Evolution.
Washington, DC: Cortez W. Peters Business School, 1950. [60]pp. Original purple wrappers printed in silver. Some soiling and staining to covers, minor chipping and rubbing. Small unobtrusive stain to fore-edge of text, overall even toning. About very good. Item #5036
A seemingly-unrecorded yearbook from the Washington D.C. branch of the Cortez W. Peters Business School, the first African-American-owned business school in the United States. The co-educational school was founded in 1834 in the Nation's Capital, followed in the next few years by branches in Chicago and Baltimore. The founder, Cortez W. Peters, taught himself to type as a child and went on to become the first African-American champion of the World's Amateur Typing Contest. Peters' school was one of the first to teach typing to Black students while also offering instruction in shorthand and other clerical skills. The present yearbook begins with a message from Peters, which strikes a conciliatory tone in the wake of racial tensions that followed the conclusion of the Second World War: "We naturally resent discrimination, lack of opportunities, oppression...But on the other hand there are many other values to be considered which should make us tolerant and willing to work out these traditional handicaps generally." This is followed by messages from the dean and class president Eva Itene Brown, then portraits of students and faculty, a class history, a class prophecy, class will, class poem, and twelve pages of group photographs, including shots of the men's and women's basketball teams, the coronation ball, and images featuring students in the classroom. Many of the students, both men and women, have included words of advice or stated their personal goals, which are printed beside their portraits ("To be a good typist," "To be a stenographer," and so forth).
OCLC lists a single copy of three similar yearbooks, all under different titles, from other years and branches of the school (Washington D.C. and Chicago in 1948, and an undated yearbook from Baltimore), but not this particular year at the school's home base.
Price: $850