***John Lewis Dart***
(b. March 10, 1854; d. July 17,1915)
South Carolina. Born free. Mulatto.
Occupation: teacher, minister.
Father's occupation: painter, keeper at a house of correction.
Mother's occupation: dressmaker.
John L. Dart was born in Charleston, South Carolina to William Dart and Susan Fenwick. In biographical accounts, the family members are often described as free persons of colors, but their status was complicated. The mother Susan was born free, but the father William was born enslaved and purchased, as an adult, by Susan. William was not manumitted as this was only possible through a special act of the General Assembly, but he evidently lived as though he was free. (For example, he is described as a free person in the 1850 U.S. Census)
Susan worked as a dressmaker, and William as a painter and, for a short time during Reconstruction, as keeper at a house of correction (a jail for people who had committed low level offenses). William was also a deacon in the Baptist church.
John L. Dart's formal education began at age 6 (in 1860) when he began attending a private school run by an African American, Edward Beard. After the Civil War, John attended Charleston public schools and the Avery Normal Institute. He graduated from the institute in 1872 and was the valedictorian of its first graduating class. Dart then taught at a school in Sumter.
After a year, the school Dart was teaching at closed, and he moved to Georgia to continue his education at Atlanta University. In Fall 1873, he entered the university's College Preparatory Course and studied alongside future U of SC students Peter V. Hazel and Thomas J. Reynolds. The next year he entered the College Course as a freshman, but he did not complete the academic year.
Dart returned to South Carolina and registered at the University of South Carolina on February 12, 1875. He entered as a college freshman following the classical studies track, but he had left the university by January 1876, within one year.
Dart returned to Atlanta University for the 1876-77 academic year. This time he completed his studies and received an A.B. degree in 1879. He then continued his education in Massachusetts, where he attended the Newton Theological Seminary. There he was ordained as a Baptist minister and graduated in 1883. While attending the seminary, he was awarded an honorary A.M. degree from Atlanta University in 1882.
After completing his education at the seminary, Dart moved to Washington D.C., where he worked as a teacher and school principal in Washington DC, at Wayland Seminary, and at public schools. He was in D.C. from 1882-84 and then moved to work as a pastor at various churches. He accepted a pastorate at the Congdon Street Baptist Church in Providence, RI in 1885 and at the Union Baptist Church in Augusta, GA for 6 month in 1886.
Dart returned to Charleston in the middle of 1886. There he became a pastor at the Morris Street Baptist Church. He preached there for 16 years and then moved to Shiloh Baptist Church. In 1894, he opened the Charleston Normal and Industrial Institute. The institute was a school for African Americans that focused on vocational training. In addition to his work as a teacher and pastor, Dart was the editor for the newspaper the Southern Reporter from 1903 to 1913.
In 1898, Dart helped advocate for an African American family, the Bakers, that had been the victims of a lynching. In Lake City, South Carolina on February 21, 1898, a mob set fire to the Baker family home and then shot and killed the father Frazier B. Baker and his infant daughter Julia when they fled. This attack was the culmination of a campaign of harassment against Frazier for holding the position of city postmaster. Eleven men were tried for the murders, but a mistrial was declared because the (all-white) jury was deadlocked.
Dart was part of a committee of prominent African American Charlestonians (which also included Dart's former U of SC classmate William D. Crum) that wrote a letter to President William McKinley asking him to take action to stop lynching. The letter was prompted by the Baker family's failure to receive justice, and they asked the President to help rectify this by giving Frazier's widow an indemnity. John published the letter along with documentation about the Baker lynching as a lengthy pamphlet titled The summary of a court case regarding the lynching of a African American postmaster named Frazier Baker in the town of Lake City, South Carolina.
In 1913, Dart started experiencing health problems and retired as school principal after holding the position for roughly 20 years. He died on July 17, 1915 in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is buried in the Unity and Friendship Society Cemetery in Charleston.
The city of Charleston has honored Dart by creating the John L. Dart Library. His family papers are held Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston.
John L. Dart laying the corner stone of the Charleston Industrial Institute, ca. 1890
From the Avery Research Center
John L. Dart
Sources
1). Caldwell, A. B. History of the American Negro: South Carolina Edition. A. B. Caldwell Publishing, Atlanta, GA. 1919.
2). Pegues, Albert Witherspoon. Our Baptist Ministers and Schools. Willey & Co., Springfield, Mass. 1892.
3). 1860; Census Place: Charleston Ward 6, Charleston, South Carolina; Page: 432
4). 1870; Census Place: Charleston Ward 4, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1486; Page: 196B
5). 1880; Census Place: Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: 1222; Page: 524D
6). 1900; Census Place: Charleston Ward 11, Charleston, South Carolina; Page: 8
7). 1910; Census Place: Charleston Ward 12, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: T624_1452; Page: 15A
8). Charleston, South Carolina, City Directory, 1872
9). Charleston, South Carolina, City Directory, 1875
Posted 3/25/20