This is the first in a series of posts about The Colored Teachers' Agency which was established to help African American teachers find employment.  I first stumbled upon a reference to The Colored Teachers' Agency in an article in "The People's Recorder 1893-1925" on Chronicling America.  I. M. A. Meyers was the manager of the agency in Greenwood,  South Carolina.

 I have ancestors who were teachers, and I was fascinated to know there was a agency such as this charged with helping African American teachers find employment. They were required to pay a yearly membership fee and received help finding dues, as the ad says below on September 11, 1909.  In this particular case, the agency had secured eight good paying jobs. 

The people's recorder. (Columbia, S.C.) 1893-1925, September 11, 1909, Image 1 Image provided by University of South Carolina; Columbia, SC Persistent link: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025797/1909-09-11/ed-1/seq-1/

As I widened my search, I discovered yet another reference to "The Colored Teacher's Agency" in "The Appeal (Saint Paul, Minn 1889-19??)"  This ad had been placed in the paper by the Manager of the National Colored Teachers' Agency in Washington, D. C., Thomas J. Calloway.

The Appeal. (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, August 20, 1892, Page 2, Image 2 Image provided by Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN Persistent link: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016810/1892-08-20/ed-1/seq-2/

So I had  by now concluded that various states had a chapter of this agency and probably fell under the umbrella of the national organization.  Below, I will discuss a little bit more about the life of Thomas J. Calloway.

Just above the article on the bottom right corner of this page was an advertisement for Wilberforce University in Ohio.  I was pleasantly surprised since this was a St. Paul, Minnesota paper.  This is my mother's Alma Mater.

The Appeal. (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, August 20, 1892, Page 2, Image 2 Image provided by Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN Persistent link: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016810/1892-08-20/ed-1/seq-2/

I next embarked on an online search using Google to see if I could find more references to the agency. I found an ebook on the website,  Hathi Trust Digital Library.  I was overjoyed to discover that it is The Teacher's Handbook published by The Colored Teachers' Agency.

Calloway, Lettie Nolen. [from old catalog]. Teachers' Hand-book: Hints On How to Teach Beginners, Language, Grammar, Reading, Orthography, Arithmetic, Geography, History, Penmanship, Drawing, And Vocal Music, And Quotations, Pithy And Choice, From Classical Literature.Washington, D.C.: The Colored teachers' agency, 1893.

I am quite anxious to read this book and share my reflections.  We can learn from the book that The Colored Teachers' Agency had the approval of Frederick Douglass:


"The enterprise is endorsed by Hon. Frederick Douglass who knows a good thing when he sees it--and the press generally.  Mr Calloway is a reliable gentleman and when he undertakes anything he generally succeeds with it.  He was at one time the Washington correspondent of the Plaindealer at Detroit, and contributed a series of readable articles on the public schools of the South.  He is just the man for the work.  Washington News Syndicate"  (page 33, The Teachers' Handbook).


It was written by Lettie Nolen Calloway, and we will need to prove her relationship to Thomas J. Calloway.  Thomas J. Calloway graduated from Fisk University in 1889, and from Howard University School of Law in  1893. He was a high school assistant professor in Evansville, Indiana, President of Alcorn University in West Side, Mississippi, and a War Department in Washington, D. C., as well as President of a normal school in Helena, Arkansas. SeePhotography on the color line: W.E.B. Du Bois, race, and visual culture
By Shawn Michelle Smith, page 167.