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Washington Post
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Description: Graduates are Many – Colored High School Scholars Receive Diplomas – A Large Audience Present – Commencement Exercises of the M Street High and Manual Training School No. 2 – J. F. Bundy, H. B. F. Macfarland and Rev. Walter S. Brooks Make Add

Date: June 18 1902

Newspaper published in: Washington, DC

Page/Column: Page 8

Graduates are Many – Colored High School Scholars Receive Diplomas – A Large Audience Present – Commencement Exercises of the M Street High and Manual Training School No. 2 – J. F. Bundy, H. B. F. Macfarland, and Rev. Walter S. Brooks Make Addresses – An Appreciative Audience

[Transcriber’s Note: The “M Street School” referred to in this article is today known as Dunbar High School.]

The progress of the colored people in America was most eloquently exemplified last evening, when, in the Lafayette Square Opera House, in the presence of an audience filling all available space. One hundred twenty four young men and women of the M Street School and Manual Training School No. 2 received the diplomas certifying to their having completed the course of study of their respective institutions of learning.

It was a gala night to these young people, the occasion marking the end of their public school work, and the happy faces of those on the stage bore evidence of the fact. The graduates were arranged in tiers running to the back of the stage, and in front were seated the speakers of the evening and other prominent persons. With real beauty in its very simplicity, the stage was decorated with plants and the floral gifts for the graduates. The scene set was of a garden, and the effect a pleasing one.

The audience was [not?]a representative one, nor was it made up of members of the colored race alone, for through the house were seen many of Caucasian blood.

Among those on the stage were Rev. Walter S. BROOKS, the principal speaker of the evening; Hon. H. B. F. MACFARLAND (McFARLAND?), president of the Board of District Commissioners; Rev. F. J. GRIMKE, pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church; Supt. A. T. STUART, of the public schools; Dr. Francis R. LANE, director of the high schools. J. F. BUNDY, of the board of education and the presiding officer of the evening; Gen. George H. HARRIES, vice president of the board of education; Dr. Bruce EVANS, principal of manual training; Mrs. A. J. COOPER, principal of the M Street High School; J. Holdsworth GORDON, member of the board of education; Dr. A. D. MAYS, Mrs. J. R. FRANCIS, member of the board of education, and W. S. MONTGOMERY, assistant superintendent. Among those in the boxes were Gen. H. V. BOYNTON, president of the board of education, W. F. RODERICK, secretary of the board of education, Mrs. I. G. MYERS, assistant superintendent of schools; J. H. CHAMBERLAIN, director of manual training, and Mr. H. B. F. MACFARLAND.

Following several well-rendered selections by the Columbia orchestra, which furnished the evening’s programme of music, Rev. F. J. GRIMKE offered the invocation.

Mr. J. F. BUNDY, as presiding officer, made the opening address. He said, in part:

Mr. Bundy’s Speech

“You have been invited here tonight to witness the graduating exercises of the Colored High School. According to the report of the commissioner of education, the attendance upon this grade of public instruction has increased by more than twenty fold during the last quarter of a century, and has more than doubled itself during the past decade. The high school is the poor man’s college. The Manual training High School is a comparatively recent addition to the scheme of public instruction. Hitherto the cooperation and coordination of hand and mind has been limited to the elementary grades; but there seems to be no good reason why it should not be extended throughout the entire range of educational endeavor. It is gratifying to note that the Colored High School of Washington has a splendid history. Many of the most useful and eminent colored men in the community have received their training in this institution. These men constitute at once its justification and its larger claim upon public approval and support.”

“The conferring of the diplomas by President MACFARLAND followed Mr. BUNDY’s address. In conferring the school honors, among other things, Mr. MACFARLAND said:

Mr. McFarland Awards Diplomas

“Congratulations full of thanksgiving and full of hopefulness are certainly in order tonight. Not only for the graduating class, with all its good record and all its good promise, but for the race it represents. It is another evidence of the remarkable progress of that race and another pledge that the progress will continue. “Twenty savages a little over 300 years ago, coming into this country shackled in chains, enslaved in ignorance’ – this if Booker WASHINGTON’s picture of your beginnings here. Then came the long period of slavery, which was notwithstanding everything, a period of development, and then, suddenly, without any other preparation, and without provision for education, 4,000,000 of slaves were converted into citizens, but citizens without property and, so, dependents. That was less than forty years ago. You have not wandered through the wilderness forty years, as did the Israelites. Yet you have more than doubled in numbers, you have availed yourselves of every opportunity for education given you, you have accumulated collectively large wealth, and you are appreciating and approximating industrial independence. Political liberty and industrial independence are very different things. You are learning rapidly that you must have both. In following that trend you are following the wisest leadership you have and you are entering upon a prosperity which none of us can measure.”

The address of Rev. Walter S. BROOKS, pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, followed the conferring of certificates. Rev. Mr. BROOKS said, in part:

Rev, Walter Brooks’ Address

“You should never forget that you have been educated and fitted for some of life’s duties, and for higher attainments in scholarship, by the bounty of the civil government. What return will you make for favors bestowed? You will be deeply sensible of the claims of the country upon your patriotic devotion to its every interest. Were you to be indifferent to this claim after being in the best public schools of the country, you would merit the unenviable distinction of being ingrates of the superlative degree. But I know that every heart beats with local pride and with love of country, however many, however dark the wrongs which are done our brothers in parts of the United States. As you have been educated by the government, it is expected that some of you will enter colleges and universities of America to lift yourselves into the ranks of the world’s best scholars, thinkers, writers; into the ranks of the realm where men and women of distinguished usefulness live to the uplifting of humanity, and the glory of the nation. May God be with you all, and enable you to measure up to the heavenly command, ‘Quit you like men.’ So shall you provide a blessing to Americans of darker skin and to the whole country.”

A feature worthy of not and testifying to the practicability of the Manual Training School and of its pupils was the wearing of gowns made entirely by themselves by Misses Addie EDMUNDS, Mary Louise MORRIS, Annie Matilda WEEDON, and Sarah Roberta WILLIAMS.

Announcement was made by Assistant Superintendent W. S. MONTGOMERY that the Howard University scholarship for dentistry has been awarded to Roscoe WORMLEY and that of pharmacy to Sherman LEWIS.

The Graduates

The following were the graduates of the two schools:

M Street School, Academic Course:
– Kathleen Ambler
– Emma Clara Andrews
– Alice Pearl Barlow
– Georgia Clarissa Brown
– Essie Beatrice Burrell
– Rosa Belle Childs
– Josephine Willis Clarke
– Elizabeth Grace Cole
– Julia Beatrice Collier
– Helen Cooper
– Hattie Cecelia Dandridge
– Eunice Terrell Dorster
– Eva Emma Duckett
– Ida Catharina Bernice Dyer
– Ida May Fillmore
– Ethel Mae Gibbons
– Marie Anna Greene
– Mary Viola Hamilton
– Nannie Becrafft Harris
– Alice Estelle Hatchett
– Clotill Mockneer Houston
– Elizabeth Armenia Howard
– Florence Anna Johnson
– Helen Feranda Jones
– Elfrida Harriet Kennedy
– Blanche Emily Longhorn
– Maude Leonora McCary
– Eleanore Carrie Minkins
– Rosetta Eloise Orme
– Dora Elizabeth Payne
– Gerster Mary Smallwood
– Anna Loretta Smith
– Julia Dessimore Somerville
– Jessie Evelyn Stewart
– Rosa Belle Stokes
– Fannie Rachel Turner
– Etelka Henrietta Valateen
– Helen Elizabeth Frazier Webb
– Mary Elizabeth Wilson
– Gertrude Elaine York
– Cornelia McBeth Lee Young
– Caroline Elizabeth Younger
– Alfred Percival Brent
– Robert Elma Butcher
– James David Campbell
– Eugene Augustine Clark
– Walter Garrison Dixon
– Milton Augusta Francis
– Maxwell Hayson
– Chester Hayden Jarvis
– Joseph Henry Johnson
– Roland Rufus Johnson
– Shermont Lawson Lewis
– William Ernest Lewis
– Robert Nichalos (Nicholas?) Mattingly
– Royal Garfield Mundy
– Harry Smith Thompson
– Geraldon Smith Wormley

M Street School, Scientific Course:
– Mattie Lawrence Brown
– Margaret Mabelle Bruce
– Lillian Cecelia Bowie
– Luella Elizabeth Briles
– Anna Serena Carter
– Alice Rebecca Chew
– Sarah Agnes Davis
– Lilliam Hall Ford
– Maud Elizabeth Magdalene Green
– Marion Carmeneita Harris
– Edmonia Blanche McDonald
– Finetta Beatrice Nalle (Nalls?)
– Nellie Delilah Richards
– Grace Elaine Scott
– Julia Hamilton Smith
– Carrie Pauline Price
– Mary Stewart Lewis Leftwich
– Lula Vashil (Vashti?) Turley
– Alice Belle Washington
– Rutherford Burchard Berryman
– Edwin Bancroft Henderson
– Nathaniel Allison Murray
– George Luther Sadgway (Sedgway?)
– Roscoe Conklin Womley

Manual Training School – Business Course:
– Rachel Josephine Atkinson
– Hattie Betts
– Lavinia Estelle Brown
– Maria Vanbertan Butler
– Josephine Carter
– Lucy Ellen Carter
– Elizabeth Virginia Cooper
– Eva Violet Coxson
– Addie Edmunds
– Ada Ariena Fultz Jennie Johnson
– Mamie Lynch
– Willie Daisy Madison
– Bessie Rebecca Malvin
– Mary Ethel Louise Morris
– Minnie Irene Price
– Victoria Elizabeth Robinson
– Clara Thomasine Rose
– Ruth Geneva Scott
– Sarah Lillian Smith
– Eloise Sparrow
– Susie Harriet Evelyn Tibbs
– Arnetta Clarissa Tinney
– Minnie Elva Wallace
– Nathalina Odessa Warren
– Grace Magdeline Waters
– Annie Matilda Weeden
– Gertrude Louise Williams
– Sarah Roberta Williams
– Elizabeth Hannah Wylkes (Wilkes?)
– John Canfield Bostic
– Ford Thompson Dabney
– William Dandridge
– Radford Rufus Davis
– Chester Alonzo Dodson
– William Nathaniel Octavius Dodson
– McCoy Hanson
– Clifford James Lomax
– Charles Calvin Quander
– George Roscoe Washington
– Frederick LeCount Thompson

Submitted: 07/12/09 (Edited 07/13/09)

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