James Dudley
*James Dudley was born on this date in 1859. He was a Black educator and administrator.
James Benson Dudley was born into slavery; his parents were owned by Edward B. Dudley, the Governor of North Carolina from 1836 to 1841. Dudley took education to heart, affecting his approach for the rest of his life. Because most area schools were shut down after the American Civil War, Dudley couldn't attend school until 1867, when the Freedmen's Bureau funded a missionary school in his area. Dudley was one of the first students to enroll. He later attended public schools and learned Latin.
After going through the public school system, Dudley participated at the Institute for Colored Youth, now Cheyney University, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dudley attended Shaw College. Throughout his education, he focused on learning how to become an educator. In 1880, at age 21, Dudley obtained a teacher's certificate. Later, he attended Harvard summer school and earned an M.A. from Livingstone College and an LL.D. from Wilberforce University.
Dudley began teaching in 1880 in a first-grade classroom in Sampson County. The following year, he became principal of Peabody Graded School in Wilmington, North Carolina, aged only 21. Dudley spent the next fifteen years teaching in Wilmington. He was also President of the State Teachers' Association for Negroes for six years. Dudley also edited and published the Wilmington Chronicle. He also registered deeds in Wilmington and organized the Perpetual Building and Loan Association. He was the foreign correspondent for the Grand Lodge of Masons for twenty years.
He also represented the Republican Party at several conventions. 1896, he attended the Republican National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri. As an influence, he helped to pass a bill in 1891 that led to the establishment of The Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race, which was later renamed North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. In 1912, Dudley, with the help of the director of the Agricultural Division of the college, Professor, organized the Farmers' Union and Co-operative Society. This institution sponsored local unions in each county of the state. The aim of the society, having raised the living standards of African American farms in the area, was "to discourage the credit and mortgage system among Negro farmers in North Carolina; to assist them in the buying and selling of products; to control methods of production and distribution of farm products; and to secure uniform prices."
In 1895, the North Carolina legislature appointed Dudley to the Board of Trustees for the college. Later that year, he was secretary of the board. Dudley became the college's second president at the board's next meeting. President Dudley focused on modifying the curriculum to include currently available jobs. His additions to the curriculum included teaching carpentry, woodturning, bricklaying, blacksmithing, animal husbandry, horticulture and floriculture, mattress and broom making, shoemaking, poultry raising, tailoring, electrical engineering, and domestic science. In addition to these specific classes, Dudley added an entire teaching department to the school, which taught students how to be teachers while emphasizing "courtesy, manners, and an appreciation of culture in general."
He also added a summer school program. In 1915–1916, the college changed its name to "Agricultural and Technical College" as part of a significant overhaul. The change was provoked by the college being in debt due to insufficient students being enrolled to support it. Many people in the area wanted "a professional or classical education. Especially, many parents wished their sons to become preachers, lawyers, teachers, or physicians." Dudley's career ended while he was president of the college. In early April, Dudley left the college due to sudden severe headaches; he unexpectedly died on April 4, 1925, at the age of 65. In 1929, Dudley High School on the southeast side of Greensboro, North Carolina, was named in his honor, becoming the first black high school in the city.
To Become a College Administrator
To Become a Middle School Teacher
