County Teachers Association and active in the B. Y. P. U. and other church auxiliaries. She was married September 1, 1920. It is to be hoped that this will not interfere with her professional career as she has the gift of clear thought and a clarity and terseness of expression which is refreshing. Such people are so much needed that we can ill afford to spare them from careers of large usefulness. Mrs. Watson thinks that the interests of the race may be promoted by strict enforcement of compulsory education, by cultivating mutual relations between members of the race and thereby acquiring willingness to work together. Mrs. Watson is now teaching in the city school at Montgomery, W. Va., where she resides. Benjamin F. White The life stories of men like Dr. Benjamin Franklin White of Huntington constitute one of the biggest assets of the race. The true record of the American boy of whatever race struggling up from poverty and obscurity to a place of success and of large usefulness always makes its appeal to other young men who have to travel the same way. Dr. White’s father was Isaac White, a farmer of Orange County, Va., and was the son of Fannie White. Isaac White passed away before his son started to school so that he was deprived of the fatherly assistance and direction which should and does mean so much in the life of a boy. The mother of our subject was before her marriage, Miss Julia Barber. Dr. White was born at Daniels in Orange County, Va., on December 5, 1867, about two years after the close of the war which made possible a very different world from that of slavery into which his father had been born. ...