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Founder’s Day at Voorhees Normal and Industrial School
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Founder’s Day has a long tradition at many historically black colleges and universities. The annual celebration by students, alumni, faculty, and staff provides an opportunity to recognize the history and legacy of each school and to honor the foundations from which each school was built. Founder’s Day often includes speakers and performances, and there is no better venue to report on such activities than the school newspaper. As part of Amistad’s blog series on HBCUs, we look at reporting on Founder’s Day celebrations in one school newspaper – The Southern Voice, which was published by Voorhees Normal and Industrial School in Denmark, South Carolina.
Known today as Voorhees College, the school began in 1897 as the Denmark Industrial School for African Americans in the small town of Denmark, South Carolina. The school was founded by Elizabeth Evelyn Wright with the assistance of Jessie C. Dorsey of Detroit and Mrs. A.S. Steele of Boston. Wright, a native of Georgia, had attended Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and modeled her new school after Tuskegee’s curriculum.
A donation by New Jersey philanthropist Ralph Voorhees in 1902 was used to buy land and construct buildings for the school, and two years later, the South Carolina General Assembly incorporated the school and renamed it the Voorhees Industrial Institute for Colored Youths. The school later became affiliated with the Episcopal Church, and in 1947, it became known as the Voorhees School and Junior College. It became accreditated as a four-year college and received its present name of Voorhees College in 1962.
As part of its School Newspaper Collection, the Amistad Research Center holds forty issues of The Southern Voice, which began in 1904. Amistad’s issues date from 1925 to 1947, and while not a full run of the publication, those present do give a good indication as to the content common to the Voice, which focused on calls for support of the school, visiting speakers, letters from graduates, and some national news. As seen in the issues held at Amistad, Founder’s Day was traditionally held in late March or early April at Voorhees and the April or May issue of The Southern Voice typically contained news about the celebration.
The April 1925 issue featured the program for that year, which included hymns and prayers, musical selections, speeches, and a processional to Elizabeth Wrights grave on the school grounds. Dr. Mabel Keith Howard’s Founder’s Day address was printed in full in the May 1926. Describing the built environment of the Voorhees Institute, Howard noted:
What do these silent buildings tell us about Elizabeth Wright? They tell us she had a mind to plan, a heart to dare, a hand to execute. They tell us that starting as she did in those pioneer days she had many difficulties, many obstacles…She did not live in the day of the auto, but foot sore and wary she trudged along talking up these buildings. She did not wear costly raiment; hers was the simple gown, I see her scantily clad and almost barefoot giving up the necessities of life that the scales of ignorance may be lifted from your eyes.
Similar sentiments are shared in other issues devoted to Founder’s Day at Voorhees. Such reporting gives today’s historians, school alumni, and current students a look into the history of HBUCs, as well as their founders and supporters.
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Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books:
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
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