Irving Penn, 1913
The birth of Irving Garland Penn in 1867 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black educator and journalist.
Born in New Glasgow, Va., he attained a high school education and later became the principal of a Black school in Lynchburg, Va. In 1886, he was a news correspondent with the Richmond Planet, the Knoxville World, and the New York Age. In 1891, Penn was the author of the Afro-American Press. After serving as head of Negro Sales of the Cotton States exhibition in 1895, he stayed in Atlanta for 16 years as secretary for Blacks of the Epworth League of the Methodist Church.
In 1902, he wrote the encyclopedia, The College of Life. Penn then moved to Cincinnati and became secretary of the Freedmen’s Aid and Southern Education Society of the Methodist Church. He was closely associated with Booker T. Washington. Irving Penn died on July 22, 1930.
Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century.
Edited by Leon Litwack and August Meier
Copyright 1998, University of Illinois Press
ISBN 0-252-06213-2
