Before John Hope Franklin and W.E.B. DuBois, there was George Washington Henderson at the University of Vermont.

1865 was a momentous year for George Washington Henderson. As a fifteen-year-old, he had known slavery his entire life. He had never spent one day in school. He shared the burdens of state-enforced ignorance along with 96% of other African-Americans, whether they be slave or free. The criminal penalties for learning did not discriminate in slave Virginia.

By chance, Henderson entered into the employ of Henry Carpenter, an adjutant in the Eighth Vermont Regiment in the Civil War. At the conclusion of the War, he remained with Carpenter and returned to Carpenter’s home in Belvidere, Vermont. Henderson could not have chosen a more nurturing environment for his talents to flourish.

Vermont was the first state to outlaw slavery in 1777. The spirit of Vermont was embodied in the legacy of Ethan Allen, a pioneer leader who cherished liberty above all else. The pathology of prejudice against people of African descent had not taken root in the soil of the Green Mountain State. Moreover, the University of Vermont had graduated its first Black graduate, Alexander Harris, without much fanfare, in 1837. Harris’ graduation was such a non-event in Vermont culture and consciousness that Harris’ place in history was forgotten by 1880. Indeed, the first Black graduate college, Alexander Twilight, was born and raised in Vermont. The son of a free Black farmer, Twilight graduated from Middlebury College in 1823. He later became a civic leader in Vermont. His white constituents elected Twilight to the Vermont State Legislature in 1836 and 1837. Once again, Vermonters distinguished themselves in their tolerance by electing the first Black man to public office in America, years before the Dred Scott opinion declared that Blacks had no rights that Whites were bound to respect.

If Henderson had known this history in 1865, we would compliment him for strategic thinking. But Henderson could not read. He could not write.

Intuition guided Henderson’s boyhood heart. At an early age, he felt a great desire for knowledge. He had a faith that he could get an education if he could only go North. One day during the Civil War, he heard the Union soldiers near his master’s farm. He waited with patience. When the opportunity presented itself, he ran with all his might towards the Union lines. He succeeded and found his way to Major Carpenter. Henderson made a striking impression on Carpenter. As a result, Carpenter resolved to take Henderson home to Vermont and educate him.

Henderson began “to learn his letters” at Carpenter’s home. In this day and age, it is hard to imagine an adolescent fifteen-year-old learning his letters. But Henderson had a passion, a long-denied thirst for knowledge that propelled him forward.

Exhausting his knowledge of letters at the Carpenter home, Henderson began study with Oscar Atwood in Underhill. Henderson performed well. He was making up for lost time in the slave South. Henderson then enrolled and studied at Barre Academy. There are no accounts that Henderson faced obstructive prejudice. Given the demographics of Vermont, Henderson studied in largely all-white classrooms during this period.

When Henderson entered the University of Vermont, he was an accomplished student. But who were Henderson’s role models? Henderson never met Rev. Twilight, the first black college graduate who died in the 1850s. Rev. Harris, the first University of Vermont Black graduate, had died in the 1840s. The opportunities of Reconstruction drew most black college graduates to teaching jobs in the South, not New England and certainly not Vermont. Henderson’s role models were most likely Black ministers and teachers he read about but had not met in person. But his ability to read had expanded his horizons of the possible. The pioneer spirit of Vermonters enabled him to develop his dormant talents free from mean spirited prejudice.

The wounds of hostile prejudice should not be discounted for pioneer Black students in this era. When Martin Delany became the first black student to enroll at Harvard in the Fall of 1850, he faced open revolt from his classmates. Rather than face student mutiny, the Dean and faculty backed down and forced Delany out of the Medical School. The expulsion of Delany signaled a low point in the Black presence at Harvard.

To their credit, the students and faculty at the University of Vermont accepted Henderson on his merits. 

He began his college work in 1873.

In four years, Henderson had found his calling.

Henderson graduated first in his class of 1877. The University elected Henderson to Phi Beta Kappa, the first African-American elected to the honorary society in history. That he was the only Black American student seemed beside the point and consistent with the University’s culture and consciousness.

Twelve years earlier, Henderson had been a run away slave.

Impressed with his talents, the Craftsbury (Vermont) Academy offered Henderson a principalship. He accepted the position and distinguished himself as a top flight educator in Vermont.

Always devoted to self-improvement, Henderson enrolled in the Yale Divinity School. Ministry was a natural leadership platform for many educated Black men in the 1880s. Henderson distinguished himself again. Yale awarded him the Hooker Fellowship. Henderson used the two-year fellowship to spend a post-graduate year of study at Yale and another year at the University of Berlin. 

When Henderson returned to the states, the Craftsbury Academy came calling again for his services as principal. He excelled in this post as before. After two years, the Newport (Vermont) High School recruited him as principal. The call of Vermont had been strong throughout his life. Vermont had given him solace, comfort, and a key to the intellectual’s life. 

But despite all of his outward success, Henderson felt an emptiness inside. He watched with despair as the promises of Reconstruction dissolved down South. He knew the South. He knew its people. And he knew that his people needed whatever leadership he might be able to offer.

And so one day, the American Missionary Association (AMA) came calling upon this Newport High School principal in Vermont. Today, the role of the AMA in the uplift of the Black Scholar is largely forgotten. When the Civil War ended, the AMA took the leading role in recruiting Black and White teachers to come down South to teach the freedmen. A large percentage of all Black college graduates heard the call. They came from the likes of Boston, Connecticut and Philadelphia to teach in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. They faced great danger from the Ku Klux Klan. But these noble teachers — Black and White — carried on and planted the seeds of education in southern soil.
 
Did you know that 80% of African-American PhDs between 1870 and 1964 had been educated in an AMA-affiliated school of some fashion? These unsung teachers were the freedom fighters of their day.
 
The AMA did not wait long for an answer from the Vermont principal. Henderson felt the gravitational pull towards the South that all pioneer Black educators felt. The needs were overwhelming.
 
Henderson accepted the call from the AMA to assume the pastorate of Central Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. Straight (now Dillard) University offered Henderson a professorship of Theology which he accepted. During his time at Straight University, he blossomed into his role as a scholar and inspiration to countless Black students. His life had come full circle now as his labors expanded the ranks of the Talented Tenth.
 
Life and his career would take him to Fisk University and finally Wilberforce University, both private Black colleges dedicated to the educational uplift of African-Americans. He continued to teach and inspire students to obtain a liberal education well into his seventies.
 
Henderson died in Wilberforce, Ohio in 1936. He died in a college town.