It did not require much argument to show that the schools could not
make much progress without some provision for developing its own
teaching force. The State Superintendent was early authorized,
therefore, to arrange with some school in the State for the
professional training of Negro teachers. For a number of years the
State depended largely upon such normal training as could be given at
Storer College at Harper's Ferry. The reports of the State
Superintendent of Schools carried honorable mention from period to
period of the successful work being accomplished there under the
direction of Dr. N. C. Brackett, which work was the only effort for
secondary education for Negroes in the State at that time. This was
given an impetus by a measure introduced in the legislature by Judge
James H. Ferguson of Charleston, providing for an arrangement with
Storer College by which eighteen persons as candidates for teachers in
this State should be given free tuition at that institution. As this
school was in the extreme northeastern section of the State and was
geographically a part of Maryland and Virginia, however, the Negroes
of the central and southern portions of Virginia soon began the
movement for the establishment of a Negro school providing for normal
instruction nearer home. Mr. William Davis and his corps of teachers
in Charleston, West Virginia, were among the first in West Virginia to
direct attention to this crying need. Impetus was also given the
movement by the rapid development of higher grades in Point Pleasant,
Saint Albans, Montgomery, Lewisburg and Eckman, necessitating better
trained teachers. In the summers of 1890, 1891, and 1892, Byrd
Prillerman and H. B. Rice undertook to supply this need by conducting
a summer school in the city of Charleston. Still further stimulus came
later from the establishment of promising high schools in Parkersburg,
Wheeling, Clarksburg, Huntington, and Charleston.
During this same period, however, a systematic effort was being made
to interest a larger group in the more efficient training of Negro
leaders. The Baptists of the State, led by C. H. Payne, undertook to
establish a college in West Virginia. Payne toured the State in behalf
of the enterprise, setting forth the urgent need for such an
institution and showing how this objective could be attained. Rallying
to this call, the people of the State raised a sum adequate to
purchase a site, which was soon sought by authority of the Baptists of
the State. They selected the abandoned building and grounds of Shelton
College, overlooking Saint Albans. Because of race prejudice, however,
the people of that town started such a protest that the owners of the
property were induced not to sell the site for such an unpopular
purpose.
A more successful effort, however, was soon made. Talking with
Superintendent Morgan about the necessity for higher education for the
Negroes of West Virginia, Byrd Prillerman obtained from this official
the promise to support a movement to supply this need. Superintendent
Morgan furthermore directed Prillerman to Governor Fleming to take up
with him the same proposal. The Governor was in a receptive mood and
informed Prillerman, moreover, that this problem could be more easily
solved than he had at first thought, for the reason that such an
institution could be so established as to benefit by the Morrill Land
Grant Act intended to subsidize, with funds from the proceeds of
public lands, institutions largely devoted to instruction in
Agriculture. Like the Negro Baptists of the State, Governor Fleming
thought of purchasing Shelton College in St. Albans; but inasmuch as
that place was not available the State government had to take more
serious action. As Governor Fleming said he would give his approval to
a bill for the establishment of such an institution, the only problem
to be then solved was to find persons to pilot such a measure through
the legislature. Superintendent Morgan outlined the plans for this
legislation. He showed how necessary it was to secure the support of
Mr. C. C. Watts and Judge James H. Ferguson. Byrd Prillerman used his
influence in securing the support of Mr. Watts and C. H. Payne induced
Judge Ferguson to lend the cause a helping hand. These gentlemen
framed the measure which, after some unnecessary debate and
unsuccessful opposition from friends of Storer College, they piloted
through the legislature in 1891 as a measure establishing the West
Virginia Colored Institute.
The first head of this institution was James E. Campbell, a graduate
of the Pomeroy High School. After laying the foundation and
popularizing the work to some extent in the central portion of the
State, Campbell resigned and was succeeded by J. H. Hill, who rendered
very efficient service until 1899, when he was succeeded by J. McHenry
Jones, under whom the school considerably expanded. Following him
came Byrd Prillerman, a man beloved by the people of West Virginia. He
had already been a successful teacher of English in this school. He
then served the institution as president for ten years, emphasizing
the high ideals of Christian character as the essentials in the
preparation of youth. In 1915 a collegiate course was established at
this institution and its name was changed to that of the West Virginia
Collegiate Institute. In 1919 Byrd Prillerman was succeeded by John W.
Davis, under whom the institution is progressing with renewed vigor in
its new field as a reorganized college furnishing facilities for
education not offered elsewhere for the youth of West Virginia.
The influx of Negroes into the southern counties of the State, which
necessitated the establishment of many elementary schools, caused at
the same time a demand for the extension of the facilities of
pedagogic training of the advanced order provided in the West Virginia
Colored Institute, which was not at first easily accessible to the
people of southern West Virginia. Acting upon the memorials, praying
that this need be supplied, the legislature established the Bluefield
Colored Institute in 1895. Mr. Hamilton Hatter was made the first
principal and upon him devolved the task of organizing this
institution. After serving the institution efficiently until 1906 he
retired, and was succeeded by Mr. R. P. Sims, who had formerly been an
efficient and popular assistant under Mr. Hatter at this institution.
Mr. Sims has acceptably filled this position until the present time.