The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1921-08-06

manner. Payne, who became thu
first president of a Negro college ii
this country and a bishop Of the A
NJ. Il, Church. was born Of free pa.
rents In Charleston in 1911. An un.
usual zeal for education character
lied his youth. Successfully workinl
as an apprentice TO a shoemaker, {
carpenter and tailor, he studied
until midnight and rose at dawr
to scan his books before repairing
to the bench. He soon started 3
school Of HIS own with three pupils
paying fifty cents day, enlarginl
his educational work by degrees and
finally leaving Charleston in 1894
when the Legislature forbade Ne.
groes attending school. He Their
went TO the Lutheran Seminary al
Gettysburg, working his way there
for two years while studying for the
ministry. was ordained and became
a preacher. Most of his later car
reer as a Methodist Bishop was as
ISOLATED with religious work In the
District Of Columbia, while high
honor came later with his selection
as president of Wilberforce Uniyer-
sity at Xenia. Ohio. But from 1910
TO 1S43 he was In Philadelphia, con-
Quoting private school for Negroes
which enrolled at one time as many
as sixty pupils. II was Payne, who
hearing of Fanny Jackson's ambi-
tious efforts at self-education, when
she was a servant in the Newport
home of 'the Baltimore Calverts, -
finding one hour week for study
apart from her house hold work,
secured scholarship a Oberllh Col
lege for this ambitious maid. Born
a slave in the city of Washington,
Fanny Jackson's freedom had been
purchased in 1850 by her aunt, and
before the Civil War was ended
she was teaching a mixed class of
whites and blacks at Oberlin with
signal success. Toward the close of
the war she was summoned to Phil
adelphia to take charge of the fe-
male department of the institute for
Colored youth founded before the
Quaker Humphreys.
After that. her life was identified
with Philadelphia. In 1869 she be-
came the principal of the Institute,
succeeding Ebenezer ID. Bassett
when was appointed Minister to
Haiti by President Grant. The Color
ed Woman's Exchange, the Home for
Girls and Young Women, the estab-
lishment of an Industrial school, and
other works of like nature figur-
ed in her local activities for thirty
five years. In 1881 she married Lee
vi j. Coffin. also an active color
ed worker in this city, who subse-
queEtly was made bishop of the
A. NJ. n. Church. and in 1900 she
her husband TO Cape
Town, South Africa. where she or
ganized a Bethel Institute founded
on the principles Of Humphreys
school in this city, and to her sur
prise is said to have found pupils
there who had studied at the Phil
adelphia institute. Another bishop
of the black race who was long
identified with with educational
work In this city was the Rev. Ben
Jamin T. Tanner, native of Pit
tsburgh, whose son, Henry Osawa
Tanner n graduate of the Pennsyl-
vania Academy of the Fine Artist is
Justly rated as one of the noted ar
fists of modern times. Henry Tan
ner's paintings more than once have
won prizes In Paris and London,
where he has been acclaimed as a
notable artist. and one of his best
known works. 1.-THE Annunciation,"
has found place in the Wilstach
Collection in Memorial Hall.
Another local member of the race
who achieved high honor in his pro-
fessional and political career was
John Stephen Durham the widely
known Negro lawyer and editor. who
served the nation as consul to San
Domingo and Minister to Haiti. as
well as an assistant attorney on
the United States Spanish Treaty
Claims Commission. In addition to
his literary contributions to the At
lantic Monthly and Lippincotts Mag
lzine. he also published novel of
Negro life in Haiti. His mental at
urbanity and knowledge
gained him wide circle of friends
and, gained in Cuba and London,
where he resided for while he was
looked to as one of the leaders of
his people.