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'''William Syphax''' ({{circa}} 1825 — June 15, 1891) was an [[African American]] former slave who was a U.S. government civil servant and the first president of the Board of Trustees of Colored Schools of Washington and Georgetown in [[Washington, D.C.]]
'''William Syphax''' ({{circa}} 1825 — June 15, 1891) was born into slavery but manumitted when he was about one year old. He became a U.S. government civil servant in Republican administrations and the first president of the Board of Trustees of Colored Schools of Washington and Georgetown in [[Washington, D.C.]]


==Life and career==
==Life and career==
Syphax was born in Alexandria County, Virginia,<ref name=funeral /> about 1825.<ref name=deathnote /><ref name=smithsonian /> His mother was [[Maria Carter Syphax]], a slave at [[Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial|Arlington]], the plantation estate of [[George Washington Parke Custis]] (the step-grandson and adopted son of [[George Washington]] and only grandson of [[Martha Custis Washington]]).<ref name=priest>{{Cite news|last=Priest|first=Dana|date=February 27, 1990|title=Arlington Bequest a Footnote in Black History|work=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1990/02/27/arlington-bequest-a-footnote-in-black-history/f4513756-639f-477c-b92a-2b15a296f2c1/|access-date=May 11, 2021}}</ref> His father was [[Charles Syphax]], a slave at [[Mount Vernon]] who had overseen construction of Arlington House.<ref name=smithsonian />
Syphax was born into slavery in Alexandria County, Virginia,<ref name=funeral /> about 1825.<ref name=deathnote /><ref name=smithsonian /> His mother was [[Maria Carter Syphax|Maria Carter]], an enslaved mixed-race woman who was the daughter of Ariana, a slave, and planter [[George Washington Parke Custis]]. He owned the plantation known as [[Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial|Arlington]], where Maria and her mother Ariana lived and worked. (Custis was the only grandson of [[Martha Custis Washington]], by her first marriage, and the step-grandson and adopted son of [[George Washington]]).<ref name=priest>{{Cite news|last=Priest|first=Dana|date=February 27, 1990|title=Arlington Bequest a Footnote in Black History|work=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1990/02/27/arlington-bequest-a-footnote-in-black-history/f4513756-639f-477c-b92a-2b15a296f2c1/|access-date=May 11, 2021}}</ref> Syphax's father was [[Charles Syphax]], a slave at [[Mount Vernon]] who had overseen construction of Arlington House.<ref name=smithsonian />


Custis sold Maria, her eldest child Elinor, and William to a [[Quaker]] living in [[Alexandria, Virginia]], in 1826.<ref name=priest />{{Efn|The date of the slave sale can be determined because ''[[Smithsonian Magazine]]'' says that it occurred shortly before George Washington Parke Custis gave Maria Syphax 17 acres of land carved out of the Arlington estate.<ref name=smithsonian /> The date of this bequest to Maria is 1826.<ref name=priest />}} He freed all three of them.<ref name=smithsonian>{{cite news|last=Keyes|first=Allison|title=How the African-American Syphax Family Traces Its Lineage to Martha Washington|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-african-american-syphax-family-traces-its-lineage-martha-washington-180968439/|access-date=May 11, 2021|work=Smithsonian Magazine|date=March 9, 2018}}</ref> Charles remained a slave until freed by [[Robert E. Lee]] under the terms of the Custis will.<ref name=smithsonian />
In 1826 Custis sold Maria, her eldest child Elinor, and William to a [[Quaker]] living in [[Alexandria, Virginia]]. That year he gave Maria a bequest of 17 acres of land from Arlington.<ref name=priest />{{Efn|The date of the slave sale can be determined because ''[[Smithsonian Magazine]]'' says that it occurred shortly before George Washington Parke Custis gave Maria Syphax 17 acres of land taken from the Arlington estate.<ref name=smithsonian /> }} He <!-- which? Quaker? would be more typical of them -->freed all three of them.<ref name=smithsonian>{{cite news|last=Keyes|first=Allison|title=How the African-American Syphax Family Traces Its Lineage to Martha Washington|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-african-american-syphax-family-traces-its-lineage-martha-washington-180968439/|access-date=May 11, 2021|work=Smithsonian Magazine|date=March 9, 2018}}</ref> Charles remained a slave until freed in 1857 by his next master, [[Robert E. Lee]], under the terms of the George Custis will.<ref name=smithsonian />


William Syphax took up residence in the District of Columbia when he was 11 years old.<ref name=deathnote /> He began working for the [[United States Department of the Interior]] in 1851.<ref name=funeral /> Because Custis had not legally documented the transfer of land to Maria Syphax, the federal government confiscated her property when it took possession of the rest of the Arlington estate during the [[American Civil War]]. William used his position at the Department of the Interior to help his mother win back control of her property.<ref name=smithsonian />
William Syphax took up residence in the District of Columbia when he was 11 years old.<!-- by himself? --><ref name=deathnote /> As a young man, he began working for the [[United States Department of the Interior]] in 1851.<ref name=funeral /> Because Custis had not legally documented his transfer of land to Maria Syphax, the federal government confiscated her property when it took possession of the rest of the Arlington plantation during the [[American Civil War]]. For a time it was used as a refuge for [[freedmen]]. William used his connections to help his mother win back control of her property, through a relief bill enacted by Congress in 1826.<ref name=smithsonian />


On July 8, 1868, Syphax was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Colored Schools, the school board which oversaw and ran the segregated, non-white public schools in the District of Columbia. The second African American appointed to the three-man board (the first being Alfred Jones in 1867),<ref>{{cite book|last=Masur|first=Kate|title=An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle Over Equality in Washington, D.C.|location=Chapel Hill, N.C.|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|date=2010|isbn=9780807834145|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWNI5NeeYEgC|pages=80, 283}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Commissioner of Education for the District of Columbia|chapter=Appendix C: History of Schools for the Colored Population. Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Condition and Improvement of Public Schools in the District of Columbia. Exec. Doc. No. 315|title=Executive Documents Printed by Order of the House of Representatives During the Second Session of the Forty-First Congress, 1869-'70. Vol. 13. 41st Cong., 2d sess.|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Government Printing Office|date=1871|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T1hHAQAAIAAJ|page=257}}</ref> Syphax was its first president.<reF>{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Letitia Woods|last2=Lewis|first2=Elsie M.|title=Washington in the New Era, 1870-1970|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Smithsonian Institution : U.S. Government Printing Office|date=1972|oclc=334087|page=12|postscript=none}}; {{cite book|last=Stewart|first=Alison|title=First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School|location=Chicago|publisher=Lawrence Hill Books|date=2013|isbn=9781613740095|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDOpBVMqPZcC|page=27|postscript=none}}; {{cite journal|last=Preston|first=E. Delorus|date=October 1935|title=William Syphax, a Pioneer in Negro Education in the District of Columbia|url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/2714262|journal=The Journal of Negro History|volume=20|issue=4|page=457|doi=10.2307/2714262|jstor=2714262|s2cid=150033950}}</ref> He supported the notion of a unified public school system and equal educational standards.{{cn|date=November 2021}} He was responsible for the construction of the [[Charles Sumner School]] and the [[Thaddeus Stevens School (Washington, D.C.)|Thaddeus Stevens School]]. In 1870, Syphax organized The Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, later named [[Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.)|Dunbar High School]].
After the war, on July 8, 1868, Syphax was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Colored Schools, the school board that oversaw and ran the segregated public schools for students of color in the District of Columbia. He was the second African American appointed to the three-man board (the first being Alfred Jones in 1867);<ref>{{cite book|last=Masur|first=Kate|title=An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle Over Equality in Washington, D.C.|location=Chapel Hill, N.C.|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|date=2010|isbn=9780807834145|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWNI5NeeYEgC|pages=80, 283}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Commissioner of Education for the District of Columbia|chapter=Appendix C: History of Schools for the Colored Population. Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Condition and Improvement of Public Schools in the District of Columbia. Exec. Doc. No. 315|title=Executive Documents Printed by Order of the House of Representatives During the Second Session of the Forty-First Congress, 1869-'70. Vol. 13. 41st Cong., 2d sess.|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Government Printing Office|date=1871|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T1hHAQAAIAAJ|page=257}}</ref> Syphax was its first president.<reF>{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Letitia Woods|last2=Lewis|first2=Elsie M.|title=Washington in the New Era, 1870-1970|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Smithsonian Institution : U.S. Government Printing Office|date=1972|oclc=334087|page=12|postscript=none}}; {{cite book|last=Stewart|first=Alison|title=First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School|location=Chicago|publisher=Lawrence Hill Books|date=2013|isbn=9781613740095|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDOpBVMqPZcC|page=27|postscript=none}}; {{cite journal|last=Preston|first=E. Delorus|date=October 1935|title=William Syphax, a Pioneer in Negro Education in the District of Columbia|url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/2714262|journal=The Journal of Negro History|volume=20|issue=4|page=457|doi=10.2307/2714262|jstor=2714262|s2cid=150033950}}</ref> He supported the notion of a unified public school system and equal educational standards.{{cn|date=November 2021}} He oversaw the construction of the [[Charles Sumner School]] and the [[Thaddeus Stevens School (Washington, D.C.)|Thaddeus Stevens School]]. In 1870, Syphax organized The Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, later named [[Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.)|Dunbar High School]], a prestigious academic high school.


===Death===
===Death===
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==Additional reading==
==Additional reading==
* {{Cite journal|last=Abbott|first=Dorothea E.|date=October 1984|title=The Land of Maria Syphax and the Abbey Mausoleum|url=http://arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/1984-10-Syphax.pdf|journal=Arlington Historical Magazine|pages=64–79}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Abbott|first=Dorothea E.|date=October 1984|title=The Land of Maria Syphax and the Abbey Mausoleum|url=http://arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/1984-10-Syphax.pdf|journal=Arlington Historical Magazine|pages=64–79}}
* {{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Mary V.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1137379215|title=The only unavoidable subject of regret : George Washington, slavery, and the enslaved community at Mount Vernon|date=2019|isbn=978-0-8139-4185-1|location=Charlottesville|pages=146|oclc=1137379215}}
* {{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Mary V.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1137379215|title=The only unavoidable subject of regret: George Washington, slavery, and the enslaved community at Mount Vernon|date=2019|isbn=978-0-8139-4185-1|location=Charlottesville|pages=146|oclc=1137379215}}
* {{Cite web|title=The Syphax Family - Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/arho/learn/historyculture/syphax.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-11|website=www.nps.gov|language=en}}
* {{Cite web|title=The Syphax Family - Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/arho/learn/historyculture/syphax.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-11|website=www.nps.gov|language=en}}
* {{Cite web|title=Syphax Family|url=https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/a-community-divided/syphax-family/|access-date=2021-05-11|website=George Washington's Mount Vernon|language=en}}
* {{Cite web|title=Syphax Family|url=https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/a-community-divided/syphax-family/|access-date=2021-05-11|website=George Washington's Mount Vernon|language=en}}

Revision as of 18:52, 13 April 2022


William Syphax (c. 1825 — June 15, 1891) was born into slavery but manumitted when he was about one year old. He became a U.S. government civil servant in Republican administrations and the first president of the Board of Trustees of Colored Schools of Washington and Georgetown in Washington, D.C.

Life and career

Syphax was born into slavery in Alexandria County, Virginia,[1] about 1825.[2][3] His mother was Maria Carter, an enslaved mixed-race woman who was the daughter of Ariana, a slave, and planter George Washington Parke Custis. He owned the plantation known as Arlington, where Maria and her mother Ariana lived and worked. (Custis was the only grandson of Martha Custis Washington, by her first marriage, and the step-grandson and adopted son of George Washington).[4] Syphax's father was Charles Syphax, a slave at Mount Vernon who had overseen construction of Arlington House.[3]

In 1826 Custis sold Maria, her eldest child Elinor, and William to a Quaker living in Alexandria, Virginia. That year he gave Maria a bequest of 17 acres of land from Arlington.[4][a] He freed all three of them.[3] Charles remained a slave until freed in 1857 by his next master, Robert E. Lee, under the terms of the George Custis will.[3]

William Syphax took up residence in the District of Columbia when he was 11 years old.[2] As a young man, he began working for the United States Department of the Interior in 1851.[1] Because Custis had not legally documented his transfer of land to Maria Syphax, the federal government confiscated her property when it took possession of the rest of the Arlington plantation during the American Civil War. For a time it was used as a refuge for freedmen. William used his connections to help his mother win back control of her property, through a relief bill enacted by Congress in 1826.[3]

After the war, on July 8, 1868, Syphax was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Colored Schools, the school board that oversaw and ran the segregated public schools for students of color in the District of Columbia. He was the second African American appointed to the three-man board (the first being Alfred Jones in 1867);[5][6] Syphax was its first president.[7] He supported the notion of a unified public school system and equal educational standards.[citation needed] He oversaw the construction of the Charles Sumner School and the Thaddeus Stevens School. In 1870, Syphax organized The Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, later named Dunbar High School, a prestigious academic high school.

Death

Syphax died of undisclosed causes at his home at 1641 P Street NW on June 15, 1891.[2] He was interred at Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[1]

Legacy

He is the namesake of William Syphax School (Historical) at 1322 Half Street, SW in Washington, D.C. In November 2020, District of Columbia Public Schools announced that William Syphax is one of seven finalists as a replacement name for Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C.[8]

References

Notes
  1. ^ The date of the slave sale can be determined because Smithsonian Magazine says that it occurred shortly before George Washington Parke Custis gave Maria Syphax 17 acres of land taken from the Arlington estate.[3]
Cites
  1. ^ a b c "Funeral of William Syphax". The Evening Star. June 19, 1891. p. 8.
  2. ^ a b c "Death of Wm. Syphax". The Evening Star. June 17, 1891. p. 8.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Keyes, Allison (March 9, 2018). "How the African-American Syphax Family Traces Its Lineage to Martha Washington". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Priest, Dana (February 27, 1990). "Arlington Bequest a Footnote in Black History". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  5. ^ Masur, Kate (2010). An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle Over Equality in Washington, D.C. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 80, 283. ISBN 9780807834145.
  6. ^ Commissioner of Education for the District of Columbia (1871). "Appendix C: History of Schools for the Colored Population. Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Condition and Improvement of Public Schools in the District of Columbia. Exec. Doc. No. 315". Executive Documents Printed by Order of the House of Representatives During the Second Session of the Forty-First Congress, 1869-'70. Vol. 13. 41st Cong., 2d sess. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. p. 257.
  7. ^ Brown, Letitia Woods; Lewis, Elsie M. (1972). Washington in the New Era, 1870-1970. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution : U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 12. OCLC 334087; Stewart, Alison (2013). First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books. p. 27. ISBN 9781613740095; Preston, E. Delorus (October 1935). "William Syphax, a Pioneer in Negro Education in the District of Columbia". The Journal of Negro History. 20 (4): 457. doi:10.2307/2714262. JSTOR 2714262. S2CID 150033950.
  8. ^ Brunner, Rob (November 20, 2020). "Wilson High School Potential Names Include Marion Barry, August Wilson, 'Northwest'". Washingtonian. Retrieved November 24, 2021.

Additional reading

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