E’ry day this month, Philly’s 7th Ward, in partnership with the Center for Black Educator Development, will highlight a “Black Educator Hall of Famer.“ But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month. February is just the Blackest. Every day is an ongoing opportunity to learn and teach the colossal impact Black educators have had on society.
Harper Councill Trenholm
Born on June 16, 1900, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Harper Councill Trenholm received his BA from Morehouse College (1920) and his baccalaureate in philosophy from the University of Chicago (1921). In 1926, he became president of Alabama State College, a position he held until 1960.
At his retirement from the presidency of Alabama State College on January 1, 1963, he had completed forty-two years of service, including thirty-eight years as president, succeeding his father, who passed in 1925. He led the institution as it evolved from a normal school to a full-fledged college, offering five years of teacher training and awarding the M.Ed. degree.
Trenholm served for 21 years as executive secretary of the American Teachers Association (ATA), growing ATA’s membership and strength and facilitating the merger with the National Education Association. In addition, Trenholm, a contemporary of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, served as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
At the same time Trenholm was president of Alabama State College, sit-ins were taking place throughout the South. As they began happening in Alabama, Governor John Patterson threatened to fire Trenholm if he could not maintain order on campus. In response, Trenholm threatened to expel any students or faculty who demonstrated, which alarmed and disappointed Dr. Martin Luther King.
Calling Trenholm’s actions “cowardly,” King expressed disappointment in the college president’s response to Patterson: “I had hoped that Dr. Trenholm would emerge from this total situation as a national hero. If he would only stand up to the Governor and the Board of Education and say that he cannot, in all good conscience, fire the eleven faculty members who have committed no crime or act of sedition, he would gain support over the nation that he never dreamed of.”
Rather than reconsider, Trenholm assured the Alabama State Board of Education that he would “redouble” efforts to prevent further demonstrations and that those remaining at Alabama State “will do so because of proper conduct.”
Trenholm left his position at Alabama State College in 1960 as well and died three years later. Although an unfortunate occurrence, Trenholm’s contributions to Black people was not lost on the Editor of the Negro History Bulletin, Albert N. D. Brooks, who said that while he could not serve as president of Alabama State and openly defy the governor, Trenholm devoted most of his time and energy to “developing the organizational structure which will eventually destroy the programs of white supremacy”
Brooks also shared these words of Trenholm at his funeral:
“Thus, we bid farewell to a man of noble stature, who in spite of personal suffering remained dedicated to a life of service to the end. Honest to a fault, criticized as a perfectionist, misunderstood because of courses he charted as the least of evils, this man stands in the light reflected by the three great monuments to his service’, the Alabama State College, the American Teachers Association, and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.”
Happy Black History Month and make sure to read up on Harper Councill Trenholm.
