[Greensboro, NC: ca. 1939]. Corrected typescript on rectos only: [3],iv,[2],123pp. Occasional minor edge wear, varying levels of toning or tanning and dust-soiling throughout, some marginal chipping to a few leaves, all chapters except the first chapter individually gathered together with original paper clips, now somewhat rusted. Numerous edits and emendations throughout in pencil. About very good. Item #6083

The original corrected typescript for Warmoth T. Gibbs' rare biographical treatment of longtime Wiley College President Matthew W. Dogan. The work was originally published in 1939 in Marshall, Texas under the title as presented here, President Matthew W. Dogan President of Wiley College. A Biography. Dr. Matthew Winifred Dogan (1863-1947) was born into poverty in Pontotoc, Mississippi during the Civil War. He worked as a shoe shiner and saved enough money to attend Rust University in Holly Springs, where he earned an A.B. at the top of his class in 1886. Rust College awarded Dogan an honorary Ph.D. in 1904, and he received two other honorary doctorates during his career, from Walden College (formerly Central Tennessee College, where he had taught) and Howard University. The pivotal moment in Dogan's career was his assumption of the presidency of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas in 1896. Wiley College (now Wiley University) is the oldest historically Black college west of the Mississippi River. Dogan spent forty-six years of his life as president of Wiley University, where according to an encyclopedia entry of Dogan, Wiley College "grew in size, enrollment, and stature with the addition of many new buildings and programs, including a library funded by the Carnegie Foundation. With Dogan's great planning and care, Wiley became a respected institution of higher learning for African Americans." Dogan was the second Black president of Wiley after Isaiah Scott's brief tenure from 1892 to 1896. Dogan continued and expanded Scott's practice of hiring Black faculty and administrators, and soon after Wiley's leaders and teachers were mostly African-American. The educational offerings at Wiley were also expanded by Dogan, who instituted classes in science, athletics, education, and music. Dogan was also an active participant in regional and national organizations devoted to African-American higher learning and a local civic leader, as well. After a long and distinguished career, Dogan retired from Wiley in 1942 and spent the remaining five years of his life in Marshall. At the time of the present biography's publication, Dogan was still president of Wiley College and would remain so for the next few years.

The author of the present work was at least as notable as the subject he writes about here. Warmoth T. Gibbs (1892-1993) was born in Louisiana, and educated at Wiley College (during the time Dogan was president) where he earned his first A.B., and then Harvard, where he earned a second Bachelor's degree and a Masters of Education. Gibbs then served as one of the first commissioned officers in the United States Army during World War I, as a second lieutenant with the segregated 92nd Division Expeditionary Force. In 1926, Gibbs began his teaching career at The Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina (an HBCU founded in 1891 as the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race, now known as North Carolina A&T State University). In 1955, Gibbs mirrored Dogan when he became the president of North Carolina A&T College, a position he held for the next five years. The Greensboro sit-ins occurred during Gibbs' term as A&T president, and he later wrote a history of the college published in 1966. Gibbs wrote the present biography while serving as Dean and Professor of History at North Carolina A&T. The text begins with an Introduction in which the author recounts hearing a talk by Dogan at his local church in Louisiana. The early encounter between the two men led Gibbs to change his previous plans to attend New Orleans College, and instead enroll at Wiley College the following fall. Gibbs also writes that going to Wiley started his "hero worship period as a student" mainly because the "students of Wiley were blessed with a leader of unusual ability" -- President Dogan. As such, the motivation for Gibbs' taking on Dogan as the subject of a biography is clear from the start. Also in his Introduction, Gibbs defines the scope and motivation for the present work: "This is not, and is not intended to be, a complete story of the life and works of President Dogan. It is merely a brief account of the writer's impressions, made while a student, which he hopes will encourage or aid in the later production of an adequate and suitable history of the life of this great man." Gibbs' modesty is well-intended, but his biography of Dogan is first rate.

The biography of Dogan comprises ten numbered chapters, starting with "The Beginnings" of Wiley College and Dogan's early life, and ending with chapters on the current state of the school. In other chapters, Gibbs focuses on "The Dogan Ideals in Education, Church, and State," "Dogan, the College Administrator," "The Dogan Leadership," "What Others Say About Dogan," and so forth. There is also an unnumbered chapter present here entitled "Dogan, the Church and the Problem of Citizenship." This chapter was included in the third chapter, "The Dogan Ideals" in the final published edition of the work. There are slight differences in the wording of the chapters in the Table of Contents of the published version, but after a direct comparison of the text of the typescript with the published version, the chapter headings and the text of both versions appear to be very close. The present typescript is especially interesting, though, for more than a hundred editorial markings in the text. These are mostly spelling or punctuation corrections, but also include a few insertions or short emendations. As such, we posit that this corrected typescript was likely intended for the printers at Firmin-Greer in Marshall who printed the one and only edition of the finished book. This is almost certainly the only surviving preliminary version of this reverent biography of an esteemed African-American educator in Texas written by another esteemed African-American educator who was inspired to attend college in the Lone Star State by the very subject of the biography.

Gibbs' respect for Dogan is present everywhere, but perhaps not moreso than in the final line of the book: "Dogan is the man, and Wiley is the shadow, lengthened and still lengthening." Gibbs and Dogan are inextricably linked in the annals of African-American education, and this understudied biography is the strongest and most lasting connection between them. The printed biography is rare in and of itself, with only a dozen institutional holdings in OCLC; the present corrected typescript is, of course, unique.

Price: $9,500