Napoleon Bonaparte Marshall and William Taylor Burwell Williams: African American Educators and Harvard Graduates (Class of 1897)
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Harvard Gate around the time that Marshall and Williams studied in Cambridge.
A search for background about a family member of Nathaniel Parker Willis led me to the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report of the Harvard College Class of 1897. Multiple stories lie within those pages. By then, the men were in their mid-40s or so. They reported about careers, travel, club memberships, and family. Fifty-five had died; others were listed as “lost.”
No one reported out-and-out failures to their fellow alums—whoever does?The entries ripple with both heartache and opportunity. “My two children died in infancy.” “On account of ill health....” “Legal Adviser to the Chinese Government….” “After graduation, I was in the Klondyke for five years.”
The book includes a pair of photos for most men: on the left, during their student days; on the right, in middle age. Just one photo appears for the dead—young men ready to take on the world, but gone.
As I skimmed the book over the weekend, I saw one Black student among the 450 or so: William Taylor Burrell Williams. The book didn’t have much about the object of my search, so I went on to other sources. But I came back to thinking about Williams this morning and it took a while to navigate back to the source. (There are a lot of Harvard College alumni reports online.) When I did, I saw another Black man named Napoleon Bonaparte Marshall. Both went on to distinguished careers: Marshall as a lawyer, Williams as an educator. I thought it would be useful to extricate from this rather obscure source their then-and-now photographs and how they described themselves in 1922:
Napoleon Bonaparte Marshall (Pgs. 372-374)
From Harvard College Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, Class of 1897
Born at Washington, D.C., July 30, 1873.
Son of Alexander and Letha (Gray ) Marshall.
School : Phillips Academy, Exeter, N.H.
Years in College : 1893–95, 1896–97. A.B.
Married: Harriet Aletha Gibbs, June 23, 1906, Washington, D.C.
Occupation: Lawyer.
Address: ( business ) 2295 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y.
My life since leaving Cambridge has been devoted to law and politics ; my interest in politics being devoted to the advocacy of those measures which I have deemed of promise for the social and political amelioration of the American Negro. I have held only one office, that of deputy collector of taxes of the city of Boston from 1902 to 1906. I was strongly endorsed for U.S. Minister to Haiti under President Wilson's first administration, but did not receive the appointment. The most signal service which I have performed in my practice of the law was that which I rendered as attorney of record in the case of the dismissed battalion, the 25th U.S. Infantry, known as the Brownsville case [a racially charged incident in 1906] . I also was of counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court to test the validity of the President's order discharging without honor the aforesaid soldiers. My literary efforts have not been considerable, being confined to the production of a war drama entitled “ In the Ranks, " and the contributing editorship of a weekly publication known as The New Era.
A few days after the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine, I wrote to the President offering my services in the recruiting of a Negro regiment of volunteers. This was in May, 1916. Just one year from this offer I was detailed to assist in the work of recruiting the 15th New York Infantry Regiment, National Guard, the first National Negro regiment in this State, and received from Gov. Charles S. Whitman, a commission as First Lieutenant in this regiment. After training at Camps Peekskill and Whitman, New York State ; Dix, N.J.; Wadsworth, S.C .; Mills, N.Y.; and Merritt, N.J., on Dec. 19, 1917, my regiment embarked for France. During all this time in addition to my duties as Captain, to which rank I had been promoted, I acted as Judge- Advocate of the regiment. We were stationed at St. Nazaire for two months, during which time I supervised the laying of a railroad connecting the American debarkation docks at St. Nazaire with the American army base stores at Montoir, a distance of five kilometres. In March, 1918, owing to the urgent need of the French army for more soldiers and to the fact that the main American army had not French Division, 4th Army, under General Guard on the Champagne Sector. Here I served variously as machine -gun Captain, Regimental gas officer, and Provost Marshal. I remained with the French army for six months and took part in the major engagements on the Champagne, Marne, and Aisne Marne. In August, 1918, I was ordered to take command of Company A, 365th Infantry, 92d Division, of the American army, and saw fighting in the Vosges Mountains, the Meuse Argonne, and in the sector above Metz known as the Marbache Sector. Here I was seriously wounded on the night of Oct. 21 , 1918, while leading a night raid on the enemy's trenches . I was invalided home and arrived in the United States on Dec. 9, 1918. I remained in the hospital at Camp Merritt and U.S. base hospital on the Gun Hill Road, New York City , until May 16, 1919, when I was honorably discharged from the army. Since this time I have resumed the practice of the law in the law firm of Marshall, Garrett & Wheaton, with offices at 2295 7th Avenue, New York City.
I returned to France last August to visit the battle fields and also visited Switzerland and Italy.
Publications: “ In the Ranks. A War Drama. Contributing Editor to The New Era.
William Taylor Burwell Williams (Pgs. 610-611)
From Harvard College Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, Class of 1897
Born at Stonebridge, Va. , July 3, 1866.
Son of Edmund and Louisa ( Johnson ) Williams.
School : Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.
Years in College : 1893–97. A.B.
Married: Emily Augustine Harper, June 29, 1904, Detroit, Mich.
Occupation: Field Director for John F. Slater Fund and for Negro Rural School Fund.
Address: Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
The first five years after leaving college I spent as principal of a graded school in Indianapolis , Ind. Among other things I helped to introduce industrial training in the public schools of the city. I made this work an important feature also of the public night school which I organized for colored men and women.
For the next seventeen years I lived at Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va. Throughout this time I served as agent for the school and field director for one or more of the following organizations: the Southern Education Board, the General Edu cation Board, the John F. Slater Fund, and the Negro Rural School Fund, popularly known as the Jeanes Fund. It was my work to keep these boards informed regarding conditions in Negro schools and to assist in improving these conditions . My duties took me all over the South and into all kinds of schools for Negro youth, from the humblest one-room country shack to the well-appointed industrial schools, colleges, and universities. In the large and constructive work of these several boards in developing the elementary public schools , in introducing public high -school work in the rural districts, and in improving and strengthening the private schools and colleges for Negroes I have played some part. For years I have been a member of all the more important conferences on Negro education. I have made addresses on Negro education before most of the colored state teachers' associations and before many other bodies including the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association. I was president of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools for two terms.
For the last three years I have lived at Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala. In addition to my regular work for the Slater Fund and the Jeanes Fund, I share in directing the educational work of this widely known and influential Negro institution . I am an editor of The Southern Workman, a monthly magazine published by Hampton Institute in the interest of the less advanced peoples. The editorials and articles which I have written from time to time have appeared in this magazine. I have also written as “ Occasional Papers,” published by the John F. Slater Fund , the “ Duplication of Schools for Negro Youth ” and a “ Report on Negro Universities in the South ." The latter I am now revising and bringing up to date.
SOURCE: Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report of the Harvard College Class of 1897.
NOTE: Marshall’s wife Harriet Gibbs was a musician and founder of the Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression. Williams received the NAACP Springarn Medal in 1934. Just a few examples to show there is lots more to know about these men and their families beyond their 1922 snapshot in time. But I hope this post contributes to the exploration.