J. Dallas Bowser

James Dallas Bowser`
James and Dora Bowser in 1919
Born (1846-02-15)February 15, 1846
Weldon, North Carolina
Died January, 1923 (aged 76)
Kansas City, Missouri
Occupation Journalist, educator
Political party Republican

James Dallas Bowser (February 15, 1846-January 1923) was a journalist and educator in Kansas City, Missouri. He was the principal of Lincoln School there from 1868-1879 and later the principal of Attucks School. He was a civil rights leader in the city and was widely known for his poem, Take up the Black Man's Burden written in 1899 in response to Rudyard Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden. He was a member of the Citizen's League of Kansas City Inter-Racial Committee.

Early life

James Dallas Bowser was born in Weldon, North Carolina on February 15, 1846 to free parents. When he was about six years old, the family moved to Chillicothe, Ohio[1] where his father, Henry Bowser, was one of the areas first black teachers.[2] In the mid 1860s, Bowser moved to Kansas City where he became a teacher. In 1868, principal of the Lincoln School, James Milton Turner resigned to become minister to Liberia, and Bowser took the position. He held that job for eleven years before moving to Wyandotte County, Kansas where he took a position as principal of another school. In 1873 he married Dora J. Troy of Xenia, Ohio. Bowser was active in Republican politics and in 1881 he was appointed mail carrier, a position he held for four years, when Republican appointees were removed by Democratic President Grover Cleveland. He was a member of the Republican State Central Committee in 1885 and 1886.[1] In 1887 he was sealer of weights and measures in Kansas City.[3] He also worked as principal at Attucks School in Kansas City in the 1900s.[2]

Gate City Press

In 1880, H. H. Johnson founded The Free Press in Kansas City, but was only able to afford a single issue. Johnson solicited the aid of Bowser, and Bowser took control of the paper starting with its second issue, changing its name to the Gate City Press and becoming its editor. The paper was very successful and attracted well known writers. William Ward Yates (husband of Josephine Silone Yates) and G. N. Gresham were associate editors of the paper.[3] In 1886, he hosted Ida B. Wells when she visited Kansas City for the National Teachers Association meeting. Shortly after, Bowser suggested Wells apply for a teaching position in Kansas City and that she could write for the paper, although Wells ultimately decided to settle in Memphis.[4] Bowser continued to publish the paper until 1889.[5]

Black Man's Burden

In 1899, Bowser published a poem which was a response to Rudyard Kipling's The White Man's Burden called Take up the Black Man's Burden, writing, "Take up the Black Man's burden/Send forth the best ye breed,/To judge with righteous judgement/The Black Man's work and need,//...//Let the glory of your people/Be the making of great men,/The lifting of the lowly,/To noble thought and aim." The poem drew connections between racism and imperialism, criticizing both. It also contains a theme of black self-improvement which was advocated by Booker T. Washington. The poem is often paired with a number of poems written in response to Kipling, particularly to Charity Begins at Home published a few weeks earlier in the Colored American pseudonymously written by "X-Ray" and which was more biting in its criticism.[6]

Later life and death

In 1920, Bowser was one a member of the Citizen's League of Kansas City Inter-Racial Committee named by the NAACP and the Colored Civic League. The committee included six black and six white members: Nat Spencer, L. A. Halbert, Walter Matscheck, O. J. Hill, R. M. Maxwell, B. M Stigall, Bowser, William Alphian, S. W. Bacote, R. T. Coles, John Love, and Frank Neal. The organization worked with the city to attempt to diffuse racial violence and improve housing conditions for blacks in the city.[7] In 1921, Bowser published another poem, O Darkest Tulsa in lament for the race riot in that city. The poem was published on October 1, 1921 in the Kansas City Sun.[8] That same year, Bowser attended the NAACP national convention in Detroit.[9]

Later in his life, Bowser was president of the Old Settlers' Association of Kansas City and wrote and told stories about the history of the city.[10] Bowser was a member of the Presbyterian Church and a freemason. He died at his home in Kansas City in January 1923.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p704-706
  2. 1 2 Coulter 2006, p21
  3. 1 2 Penn, Irvine Garland. The Afro-American press and its editors. Willey & Company, 1891. p230-232
  4. ↑ DuRocher, Kristina. Ida B. Wells: Social Activist and Reformer. Routledge, 2016. p23-24
  5. ↑ Coulter 2006, p108
  6. ↑ Brantlinger, Patrick. Taming Cannibals: Race and the Victorians. Cornell University Press, 2011. p215
  7. ↑ Schirmer, Sherry Lamb. A city divided: The racial landscape of Kansas City, 1900-1960. University of Missouri Press, 2002. p117-119
  8. ↑ Coulter 2006, p151
  9. ↑ Coulter 2006, p 128
  10. ↑ Half Century in Kansas City, The Kansas City Sun (Kansas City, Missouri) December 27, 1919, page 1, accessed December 1, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7680223/half_century_in_kansas_city_the_kansas/
  11. ↑ Pioneer Kansas City Teacher-Editor Dead, The New York Age (New York, New York) January 20, 1923, page 1, accessed December 1, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7680613//

Bibliography

  • Coulter, Charles Edward. Take Up the Black Man's Burden: Kansas City's African American Communities, 1865-1939. University of Missouri Press, 2006.
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