William L. Bulkley, 1861-1933
African American Educator and Reformer
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William L. Bulkley was one of the important educators and reformers of the early 20th Century and it is time to incorporate him into the American story.
He was born to free, mixed-race parents in South Carolina just as the Civil War began. He graduated from Claflin University in South Carolina and Syracuse University, where he earned a PhD in Latin. After teaching for fourteen years at Claflin University, Bulkley moved to New York City where he became an innovative educator, established an evening school, and was the first African American principal of a predominantly white school. He worked alongside W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Booker T. Washington, and other activists and was a founder of the NAACP and the National Urban League. Upon retirement, Bulkley moved to France, where he died in 1933. His story is told through his writings, public records, newspaper articles, and archival documents.
About the Author
About the Author
Peggy W. Norris, a retired reference librarian, has a BA degree in English from the College of Wooster and an MS and MLS from Rutgers University. During her career as a reference librarian, she became interested in history told through genealogical records, newspapers, and archives. These sources tell stories about ordinary men and women, as well as that of extraordinary men like Bulkley. Her liberal arts education, professional experience, and life-long interest in American history prepared her for finding and telling William L. Bulkley’s story. Her other research projects include the multiracial community at Huyler’s Landing in Bergen County, NJ, the origins of freedom for the Bulkley family, and study of quilts to illuminate the history of women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
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