To promote education and to encourage interest in their particular
work the Negro teachers of the State soon deemed it wise to take steps
for more thorough cooperation of the whole teaching corps of West
Virginia. White and Negro teachers were then admitted to the same
teachers' institutes and in certain parts were encouraged to
participate in the general discussions; but believing that they could
more successfully cooperate through organizations of their own, the
teachers in Charleston, in 1891, appointed from their own reading
circle a committee to organize a State Teachers' Association. This
committee was composed of H. B. Rice, P. B. Burbridge and Byrd
Prillerman. The meeting was invited by Byrd Prillerman, as secretary,
to meet at the Simpson M. E. Church in Charleston. More than fifty
teachers and race leaders attended. Inasmuch as H. B. Rice, the
chairman of the committee, was absent on account of illness, P. B.
Burbridge, whose name was second on the list of the committee, called
the meeting to order, and delivered the address of welcome. William T.
McKinney of Huntington was elected temporary chairman. The Association
was then permanently organized by naming Byrd Prillerman its first
president and Mrs. Rhoda Weaver its first secretary. Among the most
important addresses was that of C. H. Payne, an influential and
educated minister then engaged in religious and editorial work at
Montgomery, and that of B. S. Morgan, State Superintendent of Public
Schools. Others attending the meeting were Dr. W. T. Merchant, Mrs. E.
M. Dandridge, Mrs. M. A. Washington-Thompson, F. C. Smith, and J. R.
Jefferson.[32]
The second meeting of this Association assembled according to
arrangement in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The work of the Association
had by this time been taken more seriously by the teachers throughout
the State. They adopted a constitution with a preamble which stated
that the aim of the Association was "to elevate the character and
advance the interest of the profession of teaching, and to promote the
cause of popular education in the State of West Virginia." An address
was delivered by State Superintendent of Schools B. S. Morgan, and
papers were read by Mrs. E. M. Dandridge of Quinnimont, Miss Blanche
Jeffries of Charleston, Miss Coralie Franklin of Storer College, and
Principal J. E. Campbell of the West Virginia Colored Institute. Among
the persons attending but not appearing on the program were C. H.
Barnett, who had been recently graduated by Dennison University in
Ohio; C. H. Payne, then well known in the State of West Virginia; Dr.
W. S. Kearney, a graduate of the medical college of Shaw University,
then beginning his practice in Huntington; J. R. Jefferson, F. C.
Smith and O. A. Wells. Booker T. Washington was at this time made an
honorary member. Byrd Prillerman was unanimously elected president.
The third annual meeting of the Association was held at Parkersburg,
West Virginia, in 1893. For some reason there were not many teachers
present. It was held at the Baptist Church of that city, with
President Byrd Prillerman presiding. The address of welcome was
delivered by Mr. J. R. Jefferson, to the words of whom Mr. C. W. Boyd
of Charleston responded. At this meeting Principal J. E. Campbell of
the West Virginia Colored Institute was made president of the
Association, with C. W. Boyd, J. R. Jefferson, Miss Mary F. Norman as
vice-presidents, Miss Clara Thomas as secretary, Miss E. D. Webster as
treasurer, and Mrs. Susie James as historian. Two of the most
prominent persons participating in this meeting were J. McHenry Jones,
then principal of the high school in Wheeling, and J. H. Hill, an
instructor in the West Virginia Colored Institute.
The fourth annual meeting assembled at Montgomery. J. E. Campbell
being absent, Professor C. W. Boyd presided. The meeting to a certain
extent was a successful one. A Thanksgiving sermon was preached by Dr.
C. H. Payne. Dr. H. F. Gamble read a paper on "Science in Common
School Education." The Association took high ground by adopting a
resolution urging a compulsory school law. A committee consisting of
C. W. Boyd, Rev. G. B. Howard, J. W. Scott, John H. Hill, and Byrd
Prillerman, was appointed to urge the State to make an appropriation
for the teaching fund of the West Virginia Colored Institute. Byrd
Prillerman was again elected President and Miss Fannie Cobb was chosen
secretary.
The fifth annual meeting of the Association was held at Hinton. An
important feature of the meeting was the method of entertainment, in
that the citizens of Hinton gave the teachers a free banquet. Still
more significant was the address delivered by Dr. J. E. Jones of the
Richmond Theological Seminary. Byrd Prillerman, the President, himself
delivered an important address giving valuable facts as to the
conditions of the schools of the State, evoking widely extended
comment. The most prominent persons attending were J. H. Hill,
Principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute, G. B. Howard, Miss
Mary Booze, W. T. McKinney, and Miss G. E. Fulks.[33]
The sixth annual meeting was held in Charleston in the House of
Delegates, November 26-27, 1896. This was the largest and most
interesting meeting hitherto held. Welcome addresses were delivered by
C. W. Boyd of the Garnet High School, Mr. George L. Laidley,
Superintendent of the Charleston Public Schools, and Governor W. A.
McCorkle. Responses to the words of welcome were delivered by J. H.
Hill, principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute, Hamilton
Hatter, principal of the Bluefield Colored Institute, and C. H. Payne.
Other prominent persons who attended the meeting were Honorable V. A.
Lewis, P. F. Jones, Colonel B. W. Byrne, Professor A. L. Wade, J. R.
Jefferson, Rev. D. W. Shaw, Dr. G. W. Holley, P. B. Burbridge, Dr. H.
F. Gamble, Dr. L. B. Washington, Mrs. E. M. Dandridge, Mrs. M. A. W.
Thompson and Mrs. Byrd Prillerman. Officers elected were: President,
Byrd Prillerman; Vice Presidents, J. R. Jefferson, Mrs. E. M.
Dandridge, C. W. Boyd; Secretary, Miss Mary J. Jones; Treasurer, Mrs.
M. A. W. Thompson; Historian, Mr. George L. Cuzzins.
After this meeting of such unusual interest and unexpected success,
the West Virginia Teachers' Association reached its purely pedagogic
setting. It ceased to be the organization concerned with the general
social uplift, of all, and thereafter restricted its program largely
to educational matters. This was due not so much to any desire on the
part of the teachers to discontinue cooperation with the clergy, but
rather to direct attention primarily to the problems of education.
Ministers, thereafter, figured less conspicuously in the conventions,
except so far as their interests were coincident with those of the
teaching body.
There have been twenty-eight sessions of the Association held at
Charleston, Huntington,[34] Parkersburg, Hinton, St. Albans,
Bluefield, Institute, Kimball, and Harper's Ferry. The session which
was scheduled for Clarksburg in 1900 was called off because of the
outbreak of small-pox just before the time for the session to be
convened.
Eleven well-known persons have served as president of the Association.
Byrd Prillerman served nine terms, C. W. Boyd one, J. R. Jefferson
one, J. W. Scott three, H. H. Railey one, Hamilton Hatter one, R. P.
Sims two, E. L. Rann two, J. W. Moss two, A. W. Curtis two, John F.
J. Clark two, and H. L. Dickason, the present incumbent, two. Those
who have served as secretary are Miss Rhoda E. Weaver, Miss M. Blanche
Jeffries, Miss Clara Thomas, Miss Fannie C. Cobb, Miss Mary J. Jones,
and Miss C. Ruth Campbell, and Miss H. Pryor.
Among the prominent persons who have addressed the Association are
Hon. C. H. Payne, Ex-Governor George W. Atkinson, Ex-Governor William
A. McCorkle, and State Superintendents B. S. Morgan, Virgil A. Lewis,
James Russell Trotter, and M. P. Shawkey. Among other distinguished
persons have been Dr. J. E. Jones, Prof. George William Cook, J.
McHenry Jones, Prof. Kelly Miller, Dr. W. E. B. Dubois, Prof. William
Pickens, Mr. William A. Joiner, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Miss Nannie H.
Burroughs, John W. Davis, and Dr. J. E. Gregg.[35]