Jacob C. White was born in 1837. He grew up in Philadelphia, and in 1853 began attending the Institute for Colored Youth, a school founded by the Quakers to educate blacks to become teachers. On May 24, 1855, his classmates selected White to address the Governor of Pennsylvania, James Pollock, at a special reception at the Institute. In 1854 White was elected secretary of the Banneker Literary Institute, a position which he held until 1859. On May 6, 1857 White graduated from the Institute for Colored Youth, thus becoming its second graduate. He was asked to remain at the Institute to teach, a position he kept until 1864. On April 1, 1864, White was appointed principal of Roberts Vaux Primary School, later officially known as the Roberts Vaux Consolidated School, a position he kept until his retirement in June 1896. In 1870, the previously all-white Teacher's Institute of Philadelphia admitted White to membership. On June 25, 1895 White was elected President of the Board of the Douglass Hospital in Philadelphia, a postion he kept until he stepped down in 1900. White died on November 11, 1902.
Harry C. Silcox, summarized White's legacy, thus: "The most durable and respected black figure in that field [i.e., education] after the Civil War was Jacob C. White, Jr., of Philadelphia. As principal of the Roberts Vaux Consolidated School from 1864 to 1896 he was the highest ranking black in the city's public school system White and black leaders alike deferred all questions concerning black education during the period to the Vaux principal. No less a figure than W.E.B. DuBois requested White to read critically the proof sheets of his chapter on education in The Philadelphia Negro " (Philadelpia Negro, p. 75).
From the guide to the Jacob C. White Papers, 1857-1914, (Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University)
