Lincoln High School - Lincolnian Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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ployed two teachers and occupied two rooms in a ward school. Today its enrollment is 349. It is housed in a spacious building of more than 16 rooms on a site with a frontage of more than half block and employs fifteen teachers. At that time the city afforded one Negro physician. He had no automobile, nay, not even a horse and buggy. ’Tis true the two churches faced each other on the hill, but each was a mere mission house. It was amid such surroundings that this brilliant young scholar began his work and invited to Kansas City the best teachers the country afforded for the salaries at his com- mand. His teachers must have scholarship, experience, the making of sterling character, and the ability to adjust themselves in a most helpful manner to the needs of the com- munity. At the early commencements he gave Kansas City the opportunity to hear the lead- ing ana most successful Negroes of the land. At the same time he kept abreast of the fore- most educational thought and was courted as a speaker not only in St. Louis and Chicago but in the leading cities of the Atlantic from Atlanta to Boston. In 1898 he made a pro- found impression upon the N. E. A. at the National Capitol. He is an apostle of the trained hand, the right heart and the pre- pared mind. His library is the most unique of any Negro west of Washington, D. C. Teaching was not only his vocation, but his avocation and recreation. He allowed noth- ing to allure him from the Muse of Educa- tion. No side lines enticed him. Yet in the school room he amassed a nice competency. Through his entire being the milk of human kindness bountifully flows. Worthy pupils receive unsolicited aid at his hands. Numer- ous charities feel the warmth of his zeal not only by his eloquent and persuasive tongue but the weight of his generous purse. With- out ostentation and cheerfully he gave to the Paseo Y. M. C. A. $525.00, more than four times as much as any other Negro. His rare mental attainments have not dim- med his vision of Christ. Professor Grisham is a Baptist, not of loud and blatant profes- sion, but of deep, sincere spiritual worth. The smallest child, the humblest toiler, the artist, people in all walks of life find in him a genial companion, an affable sympathizer and an ap- proachable comforter. He is firm without vehemence. He goes to the core of a proposi- tion and leaves no one in doubt as to his posi- tion. In his dealing with his school superiors he ever employs the dignity of a true gentle- man, never whispers, but speaks right out. The cause of the Negro is never compromised in his hands. Among a group of distinguished Negroes, before our legislature some years ago, his argument against the iniquitous “Jim Crow” Law, though calm, was most cogent, learned and decisive. At the beginning of the present century a white reporter interviewed him as to the date of its entrance, 1900 or 1901. At the conclusion Professor Grisham’s statement the reporter exclaimed: “Superintendent Greenwood gave a similar explanation. I want something - 6 —

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SfSsJtl Hi EH: l Ill JUIMMUMJIAM A il irl l “U® 1 !! 0 ... ji.js . . , PROF. G. N. GRISHAM 0 AN INESTIMABLE ASSET TO OUR CITY Gabriel Nelson Grisham, A. M., born near Smyrna, Tenn. in 1856, learned the alphabet in 1865, entered William Penn School at the age of ten years in 1866, the Public School in 1867, Nashville Institute (Roger Williams) in 1869, senior class of Worcester Academy, Massachusetts, in 1873 and graduated from the same in 1874. In the same year he entered Brown’s University. Five years later bidding his Alma Mater farewell, he began his life work in Goliad, Texas. In 1880 he was called to Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Mo., taught mathematics, physics and astronomy and in 1884 was created professor of mathematics. In 1886 at Roger Williams, Tenn. he took the degree of A. M. majoring in German. In 1887 he was elected principal of summer school, Kansas City, Mo. Two years later he was called to the principal- ship of Lincoln High School, which position he held until May 1, 1915, when the condition of his health caused his resignation. These facts and figures, simple and bare as they seem, contain a world of inspiration not only for the Negro youth of Kansas City, Mo., but the humblest of nature ' s sons of any race and clime. Born a slave and starting to school at the age of ten, in eight years, without the back- ground of an educated ancestry, Professor Grisham accomplished what his blue-eyed New England schoolmates were doing in twelve years. His singular aptitude caused his New England friends to urge him to enter the ministry, but his undimmed vision prompted him to remain a layman and thus be in closer touch with laymen’s children. He saw clearly that for a time at least his people’s ear could be reached easier than their eye. Hence he prepared himself to be a speaker by erecting a platform in hi%jr( om and mak- ing short and pointed addresses, to the chairs daily. So those lectures with w:hic,h he has charmed, instructed or entertained us here were not prepared on the spot or a short time before, but back there in his youth in that New England upper room. At the age of 33 Professor Grisham finds himself the principal of the largest Negro High School west of the Missouri. Its en- rollment was 56. It had no laboratory, em- - 5 —

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XJIM(S JUMJIAM. funny.” Professor Grisham replied : “The theory I have just stated I thought out. I have no other.” Such in brief is a slight testimonial of the value to Kansas City of her first Negro citizen. First in scholarship, first in philan- thropy and first in racial dignity. WM. H. DAWLEY, Jr. o FROM THE BOARD OF EDUCATION Kansas City, Mo., May 24, 1915. Professor G. N. Grisham, 1324 Highland Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. Dear Sir : At a recent meeting of the Board of Education at which your resigna- tion was received and accepted I was autho- rized by that body to communicate you with reference to the long and valued services which you have rendered to our city. From your election as principal of the summer school in 1887 and your promotion to the principalship of the Lincoln High School in 1889 to the present time, your services have been of distinguished merit. They have re- flected great credit upon yourself and have resulted in the conspicuous betterment of your people in Kansas City. Your sincere sympathy with your people, your high scholarship and your just appre- ciation of the magnitude of the work in which you were engaged, have all combined to en- able you to render most conspicuous service to the colored schools of this city. The par- ents and pupils who have come under influ- ence owe to you a debt of gratitude which they can never repay except as in their future lives they try to embody the noble ideals and sentiments which you have given them. You have received the admiration and re- spect, not only of your own people ,but of everyone connected with this system of schools. We have recognized in you a leadei of your people and a representative of the noblest and best in the education of the colored race. We deeply deplore the neces- sity which compels you to sever your con- nections with us at this time, and in accept- ing your resignation we tender to you out sincere thanks and we are confident that we voice the sentiments, not only of the Board of Education, the Superintendents and all of- ficials of the school system, but of all the people of Kansas City. We sincerely hope that you may have a speedy recovery and that you may live long to witness the fruition of the valuable services which you have rendered to your chosen city. Very respectfully yours, I. I. CAMMACK, Superintendent. - 7 —