DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. March 1, 1898. That's the date you want to hold onto, because everything — and I do mean everything — that follows grows out of that one moment in San Antonio.
A congregation at St. Philip's Church, backed by the Right Reverend James Steptoe Johnston, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, looked around at their community and decided that African American children deserved a Christian-oriented education. So they did what practical people do when they don't have a building: they started small.
A sewing class. Right there in the rectory at 306 La Villita Street. Now, I want you to picture that — a sewing class in a church rectory, and out of that modest little gathering, a vocational day school for black children begins to take shape.
It grows. It moves. Pretty soon it's in a brick schoolhouse behind the church, funded by student fees and private donations.
That's the foundation. Scrappy, community-built, stitch by stitch. Then comes 1902, and a woman named Artemisia Bowden is hired as principal and teacher.
You should remember that name. Artemisia Bowden. Because the moment she walks in the door, she starts expanding — the curriculum, the enrollment, the staff.
She is not coasting. Bishop Johnston's successor, William T. Capers, pitches in on the fundraising side, because a school like this always needs more than belief; it needs money.
By 1911, the school has grown enough to earn a new name: St. Philip's Normal Grammar and Industrial School. Seven years after that, in 1918, the whole operation moves to a brand-new four-acre campus near this very site.
And then — 1927 — St. Philip's becomes a junior college. But President Bowden is not done.
She wages what the marker calls a tireless campaign, and that campaign pays off: St. Philip's becomes a branch of the San Antonio Junior College System, offering liberal arts and vocational studies as a public school. Open to the community.
When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown versus Board of Education decision in 1954 and desegregation began moving across the country, St. Philip's responded by opening its doors to students from all backgrounds.
And here's where the story lands: in 1998, one hundred years after that sewing class in the rectory on La Villita Street, St. Philip's College reported an enrollment of nearly nine thousand students from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. From a sewing class to nine thousand students.
The founders planted something, Artemisia Bowden tended it with everything she had, and it is still growing.
What the marker says
St. Philip's Industrial School, founded March 1, 1898, was born of strong support from the Rt. Rev. James Steptoe Johnston, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, and the parishioners of St. Philip's Church. The church congregation, seeking a Christian-oriented education for African Americans, organized a sewing class that soon evolved into a vocational day school for black children in the rectory of St. Philip's Church at 306 La Villita Street. The program soon moved into a brick schoolhouse behind the church and was funded by student fees and private donations. Artemisia Bowden was hired as principal and teacher in 1902 and she immediately focused her efforts on expanding the school's curriculum, enrollment and staff. Bishop Johnston's successor, William T. Capers, participated in fundraising efforts. In 1911, the school became known as St. Philip's Normal Grammar and Industrial School and in 1918 the school moved to a new four-acre campus near this site. St. Philip's became a junior college in 1927, and through a tireless campaign waged by President Bowden it became a branch of the San Antonio Junior College System, offering liberal arts and vocational studies as a public school. When the U. S. Supreme Court's 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision prompted desegregation across the country, St. Philip's began serving students from all backgrounds. In 1998, 100 years after its founding, St. Philip's College reported an enrollment of nearly 9,000 students from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. The college continues to uphold ;the standards set for it by its founders and leaders. (1998)