Josephine Silone Yates

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Josephine Silone Yates
Josephine Silone Yates, c1902 (cropped).jpg
Born1852 or November 15, 1859
Mattituck, New York, U.S.
Died(1912-09-03)September 3, 1912
Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materRhode Island State Normal School, later named Rhode Island College, Rhode Island
Known forThe first Black woman to head a college science department and the first Black woman to hold a full professorship at any U.S. college or university
Children2
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry, education
InstitutionsLincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri
Josephine Silone Yates
Pen nameMrs. R. K. Potter
OccupationMagazine correspondent and active member of the African American women's club movement
Period1880s-1906
Subjectracial uplift, poetry, women's issues

Josephine Silone Yates (1852 or November 15, 1859 – September 3, 1912), trained in chemistry, was one of the first black professors hired at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, and, upon her promotion, the first black woman to head a college science department.[1][2] She may have been the first black woman to hold a full professorship at any U.S. college or university.[3]

Yates was also significant in the African-American women's club movement. She was a correspondent for the Woman's Era (the first monthly magazine published by black women in the United States) and wrote for other magazines, sometimes using the pseudonym Mrs. R. K. Potter. Yates was instrumental in establishing women's clubs for African-American women because she helped found and was the first president of the Kansas City Colored Women's League (1893), and was the second president of the National Association of Colored Women (1900–04).[1]

Early life and education[]

Josephine Silone's birth is given variously as 1852,[1] and as November 15, 1859.[4][5] She was the second daughter of Alexander and Parthenia Reeve Silone, and was born in Mattituck, NY.[6] During her childhood, her family lived with her maternal grandfather, a freed slave, Lymas Reeves. Her mother taught her to read from the Bible. She started school at the age of six, and was rapidly advanced by her teachers.[1]

Josephine's uncle, Rev. John Bunyan Reeve, was the pastor of the Lombard Street Central Church in Philadelphia. At the age of 11, she went to live with him so that she could attend the Institute for Colored Youth. There she was mentored by its director, Fanny Jackson Coppin.[1][2][7] The next year, Rev. Reeve moved to Howard University, and Josephine went to live with her maternal aunt, Francis I. Girard, in Newport, Rhode Island. There she attended grammar school and later Rogers High School. She was the only black student at both, but was given respect and support by her teachers. Her science teacher considered her his brightest pupil and enabled her to do additional laboratory work in chemistry. She graduated as valedictorian of the Rogers High School class of 1877 and received a medal for scholarship.[1] She was the first black student to graduate from Rogers High School.[7]

Silone chose to attend the Rhode Island State Normal School in Providence to become a teacher, rather than pursuing a university career. She graduated in 1879, with honors, the only black student in her class.[1] She was the first African American certified to teach in the schools of Rhode Island.[2] She later received a master's degree from the National University of Illinois.[4]

Teaching[]

Josephine A. Silone Yates, ca 1885

In 1879, Josephine Silone moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, to work as one of the first black teachers hired at Lincoln University. President Inman Edward Page considered it essential to replace the previously white faculty with black teachers, as role models for the school's African-American students. The teachers lived on campus in the dormitories with the students.[1] Josephine taught chemistry, elocution, and English literature.[2] Upon her promotion to head of the natural science department, she became the first black woman to head a college science department[1] and the first black woman to hold a full professorship at any U.S. college or university.[3]

In 1886, she was offered the position of "lady-principal" at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama led by Booker T. Washington. She declined.[5]

Josephine Silone Yates was clear about her purpose in teaching. In a 1904 essay, she wrote: "The aim of all true education is to give to body and soul all the beauty, strength, and perfection of which they are capable, to fit the individual for complete living."[3]

Marriage and family[]

In 1889, Josephine Silone married William Ward Yates.[4] Many schools prohibited married women from teaching, and upon her marriage, Josephine Silone gave up her teaching position at Lincoln. She moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband was the principal of Phillips School.[1] Her daughter Josephine Silone Yates, Jr. was born in 1890. Her son William Blyden Yates was born in 1895.[2]

The Women's Club movement[]

In Kansas City, Yates became active in the African-American women's club movement. She was a correspondent for the Woman's Era (the first monthly magazine published by black women in the United States), and also wrote for the Southern Workman, The Voice of the Negro, the Indianapolis Freeman, and the Kansas City Rising Son, under her own name and the pseudonym "R. K. Porter".[1] Racial uplift was one of many topics she spoke and wrote about. She was identified as an exemplar of her race and included as one of 100 of "America's greatest Negroes" in Twentieth Century Negro Literature; or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro in 1902. Her paper addressed the question "Did the American Negro make, in the nineteenth century, achievements along the lines of wealth, morality, education, etc., commensurate with his opportunities? If so, what achievements did he make?"[8] She published poetry, including "The Isles of Peace", "The Zephyr", and "Royal To-Day".[7]

Josephine Silone Yates, c. 1900

Josephine Silone Yates helped to found the Women's League of Kansas City, an organization for the self-help and social betterment for African-American women, and became its first president in 1893. In 1896 the Women's League joined the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), a federation of similar clubs from around the country.[5] Silone Yates served with the NACW for four years as the treasurer[7] or vice-president[2] (1897 to 1901) and for four years as president (1901 to 1904).[1][7] By 1911, she had helped found the first black YWCA in Kansas City.[9]

A testament to her accomplishments and acclaim is in a speech presented by Anna Julia Cooper in 1893 at the World's Congress of Representative Women in Chicago:

In organized efforts for self help and benevolence also our women been active. The Colored Women's League, of which I am at present corresponding secretary, has active, energetic branches in the South and West. The branch in Kansas City, with a membership of upward of one hundred and fifty, already has begun under their vigorous president, Mrs. Yates, the erection of a building for friendless girls.[10]

Later life[]

In 1902, she was recalled by the president of Lincoln Institute to serve as the head of the department of English and history. In 1908 she requested to resign due to illness, but the Board of Regents did not accept, and she stayed on as the advisor to women at Lincoln.[4] Her husband died in 1910,[2] after which Josephine Silone Yates chose to return to Kansas City. She died on September 3, 1912, after a short illness.[2]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Brown, Jeannette E. (2012). African American Women Chemists. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199742882.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kremer, Gary R. (1999). Christensen, Lawrence O. (ed.). Dictionary of Missouri biography. Columbia, Mo. [u.a.]: University of Missouri Press. p. 818. ISBN 0826212220.
  3. ^ a b c Kremer, Gary R.; Mackey, Cindy M. (1996). "'Yours for the Race': The Life and Work of Josephine Silone Yates". Missouri Historical Review. 90 (2): 199–215.
  4. ^ a b c d "Josephine Silone-Yates". Missouri Women's Council. Archived from the original on February 25, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  5. ^ a b c Conrads, David. "Josphine Silone Yates". Kansas City Public Library. Retrieved February 8, 2014.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ Brown, Jeannette E. (2012). African American women chemists. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780199742882.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Yates, Josephine Silone (1852-1912)". BlackPast.org Blog. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  8. ^ Yates, Josephine Silone (1902). Culp, Daniel Wallace (ed.). Twentieth Century Negro Literature; or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro. Naperville, Ill., Toronto, Can. [etc.]: J. L. Nichols & co. pp. 21–29.
  9. ^ "Notable women in early Kansas City". The Kansas City Star. KCPL archive. February 16, 2004. p. B4 – via Newspapers.com. {{cite news}}: External link in |others= (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ^ Sewall, May Wright, ed. (1894). The World's Congress of Representative Women. Chicago: Rand McNally. pp. 711–715.

Further reading[]

  • Clark Hine, Darlene (1997). Facts on File encyclopedia of Black women in America. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 9780816034253. OCLC 36973359.
  • Carney Smith, Jessie (1996). Notable Black American women (1st ed.). Detroit: Gale Research. ISBN 9780810391772.

External links[]

Josephine Silone Yates

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