A TREASURE IN W&L HISTORY
Date: June 11, 2001 Section: EXTRA Page:
1
By GREG ESPOSITO THE ROANOKE TIMES
Ted DeLaney was a part-time student at Washington and Lee
University in the early 1980s, one of a handful of black
undergraduates at a school steeped in Southern traditions. The
university, DeLaney thought, hadn't admitted a black student
until 1966, five years after DeLaney graduated from a Jim Crow
high school in Lexington.
Then one day, reading through a history assignment at home,
he came across some startling information tucked away on page
176 of Clement Eaton's "The Mind of the Old South." He learned
he had been wrong about when W&L had admitted its first black
student.
By 171 years.
John Chavis enrolled at W&L's forerunner, Liberty Hall
Academy, in 1795. It was a strange footnote to the South's
history of segregation - so unprecedented, in fact, that
Chavis may have been the first black to graduate from any
American college, North or South.
In the years since he learned about Chavis' story,
DeLaney has gone on to become an associate professor of history
at W&L. He's spent time digging into Chavis' obscured
past, and trying to encourage the university to honor Chavis
and use his story as a recruiting tool as the school tries to
overcome Its reputation as a place where minorities aren't
welcome.
"We had this treasure that we could've capitalized on and we
completely ignored him," DeLaney said.
The university faces an uphill battle in recruiting black
students. Just 12 of the 395 seniors who graduated Thursday were
black.
When the university's board of trustees formed a committee
two years ago to work on inclusivity at the school, DeLaney saw
it as a chance to call attention to Chavis' story. A
committee to honor Chavis was formed and it was decided
that a room in the yet-to-be-built University Commons will be
named after him. The committee also has discussed naming a
lecture series after him or constructing a monument on campus.
During his speech at Thursday's graduation, W&L President
John Elrod mentioned Chavis by name, linking Chavis,
George Washington and Robert E. Lee as "examples of lives
well-lived."
John Chavis was born a free man in Granville County,
N.C., in 1763. His name is on the roster of Virginia Soldiers of
the American Revolution, which lists his home at the time as
Mecklenburg County, Va. He began studies to become a
Presbyterian minister in 1792 at the College of New Jersey - now
Princeton University - where he studied as a private student of
the college president, John Witherspoon.
Legend has it that Chavis attended Princeton as the
result of a wager between two white men about whether a black
could learn Greek or Latin. DeLaney said there's no evidence the
story is anything more than a myth. He said the Presbyterian
Church was interested in using black men to evangelize slaves
and saw Chavis' potential. All Presbyterian ministers at
the time were required to have a college education.
After Witherspoon died in 1794, Chavis transferred to
Liberty Hall Academy - a school run by Presbyterian clergymen.
The school changed its name to Washington Academy while
Chavis was studying there and then to Washington and Lee
University in 1871, in honor of Confederate leader Robert E.
Lee, who took over the school's presidency after the Civil War.
Chavis' name is on a list of students in the winter
session of 1795. DeLaney said no records exist that would
indicate Chavis' enrollment caused any controversy at the
school, which may reflect a more accepting attitude of
Southerners toward blacks in the 1700s. Racism was a powerful
force during that era, but was not so virulent as it became
after the national debate over slavery emerged in the 1800s.
DeLaney said the records of many early W&L students burned in
a fire, but Chavis probably completed his studies at the
school. The Lexington Presbytery granted Chavis a license
to preach in 1800 - something he couldn't have gotten without a
college education.
Chavis did not leave a memoir of his life as a student
at Washington Academy. His life after college is better
documented. By 1809, he was in Raleigh, N.C., working as a
missionary and preacher under the Orange Presbytery.
He converted blacks and whites and visited the homes of
prominent white people. He opened a school for black and white
children in his home. When white parents objected to their
children sharing classrooms with black children, Chavis
separated the classes. He taught whites during the day for $2.50
per quarter and blacks at night for $1.75 per quarter.
Whites who attended Chavis' school included future
political leaders such as U.S. Sen. Willie P. Mangum of North
Carolina, North Carolina Gov. Charles Manly, and New Mexico Gov.
Abram Rencher.
Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion in Southside Virginia
sparked restrictions on black religious practices and literacy.
Chavis was far from an abolitionist, taking a position
against immediate emancipation, but he could not weather the
crackdown. He was forced to close his school. He depended on
prominent white friends and the Orange Presbytery to support his
family until his death in 1838.
He was not forgotten. In 1938, 100 years after his death, an
apartment complex and park were built in Raleigh and named for
Chavis.
Washington and Lee waited longer to honor him, even though
his W&L connection was listed in the university's alumni
directory and he is mentioned in "General Lee's College," a
history of W&L published in 1969.
In the mid-1980s, W&L's handful of black students raised
concerns about racial isolation and insensitivity, and
university officials promised to work to improve the campus
atmosphere. In 1986, W&L named a two-story brick residential
building, usually occupied by minority students, after Chavis.
Still, many students today don't know who Chavis was,
and his history isn't highlighted as a recruiting tool.There is
no mention of Chavis on the school's Web site.
That's a contrast with another school that boasts an
early-19th century black graduate.
Middlebury College, a small, liberal arts school in Vermont,
claims that 1823 graduate Alexander Lucius Twilight, not
Chavis, was the first black to graduate from an American
college. Middlebury President John McCardell, a W&L graduate who
has spearheaded the movement to call attention to Twilight, said
he's never heard of Chavis.
Middlebury's Web site offers a brief history of Twilight and
describes the Twilight Scholars Program, which was established
to increase the diversity of the faculty by bringing in visiting
minority scholars to teach at the school.
DeLaney praises W&L's recent efforts to call attention to its
first black student. But he hopes the university will do more,
and he continues to research the sketchy details of Chavis'
life. He has published articles about Chavis in W&L's
alumni magazine and "American National Biography."
DeLaney doesn't consider himself a crusader. He says that he
merely is calling long-overdue attention to an important
historical figure.
Courtney Penn, W&L's assistant dean of students, lived in
Chavis House while he was a student. His father was one of
the first blacks to attend the school. He said W&L is a better
place for minorities now than it was in the early 1990s, but it
has room for improvement. He points to DeLaney's research on
Chavis as an example of how a more diverse faculty could
help the school.
"When you come on campus you recognize how much deference we
have to the past," Penn said. "To add to that a man like John
Chavis will help as we try to be more inclusive and accurate
with our history. For tourists to come to W&L and really believe
that Washington and Lee began with Lee's presidency doesn't tell
the whole story."
Greg Esposito can be
reached
at 981-3341 or grege@roanoke.com
Caption: Photo - 1. & 2. SETH M. GITNER THE ROANOKE
TIMES
During his undergraduate years at Washington and Lee University,
W&L historian Ted DeLaney became interested in John Chavis.
He believes that Chavis' story could be used as a
recruiting tool. Monica Jones of Roanoke painted a portrait of
Chavis (top) that hangs in Chavis House at W&L.
The portrait is based on a drawing by an unknown artist that
appears in Joel L. Rogers' "Africa's Gift to America."
There is no likeness of Chavis that is known to be
historically accurate. COLOR |
