Charline Fay Howard Conyers

Point of Curiosity: Who is the author of Cheyney University's early history?

Follow up from Coppin State, Cheyney University and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)

When I added A Living Legend: The History of Cheyney University, 1837-1951 by Charline Fay Howard Conyers to my Goodreads to-read list, I noticed that there was no information available about the author. Even her alma mater (one of many, as I'm discovering) failed to list her birth and death dates. Did that mean she was still alive and being coquettish about her birth date, or did they not know? And if they didn't know, why not?

As a reader of non-fiction on ancient Cretan and Egyptian history from the early 20th century, I have evolved a bit of a crusade to undo some wrongs done to women during that era. Namely, women who researched or even wrote whole sections of these books are often not credited. It is our good fortune that the male authors whose names adorned the covers of these books sometimes took the time to include thanks to their helpers in a foreword which often reveals the byline-worthy contributions these women made. These women weren't just typing a manuscript, they were often Linguists, Archaeologists, Egyptologists and Historians in their own right. One such example is Edith Williams Ware and Caroline Ransom Williams' contributions to the transliterations and interpretation of The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus which is credited exclusively to James Henry Breasted.

At least in this case, Conyers is credited for writing the book. However, a preliminary search to expand her biography only gave me enough information to make me very curious. And that's when four hours passed without my noticing as I dug deeper into her digitized history during the 1930s and 1940s.

My eventual goal is to update her Goodreads Author Profile to be more complete (ETA: done!) and possibly create a Wikipedia page on her depending on what I am able to learn. Here is my current list of things I've learned about Conyers since wandering down this tangent:

Dr. Charline Fay Howard Conyers, 1989 (src, Clarence Harris)

• Born 9 October 1911 (thanks to my buddy Phil who utilized his genealogy resources to appease my curiosity)
• She was in the class of 1928 for something, but unsure what; HS graduation? (src)
• In 1933, she was the "Interracial Secretary" at the Pennsylvania branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and had a brief correspondence about the capitalization of "Negro" with W. E. B. du Bois (src)
• She was a pianist, and a 1936 graduate (or hopeful for the 1936 class, pending further research) from the Froehlich School of Music in Harrisburg, PA (src 1, src 2)
• In September of 1938, she was a Maid of Honor at the wedding of Hermione Hill at St. Simon's Church on 22nd and Reed St. in Philadelphia, PA and wore a yellow tulle gown with a brown velvet poke bonnet (src) 
• On 15 June 1940, she was married to William Conyers
• In 1942, she was the Chairman of the "Subcommittee on Lectures" at the Cheyney Training School for Teachers which would later evolve into Cheyney University (src)
• Died 23 September 1989 in West Chester, PA at Chester County Hospital and is buried at the William Howard Day Cemetery in Steelton, PA (src)

And then I hit the jackpot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE58amcjqZM

The Evening News 25 June 1935 (Harrisburg, PA)

Coppin State, Cheyney University and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)

Point of Curiosity: What's Coppin State's context in Black History?

I just finished reading The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  In it was this mention of Coppin State and I wanted to understand the broader context.

We were one of six gifted classes on the Thurgood Marshall Team. I don't know how gifted any of us were - more likely we had parents in the race, mothers who worked for the city, got their degrees from Coppin State. They'd gone far enough to know what was out there and what they'd missed in the manner of their coming up. These are the parents the intellectuals erase in their treatises on black pathology. But I saw them in effect at Lemmel, that and teachers always with an eye for children who were two seconds faster and seemed to be bound for something more than the corner or Jessup.

Coppin State University (CSU) is in Baltimore, MD. It was founded in 1900 to train African-Americans for teaching in elementary schools. Over the course of the 20th century, it evolved from a one year program taught at a local high school to today where it offers 53 majors and nine graduate programs including Teaching and Special Education. One of its interesting projects is the reform and management of local Rosemont Elementary School starting in 1998. In 1997, the school was put on the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE)'s watch list as below acceptable standards. With guidance from CSU, it was removed from that watch list in 2003.

As I read about Coppin State, I hit on an interesting wonderlust tangent: Coppin State is one of 107 historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the United States. Most were created after the Civil War and prior to the civil rights changes that came in the 1960s. Two were created for black education prior to the Civil War, and the founding of Cheyney University in particular caught my eye.

Emlen Hall Reading Room, ca. 1900s (src)

In 1837, Cheyney University was founded in Pennsylvania by a Quaker philanthropist named Richard Humphreys. He bequeathed $10,000 - one-tenth of his estate - to the endeavour, after the race riots of 1829. I would love to have learned about Humphreys in my American history classes in public high school, and about the men and women who first got their education at this institution. Humphreys, to me, is a patriot. My favourite patriots are the ones who saw problems unique to the United States and pro-actively enacted solutions at a grassroots level.

Per the history on Cheyney University's web site:

Born on a plantation in the West Indies, Richard Humphreys came to Philadelphia in 1764. Having witnessed the struggles of African Americans competing unsuccessfully for jobs due to the influx of immigrants, he became interested in their plight. In 1829, race riots heightened and it was that year Richard Humphreys wrote his will and charged thirteen fellow Quakers to design an institution: "...to instruct the descendents of the African Race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic Arts, trades and Agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers...."

I'm frustrated at the difficulty I'm having in finding more information about Humphreys and the Cheyney foundation that isn't just parroting the sparse Wikipedia article. A few to follow up on:
The Crisis Aug 1940 "CHEYNEY: Quaker Heritage"
Sing to me David by Thomas McCavour, which mentions that the education was provided free to qualified students.

Follow-up questions:

• Are there any biographies by early students of Coppin State or Cheyney University?
• Who are some of the interesting alumni of Coppin State and Cheyney University?
• Is there a book on Richard Humphreys or any of the 13 board members designated to design what would become Cheyney University?