James E. Campbell
James Campbell’s birth in 1867 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black poet, editor, short story writer, and educator.
James Edwin Campbell was born and raised in Pomeroy, Ohio; he was a forerunner and friend of Paul Laurence Dunbar.
In 1891, he married Mary Lewis Champ in Harrison County, Ohio. Campbell served as the first president of West Virginia Colored Institute (now West Virginia State University) from 1892 to 1894. Campbell's wife, Mary Champ-Campbell, was appointed as Instructor of Vocal Music and Drawing in 1892.
Mary Champ was the daughter of Eveline Thompson Champ and Joseph L. Champ, a teacher and former principal of the Afro-American schools of Jefferson County, Ohio, and Parkersburg, West Virginia. Mary Lewis Champ-Campbell graduated from Oberlin College in 1890 as a poet.
Two of Campbell’s writings were "Driftings and Gleanings," 1887, and "Echoes from the Cabin and Elsewhere," 1895. James Campbell died in his hometown in 1896.
The Book of American Negro Poetry:
chosen and edited, with an essay on the Negro’s creative genius,
by James Weldon Johnson.
Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922
