William Day - Black abolitionist, educator, minister and editor of A weekly newspaper

William Day - Black abolitionist, educator, minister and editor of A weekly newspaper,

In 1879, Day also opened Livingstone College with J.C. Price, William H. Goler, and Solomon Porter Hood. It ws established in Salisbury, NC, for Black students, which remains a predominantly black college.

Day traveled to the United Kingdom in 1859, preaching at a large congregational church in Lincolnshire, England, and he worked with the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). While in England, he and several colleagues formed the African Aid Society.

Day attended Oberlin College. After graduation he spent the rest of his life campaigning for the rights of Blacks. He became the secretary of the National Negro Convention in Cleveland in September 1848. He was a committee member along with Frederick Douglass and others who generated the "Address to the Colored People of America." In 1858, Day was elected president of the National Board of Commissioners of the Colored People by the Black citizens of Canada and the United States.

Day was born in New York City, where his mother, Eliza, was a founding member of the first AME Zion Church and an abolitionist. His father, John, was a sail maker who fought in the War of 1812 and in Algiers, in 1815, and died when his son was four. William Howard Day made an impression as a child, on a white ink manufacturer who was an advocate of abolition and temperance.

Day attended Oberlin College. After graduation he spent the rest of his life campaigning for the rights of Blacks. He became the secretary of the National Negro Convention in Cleveland in September 1848. He was a committee member along with Frederick Douglass and others who generated the "Address to the Colored People of America."

In 1858, Day was elected president of the National Board of Commissioners of the Colored People by the Black citizens of Canada and the United States.
Day traveled to the United Kingdom in 1859, preaching at a large congregational church in Lincolnshire, England, and he worked with the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). While in England, he and several colleagues formed the African Aid Society.

Day returned to the United States after the Civil War and worked for the Freedmen's Bureau. He became an inspector of schools in Maryland and Delaware before being ordained a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867.

In 1878 Day was elected school director in Harrisburg, PA. He was the first Black school board member and president. He won reelection in 1881, retaining his position on the board until 1884. Though he did not seek reelection in 1884, the public appealed for his return in 1887, and he was easily elected to another three years as Harrisburg School Board president.

In "The Rising Sun," Dr. William Wells Brown praised Day's professional conduct: "As a speaker, Mr. Day may be regarded as one of the most effective of the present time; has great self- possession and gaiety of imagination; is rich in the selection of his illustrations, well versed in history, literature, science and philosophy, and can draw on his finely-stored memory at will."

Day died in Harrisburg on December 3, 1900, at the age of 75. William Howard Day Cemetery was established in nearby Steelton in the 1900s as a burial place for all people, including people of color who were denied burial at the nearby Baldwin Cemetery. It remains a popular burial site for local African American families.
Reference:
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Chapel Hill, NC 27599,
(919) 962-2211
Copyright 2003
The Anti-Slavery Society