William Robert Valentine, esteemed early 20th century educator with strong Montclair connections
William Robert Valentine, raised and educated in the Montclair Public Schools, was a leading educator in the early 20th century, respected for his successful implementation of a combined classical and vocational curriculum for Black students in segregated schools. Montclair resident Elaine Johnson Fiveland considers him a notable Montclair figure deserving of more recognition. Her extensive research into his family and career is summarized in the blog post below.
William Robert Valentine was born on October 7, 1879 in Mount Gilead, Loudoun County, Virginia.* The Valentine family roots were traced to William’s maternal grandmother, Charity Valentine, born in Loudon County about 1830 to Stephen Valentine and Ellen (surname unknown), who were both enslaved by a local farmer. The area was comprised primarily of cotton and tobacco farms. Charity gave birth to two children with an unknown father and the children both took the Valentine surname: Lucy Jane (1850) and Stephen J. (1857).
Stephen J. Valentine married a Loudon County gal, Rosie Pierson. Stephen found work on a farm and Rosie was a servant. William was their first child. Life in Mount Gilead and in most of Loudoun County was difficult. So, when news came that there was opportunity up north, the Valentine family of three travelled to Montclair in 1881. They settled on Portland Place, raising their family there for the next 60 years. William’s younger siblings, all born in Montclair, included Stephen J. Jr. (1884), Edward Jerry (1886), Rosie Lydia (1888), Bertha (1891), and Ethel Belle (1893).
William’s mother Rosie worked as a domestic. She was also one of the original organizers of Union Baptist Church in 1887 and remained active in the church until her death in 1948. His father Stephen found work as a laborer, upholsterer, carpet layer, chauffeur, or gardener; he passed away in 1940.
Growing up in Montclair, William and his siblings attended the public primary/grammar Central School at Valley Road and Church Street, not far from their home. A high school division had been created in the building about 1867 so the Valentine children had access to a full elementary-to-high-school public school education. In 1893, as William prepared to enter the high school division, a new, state-of-the-art high school building was constructed on Orange Road. Those who did not plan on going to college had the opportunity to learn a trade in the school’s vocational/manual training programs before entering the workforce. Others like William completed the school’s classical curriculum and continued their studies in college.
William graduated with the Montclair High School Class of 1899—the first African American male graduate in the district.** His class of 48 was the district’s largest graduating class to date.
After taking some time off to work at a local grocery store, William enrolled at Harvard and graduated in 1904 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In September 1904 he became Principal of a three-room school for Black children in Indianapolis, School 26 (re-named John Hope School in 1922).
School 26 had been established three years before William became Principal, with a program that welcomed youth with disabilities, migrants from Southern states, and adults deprived of educational opportunities. The curriculum included academic and vocational education for grades K-9. In 1911 William re-purposed several dilapidated tenements next to the school into a manual training and social center for over 500 students and the neighborhood families. His reputation as an educator grew as did his popularity among the students, staff and parents. By 1908, he was promoted to Supervising Principal with four buildings under his direction.
William visited “colored schools” in St. Louis and Louisville, as well as Tuskegee, Hampton and Manassas Institutes. He also took inspiration from his personal experience with the classic curriculum and exposure to vocational/manual training programs developed by Montclair Public Schools Superintendent Randall Spaulding. William’s resulting model of manual training in combination with grammar school subjects flourished at School 26. His program was visited by educators from all over the Midwest states and named “a miniature Tuskegee.” He was even offered a position of Professor of Pedagogy at Howard University’s Teachers’ College in 1910, but he turned it down to remain in Indianapolis and continue the work he had started at School 26.
As to his personal life, William married Grace Booth of Connecticut in 1907. Grace had graduated from the New Haven Normal School for Teachers first in her class and been appointed the first Black teacher in the New Haven, Connecticut public schools. When her Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Calvin N. Kendall became Superintendent of Schools in Indianapolis, he recruited Grace for a teaching appointment there, where she met William. They married and had two children, Dorothy (1910) and William Robert, Jr. (1914)
When Dr. Kendall was appointed New Jersey State Commissioner of Education in 1915, he tapped William--one of nearly fifty applicants for the job--to become the new head of the Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth in Bordentown, Burlington County, New Jersey. Kendall gave a glowing report of William’s qualifications, including this quote from The Trenton Times: “He is one of the best-known Negro educators of the country, although he is still a young man.” Those on the Commission were very pleased with William’s selection, noting that although born in Virginia he had come to New Jersey at age 2 and “received considerable of his education in New Jersey.”
So at age 35, William, Grace, their children, and Grace’s widowed mother Penelope Booth moved to Bordentown where William became Head of the school and Grace became the Matron.
The manual training plans at Bordentown—a semi-private, classic boarding school that catered to Black children in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and other states—had not succeeded to date under William’s predecessors. It had been founded in 1886 as a private school for Black pupils; in 1894 it became the state’s “Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth.” In 1896 it was relocated to a 400-acre site on the edge of Bordentown, re-named “The Ironsides Normal School.” The class prior to William’s arrival had graduated only eight students out of an enrollment of less than 100 boys and girls in grades 6-12, and the introduction of manual training had been deemed a total failure.
Despite skeptics who doubted William’s ability to transform the school into a “Jersey Tuskegee,” (noting that the Tuskegee policy of practical industrial application didn’t get much recognition at William’s alma mater, Harvard), William and Grace accepted the challenge to revive the school.
“Professor Valentine,” as he was now referred to, initiated classes in agriculture, poultry-raising, dairying, carpentry and the building trades, plumbing, smithing, woodworking and mechanics, as well as the traditional grammar school subjects. Jobs for mechanics, gardeners and farmers were plentiful, and the mechanics course was created specifically for those who might become chauffeurs (in an increasingly car-centric society). Young women were offered courses in domestic science along with millinery, cosmetology, and dressmaking.
William sought support for his school and its new direction from Black churches and organizations. He pursued speaking engagements and often took his choir with him! He spoke at the Citizen’s Union of Montclair in July 1915, shortly after his appointment to Bordentown and again on February 15, 1939 when he was the featured speaker at the Lincoln’s Birthday assembly at Montclair High School.
William’s vision for Bordentown was to create a balance between W.E.B. Du Bois’ “talented tenth” philosophy which held that “the Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men” and Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute model and its focus on training in the industrial and manual trades. William’s curriculum required graduates to fulfill an academic “talented tenth” curriculum and to master a trade. And all students were expected to help run the school, no matter what their major. Programs and classes were in session year-round; boys were dressed in military uniforms and girls in neatly tailored white-and-black skirts and blouses. Bordentown graduates became attorneys, educators, entrepreneurs, doctors, and skilled craftsmen and tradesmen. Bordentown drew educators from all over the country for seminars and classes, and to view the successful program in action.
William was at the helm of the school from 1915-1948.*** He maintained a strong connection to Montclair, to visit family and to speak about Bordentown and to accompany the school’s choir for musical programs. He passed away in 1954, four years after Grace passed; they are both buried in Section LL, Mount Hebron Cemetery, Upper Montclair, New Jersey.
William Robert Valentine is a proud “son” of Montclair and its school system that gave him the start to become a hero in the field of education. His methods are still in use today, blending the classic and the practical, creating the means for young people to attain meaningful employment, self-worth and lifelong achievement. He is remembered by many of his students still living who treasure the opportunity given them by William and Grace Valentine.
*Many African American families who have resided in Montclair for decades trace their families back to Loudon County, Viriginia; Loudon County (approximately one-hour northwest of Washington, DC.)
**Alice Hooe was the first female African American to graduate from Montclair High School—in 1894.
***In 1955, after the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling required the school to open enrollment to students of all races, Bordentown was unable to attract white students. Therefore, as a segregated institution, the school closed.
The Montclair History Center thanks Elaine Johnson Fiveland for her interest and research into William Robert Valentine, and for generously sharing it with us. Her full article is available in the MHC archives.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordentown_School#
https://nj.gov/state/historical/assets/pdf/it-happened-here/ihhnj-er-bordentown.pdf
https://delawareriverheritagetrail.org/2021/09/28/the-bordentown-school-bordentown-twp/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gGLMq-dEGQ
https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/10563817
(Good Valentine photo 1940 but says cannot be reproduced without permission)