William H. Day

William Howard Day (October 16, 1825 – December 3, 1900) was a black abolitionist, editor, educator and minister. After his father died when he was four, Day went to live with J. P. Williston and his wife who ensured that he received a good education and learned the printer's trade. He received his bachelor's and master's degree from Oberlin College. He was a printer and newspaper editor. He fought for civil rights of African Americans a number of ways, as a journalist, teacher, and leader of the Freedmen's Bureau. He was an orator, making a speech to 10,000 newly emancipated people on what biographer Todd Mealy called the first march on Washington.

Early life Day was born free on October 16, 1825, in New York City to Eliza and John Day. Eliza was an abolitionist and a founding member of the first African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in New York City. Eliza Ann Dixon Day was active in the abolitionist movement and was present in 1833 at the Chatham Street Chapel when an anti-abolitionist mob attacked the meeting. She instilled in her children the importance of continuing the abolitionist movement. Despite having meager funds, she sent her children to private school and allowed a white educator to adopt him to secure his future education. William later credited her as a foundational role model who helped shape his future.

Day began attending school when he was four years of age. The Willistons were known for helping people escape enslavement by employing them or assisting their travel along the Underground Railroad.

Education Day attended the New York Manumission Society school and then at age 9 entered public school No 2 in New York and was the librarian for the Garrison Literary Society. Beginning 1843, Day attended Oberlin College and he graduated with a bachelor's and master's degree. Published in Cleveland, Ohio, Day used the newspaper to support the abolitionist cause, as in this excerpt from April 9, 1853: "We speak for Humanity. If Humanity be a unit, wherever it is cloven down, wherever rights common to human beings are infringed, there we do sympathize." In Cleveland, he also was compositor to the Cleveland True Democrat published by Thomas Brown and edited by John C. Vaughen, for a year when he was promoted to mailing clerk and local editor.

Educator While in Cleveland, he also taught school, teaching many subjects including Latin, Greek, mathematics, rhetoric, logic, music and vocal music, short-hand, and writing. In 1857, he went to Canada to recover from an illness and continued teaching fugitive slaves there. In 1867, he moved to Baltimore at the invitation of Edgar M. Gregory where he became inspector-general for schools there, a charge of 140 schools, 150 teachers and 7,000 students. The same year, he was a member of the Chatham Vigilance Committee that sought to prevent former slaves from being returned to the United States and brought back into slavery, such as the case of the Sylvanus Demarest.

In 1859 he visited England, Ireland, and Scotland with William King to raise money for a church and school house at Elgia in Buxton, Ontario. He met Martin Delany and Professor Campbell of the Institute for Colored Youth in London, and together the group founded the African Aid Society. He remained in Great Britain during the American Civil War (1861–1865). In 1873, Day married Georgia F. Bell.

Day died in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on December 3, 1900, at the age of 75. His resting place is Lincoln Cemetery in Harrisburg. The William Howard Day School in the City of Harrisburg was named for him. The William Howard Day homes, a public-housing community located at Reilly Road and Herr Street in Harrisburg.