George Lloyd Johnson, Jr. JAMES YADKIN JOYNER: THE EARLY
AND FORMATIVE YEARS, 1862-1907. (Under the direction of
Dr. Mary Jo Bratton) Department of History, East Carolina
University, September 1985.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the early life
and career of James Yadkin Joyner from his birth in 1862
through his service as State Superintendent of Public
Instruction from 1902 to 1907. Although he continued to
serve as superintendent until his retirement in 1919, his
five years of service to the state that included the year
1907 represented a significant period of progress and reform
for the public schools of North Carolina.
Joyner was born in Davidson County in 1862, where his
family temporarily resided as refugees during the Civil War.
Joyner's parents died in his infancy, and his grandfather,
Council Wooten, a prominent state senator and planter from
Lenoir County prior to the Civil War, reared Joyner. When
Joyner was only ten years old his grandfather died and his
uncle Shadrach Wooten then cared for him on his farm near La
Grange . He attended La Grange Academy and the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1878-1881). At the
University Joyner became a close friend of Charles Duncan
Me Iv e r , a friendship that lasted until Mclver's death in
1 906 . At Chapel Hill Joyner also developed close
friendships with Charles Brantley Aycock and Edwin Anderson
Alderman, men who later had a profound influence on public
education in North Carolina, as well as the South.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina,
Joyner for three years served as headmaster and teacher at
La Grange Academy, and also as superintendent of Lenoir
County Schools. In 1884 due to the influence of his close
friend Mclver who taught at the Winston graded schools,
Joyner left La Grange and began teaching with Mclver at the
graded school in Winston in piedmont North Carolina, now
Winston-Salem. He also spent the summer of 1885 as a normal
institute conductor in Washington, North Carolina.
In the fall of 1885, Joyner gave up his teaching career
in order to study law in the Dick and Dillard Law School in
Greensboro. In February 1886 he passed the North Carolina
Bar and for three years practiced law in the law firm of
Allen, Faircloth and Joyner in Goldsboro. While practicing
law, he renewed his friendship with Aycock who had been his
classmate at the university. At that time Aycock also had a
law practice in Goldsboro and on some occasions they jointly
prepared cases for court. During the summer months when his
legal practice was slow, Joyner resumed his teaching duties
as an institute conductor for the State Department of Public
Instruction.
He gave up his law practice in the spring of 1889 and
returned to the field of education by being elected
superintendent of the Goldsboro graded schools, a position
vacated by Alderman, his former classmate at the university.
As superintendent of the Goldsboro graded schools, he took
pride in securing the best teachers for his schools. During
the summer months he helped to supplement the work of
Alderman and Mclver by conducting summer institutes on a
weekly basis in order to certify teachers for the state's
public schools. After four years as a successful
superintendent of the Goldsboro graded schools, he resigned
and accepted Mclver’s appointment to the faculty of the
Normal and Industrial School at Greensboro. There, he
served for nine years as professor of English and dean of
the faculty. During that tenure he also served on the Board
of Trustees of the Baptist Female University, now Meredith
College and the Agricultural and Mechanical Institute for
blacks, now North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State
University in Greensboro. In 1896, he was elected president
of the North Carolina Teacher's Assembly, an emerging
professional association.
In 1902, Joyner reluctantly accepted Governor Aycock's
appointment to become State Superintendent of Public
Instruction . As superintendent, he promoted educational
rallies for the purpose of stimulating public sentiment for
local taxation in order to build public schools, consoli-
dating school districts, enforcing compulsory attendance
laws, lengthening the school term; increasing state aid for
public schools, and training and certifying more teachers
for the public schools. His most outstanding accomplishment
during this period was to write and secure passage of the
State Public High School Act of 1907. Before that time
there had been no statewide system of public high schools in
North Carolina.
His service to the state as superintendent continued
after 1907, and in 1910 he was the first North Carolinian to
ever be elected president of the National Education
Association. He retired as superintendent in 1919 at the
age of fifty-six and returned to his farm in La Grange. His
retirement, however, was very brief. For many years he
remained active in civic, agricultural, and educational
affairs until his death in 1954.
JAMES YADKIN JOYNER:
THE EARLY AND FORMATIVE YEARS, 1862-1907
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of History
East Carolina University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in History
by
George Lloyd Johnson, Jr.
September 1985
JAMES YADKIN JOYNER:
THE EARLY AND FORMATIVE YEARS, 1862-1907
by
George Lloyd Johnson, Jr.
APPROVED BY:
DIRECTOR OF THESIS 4 RMq'I'h
CHAIRMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
TP X
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Dr. Mary Jo Bratton
of the East Carolina University faculty for her wise counsel
and untiring efforts in supervising this thesis. Her
constructive criticism and invaluable guidance have made the
completion of this study possible.
Sincere appreciation is extended to Dr. Joseph
Congleton, Dr. Fred Ragan and to Dr. Hugh Wease for their
careful reading of each chapter and for their many helpful
suggestions. The author is indebted to Dr. Joseph F.
Steelman whose courses in the New South were an inspiration
and delight and provided new sources of information for this
study.
The author is indebted, also, to the staff of the East
Carolina Manuscript Collection at East Carolina University
for assistance in examination of the Joyner Papers; the
staff of the Southern Historical Collection of the
University of North Carolina for assistance in examining the
Southern Education Board Papers; and to the staff of the
State Archives and History Collection in Raleigh for
assistance in examining the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction Papers.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE EARLY AND COLLEGIATE YEARS: 1862-1881 . . 6
III. FROM HEADMASTER TO BARRISTER: 1881-1889 27
IV. A RETURN TO EDUCATION: 1889-1902 50
V. NORTH CAROLINA CRUSADER FOR UNIVERSAL EDUCATION:
1902-1907 74
VI. CONCLUSION 104
NOTES 110
BIBLIOGRAPHY . 133
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
It has been noted that the public school system in
North Carolina was more developed in 1860 than it was in
1900, or until the coming of James Yadkin Joyner as
superintendent of public instruction. The Civil War and
Reconstruction left the public education system prostrate to
the backwardness that engulfed the entire state. Not only
did the schools regress after this great conflict, but the
existing social order also suffered. "Extravagance,
lawlessness, fear, ignorance, emancipation" and prejudice
toward the black race added to the chaos that had already
been brought about by the war. Public education in North
Carolina in the latter years of the nineteenth century was
in a wilderness prior to the progressive administration of
1
Governor Charles Brantley Aycock and Superintendent Joyner.
The task of bringing the public schools out of the
wilderness could not have been done without money from
northern philanthropy. The philosophy of redemption through
philanthropy was conceived in Walter Hines Page’s speech
"The Forgotten Man" delivered in 1897 at the Normal and
Industrial College in Greensboro. His speech advocated
modernizing the South with northern philanthropy. He
exclaimed, "What an interesting field for sociological
2
experiment." Page's speech created a stir throughout the
2
South and caught the interest of northern philanthropers who
were willing to aid Page’s sociological experiment to redeem
the South of ignorance.
The northern phi1 anthropers were aided by the South's
own southern wing of reformers. These men were not of
3
wealth but instead were middle class professional people.
In North Carolina these men included Charles Duncan Mclver,
Charles Brantley Aycock and James Yadkin Joyner.
The major issue faced by these southern reformers was
the issue of raising local and county taxes for the public
schools, and North Carolina became the first southern state
to initiate this noble experiment. For this experiment to
work, public sentiment had to be changed in favor of raising
taxes for the public schools and Joyner became a master at
stimulating a change in public attitudes. According to
Josephus Daniels, Joyner "was one of the half-dozen
educators with vision and constructive ability, who made the
late eighties and nineties and the period covered by the
Aycock administration the most revolutionary in changing
public sentiment and strengthening it for the public
schools. !»4
The public sentiment that Joyner had nurtured provided
him with a foundation to build, expand and strengthen the
public school system. As a reformer for the public schools,
he accomplished much during the period between 1902 and
1907. The noted southern historian Dewey W. Grantham noted
3
Joyner's achievements during this period when he wrote:
In 1907 the reformers successfully challenged
a court decision of 1886 which had restricted
public support of the schools. . . In 1907 the
general assembly authorized the establishment of
rural high schools, and within a year 157 such
schools were begun in eighty one counties, The
old literary fund was reorganized in 1903, and a
permanent loan fund was created from which local
educational authorities were able to borrow money
to build or improve school houses.
Beginning in 1903 when the functions of the state
superintendent were increased, the legislature
enacted a modern school code that strengthened the
state r8 le in the operation of the public
schools.
Indeed Joyner was an educational progressive in every
sense of the word, while he was superintendent during the
first decade of the twentieth century nearly one school
building was built per day. During this decade R. D. W.
Connor and Clarence Poe wrote: "Whoever writes the
educational history of this decade will be the biographer of
James Yadkin Joyner.
This study is concerned with Joyner's development from
his birth in 1862 to the role he played as State
Superintendent of Public Instruction during the years 1902
to 1907. This thesis reveals Joyner's personal qualities
that were undoubtedly responsible for his success and
advancement . He was an energetic and forceful individual
who possessed a keen mind and a rare sense of humor. His
oratorical and analytical abilities enabled him to withstand
and overcome many hard fought contests. The Joyner Papers
in the East Carolina Manuscript Collection reveal many of
4
Joyner's personal qualities that represent the backbone of
this study. It has only been recently that these papers
have become available to scholars for research purposes.
Joyner, throughout his life, was associated with men of
influence. During his early years, he grew up in rural
eastern North Carolina, and his grandfather instilled in him
the essential values of living a life of a "southern
gentleman . " Growing up during Reconstruction, Joyner
witnessed the backwardness and corruption that engulfed the
entire state. While attending the University of North
Carolina, he became associated with Charles Duncan Mclver,
Charles Brantley Aycock, and Edwin Anderson Alderman. At
Chapel Hill, these men discussed the issues that plagued
North Carolina, and became interested in finding a remedy to
cure the backwardness that delayed the progress of many
North Carolinians. The solution was public education.
After his graduation at Chapel Hill, Joyner returned to
La Grange and for several years he earned his living as a
teacher . Apparently dissatisfied with the low salaries of
teachers, he gave up that career to study law. After only
three years as a practicing attorney in Goldsboro, he left
the legal profession and returned to the field of education.
His decision to give up law came from the influential
southern educator, Edward Pearson Moses and his close friend
Mclver. As superintendent of the Goldsboro graded schools,
and summer institute conductor, he developed a statewide
5
reputation as an educator.
Joyner’s close friendship with Mclver led him to his
next position. In 1893, he joined the faculty as professor
of English at the State Normal and Industrial Institute in
Greensboro . For nine years he faithfully served that
institution before being appointed by Governor Aycock to the
state superintendency.
In any consideration of educational reform in the New
South and its impact on North Carolina, it is evident that
Charles Brantley Aycock, Charles Duncan Mclver, Edwin
Anderson Alderman, and James Yadkin Joyner, together stand
out as leaders of the movement. Of these outstanding men,
the man most directly responsible for bringing public
education closer to the people of this state was Joyner. He
was a progressive reformer in the mainstream of the social
justice movement, and he met the challenges of his time with
patience, tact, and confidence.
CHAPTER II
THE EARLY AND COLLEGIATE YEARS: 1862-1881
Early in the Civil War, Federal troops, realizing the
significance of North Carolina's Sound region, made plans
and 1successfully invaded that region. On March 14, 1862
the town of New Bern fell to the Federals causing many
families in the surrounding areas to abandon their homes and
flee to the central counties of the state. With the
exception of this group of refugees, it has been noted,
"there was no large or continuing displacement of people" in
North Carolina "as there were in many other southern
,»2
states.
Council Wooten, a prominent state senator and planter
3
living in the village of Moseley Hall, now La Grange in
Lenoir County, located thirty-five miles west of New Bern,
"deemed it safest to move the women and the slaves out
of the reach of the Union army," since the men in his family
4
were in the Confederate array. Henry Walser, a close friend
and a distinguished state senator residing in Davidson
County, provided Wooten, his family and slaves refuge in
this western county, They remained in Davidson County
during the duration of the war.~*
At Yadkin College in Davidson County, Wooten and his
family resided in an abandoned classroom building. It was
not unusual for Confederate refugees to convert school
7
buildings into living quarters; any community having an
"academy or college was almost certain to attract the
homeless. t» 6
It was under such circumstances on August 7, 1862 that
Wooten's oldest daughter, Sarah, gave birth to a boy named
James Yadkin Joyner. His middle name Yadkin, indicates that
his parents named him after the place of his birth. The
youngest of five children, he had two brothers and two
sisters, John, Cornelia, Clara and Council.^
Joyner's ancestors were of English and German stock.
"The Joyners came directly from England and settled in Pitt
County." On his mother's side "the Wootens were also
English having come through Wales to Maryland and from
there" they migrated to North Carolina. His maternal
grandmother, Eliza De Graffenried Wooten was of "German
descent and her ancestors came over with Baron Von De
Graffenried to New Bern. .»8
His father, John Joyner, graduated from Wake Forest
College and before the Civil War, established himself as a
cotton planter near Moseley Hall, He moved to that area
from Pitt County, after marrying Council Wooten's daughter,
Sarah, in 1853. Joyner's paternal grandfather, John Pugh
Joyner, was a planter and represented Pitt County at the
State Constitutional Convention of 1835. He also served as
a leading lay minister in one of the primitive Baptist
churches of Pitt County. John P. Joyner was denied his
8
church membership by upsetting the elders in his church when
he sent his sons to Wake Forest College. At that time the
church did not promote higher education missions or Sunday
9
Schools.
Joyner's mother attended the Episcopal School in
Raleigh, now St. Mary's College. While at the school, she
wrote her father that she had "been through" her "philosophy
and chemistry and nearly through the history of England. it 1 0
Less than eight months after Joyner's birth, Sarah died;
those that remembered her said she was a "woman of rare
gifts of mind and soul." When Joyner was only fourteen
months old, his father also died. Joyner's grandfather,
11
Council took the orphaned child into his home to raise.
Immediately after the Confederate surrender in April,
1865 , Council Wooten and his remaining family members
"returned to the old homestead at Moseley Hall, ,,12 Joyner
later recalled that his grandfather Wooten "reflected the
old school of Southern gentlemen." A prominent man and
public favorite, he took an "active part in the affairs of
Lenoir County and the state." For six terras the voters of
Lenoir County elected him to be their representative in the
House of Commons of the General Assembly. Like Joyner's
paternal grandfather, John P. Joyner, Wooten also served as
a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1835. Prior
to the Civil War, Wooten, being a personal friend of
Governor John Ellis, served in his Council of State.
9
In the days of traveling by stage-coach, Wooten's home
became a popular meeting place for judges, state officials,
and other prominent men. Guests at his home in Moseley Hall
"always found a cordial welcome and generous hospitality. tt 13
Wooten owned fifteen thousand acres of land and one hundred
and forty four slaves. Before the Civil War the value of
14
his entire estate exceeded $123,500.
Joyner began his formal education by attending La
Grange Academy, a school that initially began in Council
Wooten's home. Certainly in this respect, Wooten was
concerned about providing his family with a formal
education. Dr. Preston W. Woodley became the academy's
first teacher and Joyner's grandfather Council provided him
with room and board. The living conditions in Wooten's home
must have certainly been overcrowded due not only to the
growing academy but also to his large family which consisted
of eleven family members. In less than two months members
of the community of La Grange joined together to provide a
classroom building for their children to attend. This
relieved the overcrowded condition the academy had imposed
15
upon his home. As a private school, La Grange Academy
charged tuition and only those parents who could afford to
pay were able to send their children there.
In Lenoir County, as well as elsewhere in North
Carolina, the public schools were extremely inadequate
during the last decades of the nineteenth century. During
10
Reconstruction many North Carolinians did not concern
themselves with public education. Due to this lack of
interest only a small group of people remained loyal to the
cause of the public schools. Their efforts became
frustrated by poverty stricken people who were unwilling and
16
unable to pay taxes to support the schools. In 1873 only
150,000 out of the 350,000 school aged children actually
state's 17enrolled in the public and private schools. Henry
S . Nunn, editor of the Kinston Journal, pointedly described
the situation saying, "The unsuccessful system of public
schools in this state for a number of years has produced
such strong prejudices that hard work is necessary to
accomplish much good in the way of education." He added
that "Education is like some other things, the less you have
the less „ 18you want.
Council Wooten died when Joyner was ten years old.
Joyner later regarded his grandfather's influence upon his
young life as "perhaps the most potent force in the shaping
of his character." After Wooten's death, Shadrach I.
Wooten, Joyner's uncle, reared him in his home on a farm
located three miles from La Grange. Joyner later said,
"Shadrach Wooten cared for him as though he had been his own
child n 1 9. Shadrach's niece Eliza Wooten, the sister of
Joyner's mother lived in her Uncle Shadrach's home. Eliza ,
whom Joyner called Aunt Ebb, cared for him as though he were
her own.
11
The community of La Grange had a population of five
hundred in the early 1880s. It boasted a town council,
mayor and policeman; it also had three physicians but no
lawyers. Being a rather religious community, it had a
20
Methodist, Baptist and Disciples of Christ Church.
William N. Nettles, editor of "La Grange Items," a column
that appeared bi-monthly in the Kinston Journal, illustrated
the religious fervor of the community when he wrote: "The
driving of horses twenty or thirty miles these hot Sundays
in pursuit of pleasure cannot be regarded as anything less
than Sabbath breaking. ,.21 Nettles further reported: "An
unusually large congregation met at Hickory Grove last
Sunday for preaching. No minister, and the congregation
were disappointed. The pastor, however is not to blame
having t,22given previous notice that he could not attend.
Despite its size, La Grange was far from being a sleepy
little village. In August, 1879 the town commissioners
passed an ordinance prohibiting hogs, geese and goats from
running at large in the streets. This action did not
satisfy all the citizens. Many of them met before the mayor
to get the ordinance dropped, but they were without
23
success . Popularity at the bars and the consumption of
alcohol affected some of the citizens, particularly during
election time. Typical of these elections, drunkenness kept
one policeman quite busy: Nettles reported that "Policeman
Albritton escorted a man to the lock up on Friday for trying
12
to bring about prohibition in his own way, by drinking it
all." Nettles added: "the policeman only received two
cussins within the last month. »»2 4
Joyner enjoyed growing up in La Grange; and it appears
that he, along with his aunt, uncle, brothers, sisters and
cousins formed a very close knit family. Unlike most
families stricken with poverty in North Carolina during
Reconstruction, his family was among the wealthiest of
property owners in Lenoir County. Therefore, when compared
to the many poverty stricken families living in this state
after the Civil War, Joyner spent his boyhood years in
relative affluence.
Joyner spent much time during his youth doing farm work
on his Uncle Shadrach ' s farm. He recalled that while
growing up he "learned to do all sorts of farm work." He
noted that he "not only learned to do it but" he "did it."
He counted it as being "one of the chief blessings of" his
life to be "reared in the country on a farm" with the
"privilege of living and laboring in the open air, and of
leading a free and happy life in the fields and forests,
with the birds and animals, the flowers and plants." He
added that growing up on the farm was "a free, peaceful,
»»2 5
happy, healthful life.
While Joyner studied at La Grange Academy he made an
outstanding record. Woodley left the academy after serving
as headmaster for three years and Joseph Kinsey replaced
13
him. During Joyner’s last year at the academy, Kinsey noted
that he had received all fives in his subjects. All fives
on a report card from the headmaster denoted excellence, and
to receive a one in any subject indicated that a student had
done poorly. Joyner received no ones. A year before,
however, he did get a four in Latin, but the record he
26
achieved at La Grange Academy was still impressive.
In August 1878, at the age of sixteen, with only six
years of formal education, Joyner left La Grange with his
brother John. At Goldbsoro they boarded a train for Durham.
From there, they travelled by horse and buggy to Chapel
Hill, their final destination. This was the only means of
transportation available until 1882, when the State
University Railroad opened, linking Chapel Hill to the major
27
railroad lines of the state.
Joyner and his brother were among the sixty-six
freshman to enter the University of North Carolina in the
fall of 1878. Joyner, his brother and the other freshman
probably spent their first two days at the university taking
examinations in order to meet the requirements of the
28
school . Upon their arrival, the Joyner brothers could
have been greeted by Charles Duncan Melver and Charles
Brantley Aycock, two outstanding members of the sophomore
class . During that time it was a tradition at the
university for the upper classman to cheer the incoming
freshman's arrival : "Welcoming new students to the
14
university fwas one of Charles B. Aycock ' s special
interests." Many of the new students considered the welcome
by Aycock to be an honor in itself since he was the
29
recognized student leader. Both Aycock, later governor of
North Carolina, and Mclver, later founder and president of
the Normal and Industrial College for Women at Greensboro,
were among Joyner's closest friends while he attended the
university . But of the two, Mclver became his life long
30
friend and associate.
Chapel Hill was a small rural academic village in 1878.
It had a population of no more than five hundred; and among
those, two hundred were male students enrolled at the
university . The faculty had grown from eight members in
31
1877 to eleven in 1878.
When Joyner arrived on the campus, public higher
education in the state remained in a precarious condition.
The school was only beginning to recover from its collapse
of the early 1870s, during the administration of David Lowry
Swain. In 1875 the General Assembly provided the funding to
reopen the school. In 1876 the university resumed
operations under the presidency of Kemp Plummer Battle. He
was a capable educator devoted to rebuilding the
32
university. It has been noted that the General Assembly
might not have funded the school without the "pioneering
efforts of Cornelia Phillips Spencer, a life long resident
of Chapel Hill, who successfully lobbied the General
15
Assembly to appropriate u 3 3money to the university.
The curriculum at the university had been reorganized
in 1875 and included more scientific and linguistic courses
which complemented the classical studies in Latin and Greek.
The university offered two bachelors degrees, the Bachelor
of Arts and the Bachelor of Philosophy. The Bachelor of
Arts envisaged both Latin and Greek and the Bachelor of
Philosophy included French, German and scientific studies.
The university also offered masters and doctoral degrees.
According to Battle, the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy,
Master of Arts and Master of Science "are conferred upon
students who have completed post graduate studies prescribed
by the Faculty." The university also conferred law degrees,
34
and a medical school opened on the campus in 1879.
Due to the efforts of Battle, the university
established a summer normal school in 1877, "the first
of its kind in the South. „35venture The normal school's
purpose was to train both men and women for the schools of
the state. Battle said, "the school was to teach the latest
and most improved methods of managing classes, arousing
interest, imparting knowledge and developing the minds of
the pupils," as well as providing instruction in the
3 6
subjects taught in the state's schools.
Student living conditions on the campus according to
„37
Joyner were "simple, rugged—even primitive. One student
who graduated in the 1880s said, "there were only eight
16
college buildings" on the entire campus. Those buildings
included: Old East, Person Hall, South Building, Gerrard
Hall, Old West, Smith Hall, New East and New West. The
student body consisted entirely of males, and if "a female
were seen on campus she would likely hear the words 'Calico
on Campus' shouted from a dozen windows." The furnishings
in the dormitory rooms "consisted of a wash bowl and
pitcher, water bucket and slop bucket, a well worn bed stead
and mattress, a small pine table, book shelves suspended
from the wall, two split bottom chairs and a rocker."
Students were responsible for getting their own firewood,
which they purchased from farmers in the surrounding
vicinity. Kerosene lamps provided the only source of light
38
for students who studied at night.
During Joyner's freshman year he stayed in Old East and
roomed with his brother, John. In his sophomore year he
roomed with Edwin Anderson Alderman, later president of the
University of North Carolina, Tulane University and the
University of Virginia. They boarded at Mrs. Craig's
boarding house; Mrs. Craig was a widow and "the mother of
Locke Craig, later governor of the state and then a student"
39
a year ahead of Joyner. In his senior year he roomed with
Charles Randolph Thomas, who became a lawyer in New Bern.
They were roommates in an office on Franklin Street in
40
downtown Chapel Hill.
Compulsory religious services formed a major part of
17
student life and were regularly conducted in Gerrard Hall.
According to Battle, "two students one for each aisle,"
reported the number of empty chairs at each service. "The
penalty for non-attendance" was "first the loss of character
as an orderly student, and second being reported to
superiors home. ..41at
Joyner evidently enjoyed the religious services at the
university. While there, he and Charles B. Aycock were
baptized by the Reverend Amzi Clarence Dixon, brother of the
novelist Thomas Dixon. Joyner later recalled their baptism.
He wrote: . . in a meeting conducted by A. C. Dixon in
the Old Baptist Church of the little village" of Chapel
Hill, . . . "a number of students thirty or forty, according
to my recollection professed conversion and connected
themselves with the various churches in the village. Aycock
and I were among the number that joined the Baptist church
in that meeting." Joyner added that the two "were baptized
one Sunday by Mr. Dixon in Purefoy's mill pond, about two
miles from the little of Chapel Hill. „42village
After the reopening of the university in 1875, a new
era in collegiate athletics appeared on the campus. The
students, however, had little desire for intercollegiate
contests. Many of the "students exercised in their own
rooms with dumbells and Indian clubs." Other students went
on long walks in small groups in the surrounding
countryside. The Young Men's Christian Association became a
18
part of campus life in 1876; and a year later, the
university built an outdoor gymnasium to meet the students’
43
growing athletic needs.
Concerning student involvement in sports activities,
Walter Lee Phillips, a member of Joyner's class later
recalled that the students "had no training in athletics of
any. kind . " Students "played games just for the exercise and
the sport" of it, "and nearly every student played in one
kind or other of them. »44 From Phillips' assessment it is
perhaps evident that Joyner participated in athletics, but
perhaps did not excel in them as did his friend Charles D.
Mclver . According to Joyner, "Mclver, due to his size,
could bat a ball the farthest and holler the loudest. r»45
Due to Joyner's small size his Aunt Ebb had to order him a
youth's frock coat from Baltimore, because the suit she sent
him was too large for him to wear to the university's
commencement in May 1879. Concerned for the new suit,
Joyner's Aunt Ebb warned him, "don't you and John travel in
your new suits, but wear some of the old clothes. You will
ruin the new ones on the train with dust and smoke so don't
wear them. r» 4 6
During Joyner's student days the university prohibited
4 7
hazing as a part of campus activities. Sometimes ,
however, hazing did occur. One incident witnessed by Joyner
involved a student named William George Randall who was
"being forced to dance naked on a barrel in front of his
19
tormentors.” Joyner's friend Mclver quickly intervened and
48
stopped the students from hazing Randall. Noah J. Rouse,
Joyner's cousin, while attending law school at the
university in 1882, described the hazing of freshmen by the
upperclassmen. He told Joyner, "I don't think I have ever
seen freshmen so roughly handled. Some students were swift
of foot and one had to spend the night in the ditch. it 4 9
The university also discouraged students from drinking
alcoholic beverages, Battle said, "Lager beer salons are
prohibited at Chapel Hill." He further added, "Whatever the
argument was used for them by those who declaimed this
popular beverage was rendered futile by the potent fact that
the beer could be and would be adulterated with additional
measures of alcohol. „50 Despite the enforcement of
prohibition, Rouse described to Joyner an incident where a
student had been drinking on campus. Rouse said, "A student
who had been drinking beer, seized a hat in his hands and
exclaimed with all his lung power 'Hurrah for the
t ft
Philanthropic Cox. Rouse added, "I only relate this to
show you that Chapel Hillians have not ceased to be Chapel
51
Hillians.
In the spring of 1879, Joyner became a member of the
Philanthropic Society, a literary society whose members came
only from the eastern part of the state. The Dialectic
Society, the Philanthropic Society's counterpart, admitted
members only from the western part of the state. Commenting
20
o n the societies' geographic boundaries for membership,
Battle said: "The dividing line is not fixed, but well
enough understood ,,52to prevent disputes. These literary
societies originated at the university in June of 1795 and
"were modeled after the Whig Society at Princeton
University. „53 According to Battle the activities of the
Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies "consist in debating,
declamation, and English composition. The meetings are
secret. They are conducted as a rule with great decorum,
and the members perform their duties with much diligence and
„54
spirit.
These societies "collected and maintained substantial
libraries to aid members in their literary exercises." They
also provided their members an escape from the "dullness of
college life," by allowing them to participate in debates
55
which offered them valuable training in public speaking.
Joyner borrowed many books from the Philanthropic Society
library while at the university. He read orations, essays,
novels, poetry, as well as studies in geography and history.
Among the magazines he read were the Knickerbocker,
Spectator and Littell's Living Age.~^
According to the Philanthropic Society minutes Joyner
received no major fines for tardiness or for non-attendance
57
while attending the society's meetings. During his
sophomore year he did, however, participate in a so called
"sophomore brawl" that occurred among members of the
21
Philanthropic Society in the Philanthropic Hall. While the
brawl continued a bowl was broken, and the students accused
Joyner . One of his classmates, Henry Faison teased him for
breaking the bowl. Joyner then got angry at Faison and
provoked him to a fight, during which Joyner was beaten up
rather badly. A few months later, Joyner received a letter
of apology from his opponent, Faison told Joyner, he was
"heavily ashamed" of himself "for beating you as I have
done, but I pray your forgiveness on the pleas that such
will not be the case again." Referring to the fight Faison
stated, "It was my opinion that you were a little mad, and
what I said i»58to you about it was merely to tease you.
Joyner participated actively in the Philanthropic
Society debates. In response to his public speaking ability
Nathan Wilson Walker, later a professor at the university
said, "As a speaker he is very deliberate, but direct and
forceful . His ideas are always expressed clearly and
logically and in a pleasing language." Walker noted that
Joyner had a keen appreciation for humor, but seldom used
humor while illustrating his speeches. He noted that Joyner
was "a lover of literature" and "a diligent student of its
masters. Having their best thoughts at his ready command,
he is loss for i»59never at a an apt quotation when needed.
Joyner delivered a speech to the Philanthropic Society
in 1880 entitled "Shall Capital Punishment Be Abolished?"
In this speech he came to the conclusion that, "All nations
22
and all ages bear witness to the fact that capital
punishment is a necessity." Joyner continued, "What other
punishment can give to law to guard the sacredness of
universal life so majestive. Capital punishment preserves
ii 60
government and society.
In 1880 Joyner addressed the Philanthropic Society on
the liberal subject of educating women. His speech entitled
"What Shall We Do With Our Girls?" revealed certain aspects
of Joyner’s wit, as well as his progressive views toward
educating women. In this speech he said in part:
. . . Today the queens of society are little
more than painted toys--things beautiful to be
looked at—so are waxen images—more things of art
however than nature . . She who is followed by
the most numerous train of beaus attracted not by
intellectual superiority, but by tinsel and show
just as moths are attracted by a little light, No
wonder there are so many female butterflies.
We shall need a system of education that
shall render woman independent just as man’s
education does him . Why should woman be
precluded from all vocations save two or three?
What right has a man to stand at the entrance of
all lucrative fields of action and when woman does
approach ware her back, and inform her she is out
of her sphere.
God has made woman in a certain form.
Fashion steps in and says your Creator has not
made you right, I can improve upon the form and
would you believe it, thousands of Anglo-Saxon
women are compromising their bodies between boards
of steel in obedience to the edict of the Baal of
fashion.
The days are coming when women will lead the
by the paths of learning ^d life and enter the
highways along side of man.
When Joyner wrote that speech, the state provided no
23
public higher education for women. But eleven years later
the state offered such education when the Normal and
Industrial College for Women opened at Greensboro. Charles
D. Mclver became that school’s first president. Both
Joyner’s and Mclver’s views on education were reflective of
Cornelia Phillips Spencer's opinions. She had a great deal
of influence on the university students. Spencer made the
statement that men are made by their mothers, "thereby
antedating the slogan of Mclver ’Educate a woman and you
educate ,,.62a family.
Joyner participated actively in debates as Mclver did
his best to avoid them. Joyner recalled that many
discussions between him and Mclver took place in Mclver’s
dormitory room in Old West. Mclver preferred to pay his
fine to the Dialectic Society in order not to debate.
Despite this reluctance, Mclver had many outstanding ideas
concerning the improvement of literacy in this state. Of
their private sessions in Old West it has been noted, "No
matter how these discussions ranged over the whole of the
state's problems, it came back to the same starting point.
North Carolina could make no progress whatever until it had
thrown off illiteracy. t, 6 3
Rose Holder, in her biography of Mclver, noted that the
names of Joyner, Mclver, Alderman, Aycock and Marcus Cicero
Stephens Noble "were written high across the page of a more
enlightened North Carolina." Holder further added that
24
these individuals while at the university "formed a tight
little circle and it would remain so, the hard inner core of
a large undertaking. ,,64 Edwin A. Alderman, a graduate of
the class of 1881 said, "There was no better place, I think
for the making of leaders in the world than Chapel Hill in
the late seventies. ,,6 5 Moreover, Dumas Malone in his
biography of Alderman wrote, "More extraordinary it is that
this small group of college boys contained so many who were
destined to play a dominant part in the political life and
educational revival of their commonwealth. n 6 6
Joyner’s senior grade report of December 22, 1880
indicated that he was absent from recitations ten times, and
eight of those he gave no excuse. His grades were:
political economy, 95; German, 90; psychology, 98; English
literature, 86; geology, to be examined, and astronomy, 76.
Concerning his report Battle commented that he was "a
faithful and exemplary student. „67 Furthermore, his grade
reports from the university never indicated that he owed the
bursar of the school any money, or got behind in paying his
tuition.
Joyner spent most of his time studying and participating
in the Philanthropic Society debates. Due to his
preoccupation in his studies, he hardly took time to write
home . Joyner’s Aunt Ebb provided him with news from his
family in La Grange; on one occasion she said, "We hardly
ever hear from you or your brother John. The least you can
25
do is send us a telegram to let us know how you are
doing. ,,68 His studious efforts certainly paid off, and as a
result he completed a four year degree in only three years.
His brother John did not graduate from the university.
After he studied there for two years, he returned to La
Grange and worked in one of the local stores as a
69
merchant.
In May 1881, a month before Joyner was to graduate, he
received a letter from his brother John indicating that he
was much pleased to learn that Joyner had been one of the
speakers selected to deliver an address at the commencement.
He told Joyner that he had written a letter to him "but had
not mailed it advising" Joyner "to come home and not accept
their old diploma since they would not allow" Joyner "to
speak. " Concerning this matter John told him, "All is well
that ends well. ii 70
Joyner was one of ten of the speakers chosen by the
7 1
faculty from the graduating class of thirty-one. 0 n
commencement day he delivered a speech entitled "Self
Government." In this speech he presented a very arousing
and patriotic discourse in defense of a democracy. He
declared : "The progress of society has been the purpose of
government . All government is or should be, the
„72
servant of the people—not the master.
General Edward Mallet of Fayetteville, a member of the
class of 1818, delivered the commencement address. In this
26
speech he said, " . . the most miserable and useless
position a man can be placed in is when he has nothing to
d t» 7 3o . Apparently Joyner was impressed by Mallet's
observation. After leaving Chapel Hill, he began a career
that gave him plenty to do.
CHAPTER III
FROM HEADMASTER TO BARRISTER: 1881-1889
James Yadkin Joyner returned to La Grange after
graduating from the University of North Carolina. Before he
left Chapel Hill, however, he persuaded Kemp P. Battle to
deliver the commencement address at La Grange Academy. On
May 5, 1881 the Kinston Journal reported that Battle planned
1
to address the academy on the 9th of June.
Attending the commencement at the academy with Battle
were Joyner and his cousin, Noah J . Rouse, who graduated
with Joyner at the university. Before Battle addressed the
audience of two hundred at the school, Joyner had the
opportunity of introducing the university president. Joyner
said: "It is my pleasing duty to introduce to you, one who
has for many years been thoroughly identified with the
educational interests of North Carolina." He pointed out
that Battle "fought so valiantly and successfully for the
State Normal Schools" which has "done and will continue to
do a great and noble work for our teachers." Joyner further
recognized his interest in bringing new life to the state
university after the Civil War. He also noted Battle's
achievements in agriculture: "To his untiring efforts the
farmers of North Carolina owe the establishment of the
Agricultural Experiment Station." After Joyner's
introductory remarks, Battle gave a very brief speech on the
28
subject of farmers educating their sons not simply for the
professions but also for "education to make their sons good
farmers." After Battle's speech the headmaster, Joseph
Kinsey announced that he planned to retire after sixteen
years of teaching, and turn the management of his school
"over to Messrs. J. Y. Joyner and N. J. Rouse, formerly his
2
pupils and now graduates of "the university, as well as the
University Normal School.
It must have certainly been an honor for Joyner and
Rouse that Battle traveled seventy-five miles from Chapel
Hill to La Grange, to take part in the commencement
exercises of the academy. Undoubtedly, Battle's presence
helped Joyner to enter smoothly into teaching as he left his
student days at the university behind him.
Although Joyner might have gone into teaching because
it was an easy thing for a college graduate to do, his
enrollment at the University Normal School gives evidence of
his desire to become a professional educator. He and Rouse
attended the normal school at the university in the summer
of 1881.3
The University Normal School has been described as the
"mother of educational ideas and movements in North
Carolina." The faculty at the school effectively instilled
in their students the "compulsion to teach.During its
entire existence at Chapel Hill from 1877 to 1884 it had a
combined enrollment of around 2,500 teachers. The school
29
gave a "boost to the weak teaching profession in the state
and served as a model invitation in other >, 5states. Among
the students who attended the school with Joyner were:
Charles B. Aycock, Edwin A. Alderman and Charles D. Mclver.
They also began their careers by entering the teaching
profession . ^
While these students attended the normal school, the
most influential and enthusiastic member of the school's
faculty was Edward Pearson Moses. A native of Knoxville,
Tennessee, in 1881 he became superintendent of the Goldsboro
graded schools. He later had a profound impact on Joyner,
Mclver, Alderman and others with regard to their careers in
public education.^ Evaluating Moses's influence as a
teacher, Philander Priestley Claxton, a prominent Southern
educator, said: "Alderman, Mclver and I and the other men
of our ages including J . Y . Joyner . . . owed our
inspiration and our zeal to the cause of public education to
Edward Pearson Moses." Claxton added: "Moses was a modern
Pestalozzi the most enthusiastic and inspiring man" he had
"ever known. ,»8
Regarding Joyner's ability to teach, Battle considered
that he had "excellent talents, habits and character . .
well fitted for the conduct of a school of high grade."
Joyner's former mathematics professor, Robert H. Graves
noted that "his thorough preparation and high moral
character fit him in an especial manner for the work of a
30
teacher." And, George T. Winston, Joyner’s Latin professor
at the university said, "his scholarship is very good, and
he possesses a very clear and strong intellect." Winston
added that "he looked forward to his future with great
success" and he considered "a school fortunate to secure his
services. »»9
La Grange Academy was a "spacious two story building,
well plastered and furnished with wall maps and 'triumph
study desks. f IT It opened its doors to students for the fall
session on August 1, 1881 with Joyner and Rouse serving as
the school’s principals. In addition to their
administrative duties, they taught courses in English,
Latin, German, French, mathematics and surveying. The music
teacher, Miss Louise M. Daniel, taught in a separate
building so that the other students might not be distracted
by the sounds while they were preparing their lessons.
Although the school was coed, it did require a division
between the sexes; the males occupied the first floor and
the females the second floor. When it came time for daily
recitations, the male and female students recited together
in the large hall on the first floor.
Charges for tuition ranged from ten to twenty dollars;
music, room and board were extra. Music, including piano,
ten dollars; board, including lights and fuel ranged from
six to ten dollars. The school did not have a dormitory,
but room and board could be obtained in the hotel, or in the
31
10
homes of private families in the community.
Joyner and Rouse had a successful fall term when the
11
school closed on Friday, December 16, 1881. It reopened
for its spring session on Monday, January 1, 1882 "with an
increasing number of pupils." The editor of the Kinston
J o u r n a 1 wished the academy "success to all good
,,12
enterprises .
Besides being a principal and teacher at the academy,
Joyner also delivered speeches to the citizens of La Grange,
in order to raise funds for the school. Joyner told the
citizens: "Good schools add greatly to the prosperity of
any coin and is a proposition which needs no demonstration."
He added: "It is then the duty of every good citizen of
this community to do what he can to build good schools
here ,,13.
Joyner enjoyed his administrative and teaching duties
at the academy. He later recalled that many of his pupils
at the academy had been his "schoolmates in former days and
some of whom were older and much larger than" he. He
commented that due to those factors anyone could "well
imagine the embarrassment" of his position as teacher of
14
those pupils.
I n 1 8 8 2 , due to the success he had achieved as
headmaster of the academy, the voters of Lenoir County
elected him to become their county superintendent of public
instruction. Only twenty years old, he became the youngest
32
superintendent of the public schools in Lenoir County,
succeeding William N. Harper, the county's first
superintendent. Joyner easily served as headmaster of the
academy and superintendent of Lenoir County schools, since
the public school system was almost non-existent at that
15
date.
When the academy began its fall session in 1882 , Noah
J . Rouse, Joyner's colleague, began studying law at the
16
University of North Carolina. Joyner then secured Henry
Horace Williams, later a professor at the University of
North Carolina, to assist him in his teaching duties at the
academy. That same year La Grange Academy changed its name
to the Collegiate Institute, in order to indicate that the
school was preparing its pupils not only for life but also
for college.
While Joyner was teaching at the school he fell in love
with Effie Rouse, one of his pupils, who was also his
childhood sweetheart in La Grange. In a letter to Effie he
recalled their courtship:
I was a teacher and you were my pupil, Soon
it began to dawn upon me tht you were the teacher
and I was the pupil. . . When as guiless
children we used to trudge to school, Even then
considerably older than you, still whenever I
gazed into your liquid eyes, or heard your musical
laughter, or listened to the soft sweet melody of
your voice my heart beat faster and faster as if
new life had been imparted to it. The reasons for
this I did not then know, Time passed on, I then
entered college, I did not think that I loved
anyone, but I found myself thinking of thee
frequently . I was the pupil. Unconsciously,
33
unintentjynally, you were teaching me the lessons
of love.
Joyner and Effie Rouse had a beautiful courtship that
lasted six years, culminating in marriage in December, 1887.
During their courtship, the two corresponded often and
expressed their views about many issues that affected them.
In 1883 Effie attended the Peace Institute, now Peace
College in Raleigh. While a student there, she wrote
Joyner: "It is useless to tell you, but contrary to my
wishes, but final duty directs my actions. Ma says I must
not correspond with any young man while I am at school."
She added: "Ma has no idea how much pain she has caused
,.18
me . In response to her letter, Joyner replied: "My
heart overflowed with joy when I learned that your heart was
still faithful, and that in stopping our corrspondence you
were but acting in obedience to the highest earthly
authority." He went on to say, "I wonder if elderly people
forget they „ 19that too were young once. Despite Effie’s
mother's warning that she should cease writing to Joyner,
the two continued their correspondence.
After teaching at the academy and serving as
superintendent of the schools in Lenoir County for two
years, Joyner had doubts about remaining in the field of
teaching. He told Effie, "Somehow or another I can't get
the consent of my mind to live the life of a teacher."
During his leisure time he read Blackstone and other legal
34
works. Contemplating the decision to give up teaching in
order to study law, he told Effie that "even though the
field of law is overcrowded, just as every field is
overcrowded," but he believed that true success depended on
hard work and if applied correctly, it could be achieved in
20
every field.
Although Joyner had an interest in studying law in the
fall of 1884, in October of that year he accepted a teaching
position at the graded schools in Winston, now
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Joyner’s old classmate and
friend Charles D. Mclver was a superintendent and teacher at
the school. Calvin Henderson Wiley, North Carolina's first
superintendent of public instruction was chairman of the
school board. Undoubtedly Joyner accepted the position due
to the fact that Mclver taught at the school. Wiley's
assistant Julius Tomlinson wrote: "Mr. Charles D. Mclver
whom I think you know is my only male assistant and I desire
another. ,,21 Tomlinson taught at the normal school at Chapel
Hill before joining Calvin Wiley in his work at the Winston
22
graded schools.
On October 14, 1884 Joyner sent Calvin Wiley a telegram
stating that he planned to "report for duty Monday morning,
business prevents earlier arrival until absolutely
„ 2 3
necessary . Although he arrived in Winston after a
tiresome journey, his initial impressions were very
favorable. His first thrill of joy occurred when Mclver
35
told him that the graded schools planned to take vacation
days on Thursday and Fridays so that pupils and teachers
could attend the state fair in Raleigh. This trip also gave
him the opportunity to see Effie Rouse, who also planned to
24
be at the fair.
jThe graded schools originated in the large cities
throughout North Carolina. The first graded school in this
state perhaps started in Greensboro in 1875, but it
continues to be a debatable proposition. The dubious origin
of these schools arises from the fact that initially many of
them existed only temporarily. The support for the graded
schools came directly from taxes levied in the cities, and
some cities supported both black and white graded schools.
Graded schools opened in Raleigh in 1875; in Goldsboro,
Durham and Wilson in 1881; and Winston in 1884. By 1900
only thirty graded schools existed in the cities and towns
throughout the state. Usually, the term for these schools
ran for about eight months. The teachers assigned the
pupils to each grade according to their achievement and age.
Therefore these schools represented dramatic educational
progress and success to the pupils enrolled in them; and
contrasted sharply with the average rural single room school
25
which had only one teacher to teach all the pupils.
The school term at the Winston graded schools ran for
nine and a half months, and the length of the school day was
seven hours. Teachers taught acdemic subjects for five
36
hours, and during the remaining hours students participated
in recreational activities. Recreation was an important
activity of these graded schools, and many educators often
observed the pupils perform calisthenics in the school’s
auditorium, "as though t» 2 6it were a novel scene.
While at the Winston graded schools, Joyner taught
classes in mathemtics and German and received a salary of
fifty-six dollars per month. Even though he enjoyed
teaching there and working with his close friend Mclver, he
still had ambitions to attend law school. In February 1885
William R. Allen, an attorney in Goldsboro who later became
27
a State Supreme Court Judge, told Joyner that together
they could "work up a good practice." He added: "We would
not step into a fortune but I see no reason why we could not
finally command a leading it 2 8practice.
Joyner's Aunt Ebb was married to William Turner
Faircloth, an attorney in Goldsboro, who also practiced with
Allen . Faircloth later became a chief justice of the North
29
Carolina Supreme Court. While teaching in Winston,
Joyner's Aunt Ebb supplied him with news from home, and gave
him advice as to what to read in the legal field during his
spare time. On one occasion she wrote: "Have you read
Judge Read's address before the Bar at Asheville last
Summer ? If you have not get it from some of the Lawyers in
Winston. There is some good advice in it for young
Lawyers. „30
37
In March 1885 Joyner received an offer from Charles 0.
Daniels to buy the Kinston Free Press. Daniels wrote: "I
write to sell out the Free Press and I write to know if you
would not like to buy The Free Press has 1200
circulations, an advertising patronage of about $1,000 a
year; a fair office, a good power press and type for a first
class newspaper." He said Joyner had nothing to lose if he
bought the Kinston Free Press. Daniels added that Joyner
could practice his "profession and run the Free Press
n 3 1
too. The Kinston Free Press began operating in Kinston
in April 1882. The editors of the newspaper were two
brothers, Josephus and Charles 0. Daniels. Josephus later
obtained fame when he became the editor and publisher of the
Raleigh News and Observer. In 1886 William S. Herbert
32
purchased half interest in the Kinston Free Press. Even
though Charles 0. Daniels offered Joyner the opportunity to
buy the newspaper, his reason for declining Daniels' offer
stemmed perhaps from his plans to study law.
In the summer of 1885 Joyner left Winston and accepted
the job of training teachers in the summer normal school in
Washington, North Carolina. The legislature in 1885
discontinued the summer normal school at the University of
North Carolina, and with its two-thousand dollar
appropriation it helped create four additional normal
schools at Boone, Asheville, Winston and Washington. By
doing this the legislature "expanded its commitment to
38
teacher education without a concurrent increase in financial
33
support" for the normal schools.
In July, Joyner received the following letter from
Mclver: "I wanted you to know that the board elected you to
your former salary. . . . Come and be here at my marriage
on the 29th." He added: "Everybody is anxious for you to
return to Winston and even if you do not return here the
expense of a visit will be well invested. tt 3 4 Unfortunately,
Joyner could not make it on time to Mclver's wedding due to
delayed trains. He did, however, have the pleasure of
seeing Mclver and his new bride in Greensboro before they
were to leave on their honeymoon to Sanford. Joyner told
Effie that he was doubly glad to see Mclver, he "was glad to
see him for his own sake and more so because he bore a
letter from" her. In reference to his re-election at the
Winston graded schools he told Effie that he feared that
"they will make" him teach there "another year by main
force" not withstanding the fact that he declined the
position. He added that "the board re-elected" him "to a
considerably increased salary" and when he still declined
the board wished to know what he would return for. Joyner
hoped that Effie would not think him conceited if he did not
35
return to Winston.
Despite his refusal to return to Winston, Calvin Wiley
and Julius Tomlinson continued to pressure Joyner to return.
Together Wiley and Tomlinson hoped to induce him by offering
39
more money. Tomlinson said: "It is needless for me to
repeat to you that I am highly pleased with your work and
with yourself as an associate. I think you can let law wait
longer. ii 3 6a year or so Wiley told Joyner that he had "a
personal as well as a strong public reason for wishing to
retain" him. He stated that one of his sons was bent on the
decision to be in Joyner’s room, and Wiley commented that he
"would either prepare him at home than send him to an
indifferent teacher. We have fixed the beginning of next
session for September 14th and have not filled your place at
my suggestion, your name will be put on our records and a
copy sent. When shall we mail it to you? Professor
Tomlinson is very anxious to hear from you and offers twenty
dollars out of his own pocket towards „37your salary.
Joyner must have been flattered by Wiley’s and
Tomlinson’s interest in retaining him. However, even
Tomlinson's offer to give him a twenty dollar per month
salary increase had no effect as far as influencing him to
return to the Winston graded schools.
In the fall of 1885 Joyner began studying law in the
Dick and Dillard Law School in Greensboro, North Carolina.
As a proprietary law school, it was typical of the majority
of law schools throughout the country in the nineteenth
century . Even so, many of the other professional schools
including medicine, dentistry and pharmacy existed as
proprietary schools, and were slow in developing educational
40
38
reforms.
Judges Robert Paine Dick and John Henry Dillard
conducted the school in their law firm located on North Elm
Street in Greensboro. It has been noted that while the
school existed it offered the best legal training of any law
school in that section of the state. The school operated
for twenty years and prepared over three hundred young men
for the North Carolina bar examination. The school closed
at the death of its leaders, Dillard, who died in 1896, and
39
Dick, who died in 1898.
Judge Dick was a staunch Republican and he told his law
students that "order was heaven's first law." He often said
that "no amount of undigested information could take the
place of clear and serious thinking. tt 40 Judge Dillard, on
the other hand, was a Democrat. Both he and Judge Dick
served for many years as judges of the North Carolina
41
Supreme Court and the District Court of the United States.
During Joyner's first week at the law school he told
Effie that he had "two recitations daily six days in the
week." Concerning these recitations he said he recited only
passibly. He then recounted for Effie a compliment that
Judge Dillard paid him concerning his recitations: "By the
way I must tell you a compliment old Judge Dillard paid me
the other night — in talking with Harris. It is so
characteristic of this man. Said the Judge: Harris whose
this fellow Joyner anyhow? Were you in college with him?
41
Good student ain’t he? He’s going to be a bad colt in the
law after he stays here awhile. „42
While studying law in Grensboro, Joyner gave up pipe
smoking at Effie’s insistence. He told her that for nearly
three weeks he had ’’not touched a pipe.” He said: ’’Was it
for your sake that I abandoned the habit." He then
described to her the scene of throwing his pipe into a
blazing fire in the fireplace in his room. "The victim was
placed upon the funeral pile, the torch was applied and in
the hurried glare of the hissing crackling flames appeared
the dim outline of a wasted wierd ghastly ’pipe stem’. It
was mine, without a sigh or a moan, I saw it reduced to
ashes, and turned away a wiser and a better man." He then
composed an epitaph:
Here lies the pipe of J. Y. J.
It will never be smoked another day.
Gently it dropped from the^eed root stem,
a victim of a ladies whim.
Joyner enjoyed studying law and due to his success
Fannie B. Cox, a teacher in the Winston graded schools
wrote: "It is pleasant to know that you are so well
satisfied with your profession, my earnest hope is that it
n 4 4
may lead you to wealth, fame and happiness. On another
occasion William R. Allen an attorney in Goldsboro wrote:
"I have been hearing good reports from you lately and have
no doubt you will bring your license with you week after
„45
next. Keep cool and you have nothing to fear.
After only five months of studying law in the Dick and
42
Dillard Law School, Joyner passed the North Carolina bar,
administered by the State Supreme Court in Raleigh. He then
became associated with the law firm of Faircloth and Allen
in Goldsboro. Hence the firm became known as Faircloth,
Allen and Joyner. He argued his first case, which dealt
with assault and battery, before Mr. Murchison, the Justice
of the Peace in La Grange. Concerning his first legal case
he said: "I defended and won. The town turned out to hear
my maiden speech. Luke Russell was my client. He was
jubilant over the victory. It was an amusing case. I began
with the constitution and came down with the code for which
I knew anything about. t»46
Goldsboro, the seat of Wayne County, had a population
between three and four thousand while Joyner lived there
4 7
during the 1880s. His law practice in that town kept him
quite busy since the law firm had eight cases before the
North Carolina Supreme Court. Being so busy, he spent many
48
days in the courtroom representing clients. Although, the
partners won most of the cases they represented, sometimes
they were not so lucky. Joyner commented to Effie that "the
Judge and Allen have been sick in body and mind ever since
their return from Snow Hill. Their defeat in the McDougald
suit was a severe blow to them. Uncle William and
Allen are somewhat more cheerful now." According to Joyner
they became cheerful when they "won a big suit against the
Wilmington and Weldon R.R. . . . obtaining judgement for
43
"their client for $2,850 dollars, a penalty for the
railroads failure to ship twenty seven bags of rice for
their client. ,,49
Joyner, being sympathetic toward his clients, took on
some cases that many of the lawyers in Goldsboro desired not
to handle. One such case involved a black farmer who could
not get any attorney in that town to represent him. Joyner
was his last resort. The farmer had about eighty acres of
land about to be sold under a mortgage. "The mortgage was
given to secure the payment of about two hundred dollars, a
good part of which" his client "claimed had been paid." The
client "was willing to sell part of the land and settle the
claim but the holder of the mortgage brought up some old
notes against" his client, The client then wanted to sell
his land and "take out of the proceeds which of course he
had no right to do." Joyner added: The mortgagee was an
oppressive Shylock and was bent upon gobbeling up the
negro's land." Joyner then presented the mortgagee with
these facts and convinced him not to sell his client's
property . The black farmer was then able to keep his
property without sacrificing any of it toward the
mortgagee's fictitious claim.
Although Joyner could be sympathetic to his clients, he
indicated to Effie that he was becoming mean since he joined
the "much cussed profession. Took a warrant out on a client
who failed to pay a claim owing to the firm. When the
44
warrant was served on the client, the client then decided to
„51
pay .
While practicing law, he kept his sleeping quarters in
the rear of the office. He told Effie that "I commenced
keeping house . . or rather I have had my sleeping
apartment fixed up in the rear of the office and shall spend
my nights there in the future. ** 5 2 He was an early riser,
and most of the time the town had not fully awakened when he
53
began preparing his cases.
Charles B. Aycock practiced law in Goldsboro along with
Joyner . Aycock was a very good lawyer and when they were on
a case together, the expression they often used when they
i*54
got through with a case was "we cleaned them up. On one
occasion, Aycock and Joyner took time from their busy law
practices to see the circus that was in town. Joyner
remarked: "Aycock came along and he and I were the only
lawyers left in lawyer's row accept Uncle William." Aycock
persuaded Joyner to go with him to the circus so that Joyner
could "keep **55the anxiety of animals off Aycock. One night
when Joyner and Aycock arrived from a trip late in the
evening, they discovered an intoxicated man in front of
Joyner's law office. Joyner told Effie that "with Aycock's
assistance I have just been extricated from a peculiar
predicament. When we returned, behold a drunken fellow
beastly drunk was stretched across my office door.
Fortunately the door was locked. They then persuaded the
45
man to seek other ,.56quarters.
Joyner became a member of the prohibition club in
Goldsboro in May 1886. He joined the club expecting to do
what he could for the expulsion of liquor from Goldsboro.
He told Effie that "after due consideration he took the
stand on the side of prohibition." He added: "It may not
be the popular side with the masses but it is the right
side . It is a moral it 5 7question that must be met. When the
town of Goldsboro voted on local option. "It was a hard
fought battle resulting in a majority of forty nine for
liquor." Therefore Goldsboro stayed wet. Concerning
Goldsboro’s failure to pass local option, Joyner commented
to Effie that, "in meeting it there is but one question for
a gentleman to ask himself--is it right or wrong? I shall
ever strike liquor a blow whenever the opportunity presents
itself „58.
Joyner served as a marshall in the Spring Races held in
Goldsboro in May of 1886. Over three hundred people were
present at the event to see all types of carriages and
buggies race. With respect to his duties as marshal, Joyner
said: "I was there assigned the highly honorable duties of
keeping the rings in position." He told Effie: "I am truly
glad you did not come to see me make a dunce of myself. I
never wore a ribbon before and if I retain my senses I'll
„59
never wear another.
He delivered political speeches for the Democratic
46
party in the surrounding towns of Goldsboro. He gave one of
these speeches to the citizens in Grantham township, Joyner
told Effie that "there was a big crowd present. The crowd
was generous enough to give three cheers for Joyner at the
close of my speech. h 60 Concerning his political ambitions
he told Effie that he was "ready and willing . . . to do
what lies in" his "power for the causes of the grand old
Democratic party," but he did not expect his speeches "to
make a single vote for two reasons. Nobody knows me and not
one political speech in a hundred makes a political
i» 61
convert.
He also had the opportunity to deliver the commencement
address at some of the surrounding high schools. D. T. St.
Clair, the principal at Jones County High School invited
Joyner to speak at his school's commencement. St. Clair
wrote: "You have been a school man and no doubt law does
not take your thoughts entirely away from the educational
interests of our country so I invite you to deliver the
address before ray school. „62 Joyner accepted. Referring to
the speech he delivered at the school, he said, "It seems to
m e the babies must have cried out all the good there was in
,,63
my speech.
Although Joyner enjoyed practicing law, he was
beginning to miss the classroom. In June of 1886 he saw
some of his old friends from his teaching days stop in
Goldsboro on their way to the North Carolina Teachers’
47
Assembly to be held at Black Mountain, North Carolina. In a
letter to Effie, Joyner wrote: "Saw the Black Mt. crowd.
Good to see old acquainta i nces , but they were leaving
without me. ... In closing my letter I return to the dull
64
routine of office life.
Joyner continued to practice law with enthusiasm. The
editor of "La Grange Items" noted that "Mr. J. Y. Joyner of
your city was in town last week. We were requested to
state, that Mr. Joyner was prosecuting a sait [sic] with
much enthusiasm—several miles from it 6 5town. He found the
summers to be dull. Concerning this fact, he said, "Quiet
reigns in our city now. It is unusually dull here in all
circles." The lawyers "are not annoyed now by clamoring
clients. There is already a distressing lull in legal
circles, foretelling M 6 6what the summer will be.
Since Joyner was not very busy in the summer months, he
started working as a normal school conductor. Sidney
Michael Finger, state superintendent of public instruction
wrote: "I am glad you accept the place of instruction to
the normal not alone because of your efficiency in such work
but because I think it will be pleasant for you and Prof.
„67
Kennedy to work together. He conducted the Franklin
normal school along with Edwin W. Kennedy, superintendent of
the Durham graded schools. The school started on July 6 and
ended August 2, 1887 ; it enrolled a total of 386 teachers
and had an average daily attendance of 127. Joyner taught
48
68
courses in mathematics, reading and elocution.
While at the institute Joyner presented a lecture to
the citizens of Franklin. The editor of the Franklin Press
reported, "Prof. Joyner read well. It is not often one has
the opportunity to listen to one who brings out so
handsomely and distinctly the „69sense of the author.
In the summer of 1887 Joyner became a member of the
North Carolina Teacher's Assembly. The president of the
organization was Edwin A. Alderman; he resided in Goldsboro,
where he served as superintendent of the Goldsboro graded
70
schools . In the fall of 1887, due to Joyner's growing
interest in education, the voters of Wayne County elected
him to serve as chairman of the county board of education.
71
He held this position from 1887 through 1889.
Joyner and Effie began making plans to marry in the
fall of 1887. Joyner wrote Effie concerning their plans:
"I heard from Kinston through a reliable source that Miss
Effie Rouse was to be married to a young lawyer of Goldsboro
on the 14th of December. ,,72 Three weeks before the wedding
date Joyner wrote: "You ask if I still think it best that
we marry, this winter. My darling, I can not answer for
„ 73
you, but I know it to be the best for me.
On December 14, 1887 James Yadkin Joyner and Effie
Rouse were married in the Baptist Church in La Grange.
Effie was the daughter of Noah H. Rouse, a prominent farmer
in Lenoir County. She was also the sister of Noah J. Rouse
49
and Tom J. Rouse, who were also Joyner’s classmates at the
74
university.
One year after their marriage Effie gave birth to a boy
named James Noah Joyner. When his son was less than one day
old, Joyner wrote: "Kiss mama for me and tell her to take
good it 75care of herself and you.
CHAPTER IV
A RETURN TO EDUCATION: 1889-1902
After only three years as a practicing attorney, Joyner
left the Goldsboro law firm of Allen and Faircloth in the
spring of 1889. He also resigned his position as chairman
of the Board of Trustees of the Wayne County public schools
in order to seek election to the superintendency of the
Goldsboro graded schools Edwin A. Alderman had recently
vacated the position as superintendent of the schools and
became a full-time institute conductor for the Department of
2
Public Instruction.
Charles B. Aycock, chairman of the Board of Trustees of
the Goldsboro graded schools, undoubtedly had Joyner in mind
for the superintendency. In any case, he received letters
of recommendation on Joyner's behalf from Charles D. Melver,
a professor at Peace Institute, Sidney M. Finger, state
superintendent of public instruction, and George T. Winston,
professor of Latin at the University of North Carolina.
Mclver wrote: "It is a pleasure to teach pupils prepared
for our institution by Mr. Joyner, and I can say that his
old pupils have always shown that their early instruction
3
was of the very best kind." Finger wrote: "I do not think
that any mistake will be made if he is put in charge of the
Goldsboro Schools. u 4 Winston's favorable recommendation
characterized Joyner not only as a successful teacher of
51
youth but also as a scholar.^
Concerning Joyner's decision to give up the practice of
law and return to teaching Mclver wrote, "It is with
pleasure that I see a prospect of you coming back to our
good old profession. I am satisfied that you are coming into
the profession again, it would be for the good of education
in the state." Mclver then told Joyner that he was
delighted in hoping that the school board elect him.
On April 28, 1889, the Raleigh News and Observer
reported that Joyner had been elected superintendent of the
graded schools at Goldsboro.^ Edward Pearson Moses,
superintendent of the Raleigh graded schools, upon hearing
the news that Joyner had been elected to that position,
wrote: "I can with all good faith extend to you the hand of
fraternal greeting and assure you of my very best wishes for
your new field of labor." He added that the "public school
efficiently conducted is the greatest instrument for
elevating humanity ever devised by human thought. But very
much is still to be done everywhere. All of us young men
who are called to take responsible positions in such work
8
certainly have cause to feel honored." j
It was Edward P. Moses'j zeal and enthusiasm for public
education that caused Joyner to give up his law practice and
return to teaching. Moses also influenced Charles D. Mclver
to give up the study of law and he began teaching in the
schools in Durham. jit has been noted that no man in the
52
South besides ^abez Lamar Monroe Curry influenced more men
and women to go into school work other than Moses. He also
influenced Alderman, Aycock, Noble, Philander Priestley
Claxton, and Julius Issac Foust to work toward building up
the public schools of North Carolina when for men the
9
teaching profession was hardly considered respectable.
Concerning Moses' enthusiasm, Joyner told Effie a few years
earlier that he had seen Moses in Raleigh and upon seeing
him his heart was beating "faster and faster. ..10
Not only did Moses win men and women over to public
education but he was also the first superintendent of the
Goldsboro graded schools, having been called there from
Knoxville, Tennessee by J. L. M. Curry. Curry, a member of
the Peabody Board, was instrumental in establishing the
Goldsboro graded schools. He attended the Baptist
Convention that met in Goldsboro in 1880. While there, he
delivered a firey speech on education that deeply stirred
the people. Julius A. Bonitz, editor of the Goldsboro
Messenger, heard Curry’s speech and led the campaign for the
graded schools in the city, i The General Assembly in 1881
approved a special act that enabled towns and cities to
develop graded schools. Therefore the General Assembly's
decision made it possible for Goldsboro to levy a tax which
resulted in the development of the town's graded schools.
At twenty-four Moses began his four year tenure as
superintendent of the schools. While he was there the
53
Goldsboro Graded Schools developed statewide attention. In
1885 Moses’ success led him to Raleigh to help build up the
11
graded school system in the state's capital city.
Edwin A. Alderman, a teacher at the Goldsboro graded
schools, became Moses' successor, and when Alderman resigned
in 1889, the board of trustees of the graded schools
attributed him "with having placed the schools of Goldsboro,
t» 1 2
among the first of their kind in the country. When
Joyner became superintendent of the graded schools, he
evidently knew that filling Alderman's position would not be
an easy task. Joyner, however, was quick to try. Shortly
after taking office, Andrew Roscower, energetic editor of
the Headlight, a popular Goldsboro newspaper noted for its
coverage of the local news characterized him as an
"efficient superintendent. „13
The graded school facilities consisted of three school
buildings, one for the whites and two for the blacks. The
value of the school property in 1888 exceeded twenty-five
thousand dollars. The tax levied to support these schools
was three-fifths of one percent per one hundred dollars
property evaluation, and a poll tax also contributed to its
support . In 1888 the school officials raised over six
thousand dollars through the 14,taxes to support the schools.
Besides Joyner's yearly duties as superintendent of the
graded schools, he began working as a state institute
conductor in the summer of 1889. iThat year the General
54
Assembly abolished the summer normal schools for white
teachers in which Joyner had taught during the summers of
1885 and 1887. County institutes replaced those normal
schools and the state employed Edwin A. Alderman and Charles
D. Mclver as two full-time institute conductors. They were
responsible for conducting an institute every year for the
white teachers in each of the state's ninety-six counties.^
These county institutes had five aims according to
S. M. Finger, state superintendent of public instruction:
(1) to improve teachers mainly in the methods of teaching;
(2) to improve school houses and furnishings; (3) to inspire
confidence and make friends for public education; (4) to
secure the help of influential friends in the neighborhoods;
(5) to induce the people to give aid to their school funds
16
through private or public subscription. J
Other institute conductors who helped supplement the
work of Alderman and Mclver between the summers of 1889 and
1892 included: E. P. Moses, Alexander Graham, John J.
Blair, Edward Hughes and Edwin W. Kennedy, as well as
Joyner. These men often worked in teams of two men each.
Sometimes a team only conducted two institutes, and other
times a "team might conduct as many as eight" institutes in
17
one summer .
Joyner conducted teacher training institutes in
Currituck, Camden and Pasquotank counties during the summer
of 1889. While he worked in these northeastern counties,
55
his wife wrote: "I have been very much displeased since you
left by being told that those counties to which you go to
are not healthful. I think it would be an excellent idea if
you would take hot lemonade every morning before
breakfast. ,,18
Joyner taught his sessions on a weekly basis in the
county courthouses. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, he
taught courses in school administration, classroom
discipline and methods of teaching history, geography,
reading, spelling, arithmetic and English. On Thursday he
spent his time examining those teachers who desired
three-year state teacher’s certificates. The most important
day of institute week was Friday when the people in the
community flocked to hear speeches concerning ways they
could improve, as well as support, their public schools.
This day was the "people's day." Joyner and the other
conductors tried to get as large an audience as possible to
19
receive the gospel of public education. j
With regard to the teacher's examination, Finger told
Joyner to obtain the results in any way he chose. "The
applicants must satisfy you then they are sufficient." He
added: "Moses, Alderman, Mclver and Noble" were "all
20
encouraged by good attendance."
Naturally Alderman and Mclver conducted the greatest
number of institutes. Although they differed greatly in
public speaking and personality, together they complemented
56
one another . Joyner, a friend to both men, assessed the
differences in their speaking results: "A charmed audience
came away from an Alderman speech nodding its head and
saying ’What a wonderful address.' An aroused audience came
away from a Mclver speech figuratively rolling up its
sleeves and saying 'What can we do to help Professor
Mclver ? , IT 2 1
Joyner earned two hundred and fifty dollars for his
institute work in the summer of 1889; out of his total
earnings he had to pay his room, board, and travel expenses.
Finger acknowledged Joyner's success by saying, "Accept my
thanks for the excellent work »»22you did.
The Goldsboro graded schools opened for the fall
session on the 20th of September. Joyner reported to the
local newspaper that "it is very important that all children
attend on Friday and Monday, and parents are urged to see to
23
it that their children attend on those days."
While Joyner was superintendent of the graded schools
he made it his duty to hire the best teachers. He also
spent most of his time holding meetings for the teachers.
Regarding these meetings he said:
. . . we have discussed and studied the best
methods of teaching the different branches of
study, and of developing the child's mind and
character, and the principles underlying these
methods. Our aim has been to discover true
principles and to build for ourselves methods
based upon those principles that were adapted to
our environment. We have not insisted on cut and
dried methods, but we have insisted rather upon
57
the recognition of certain great fundamental
principles that underlie all true methods of
teaching, giving latitude for the display of the
teacher's individuality in methods. Destroy the
teacher's individuality, and you transform her
into a mere machine, and she, in turn, will
transform the children into machines, and in t^e
school-room will be lacking the breath of life. ?
It was Joyner's opinion that many people misunderstood
the worth of a teacher. He also believed that teaching was
not a job that just anyone could do. According to Joyner, a
true teacher "taught with his life. Like the great teacher
he must give his life, in love, for the children."
Illustrating his position on the true teacher he stated,
"Upon the altar of the heart of such a teacher, there burns
the fire of that almighty love, whose only thought is the
uplifting of the ignorant and suffering masses of his
fellowmen to a higher plane of usefulness and happiness,
2 5\
through the beneficient power of education."
He believed that a school without a good library was
inadequate . Therefore, he raised money for the graded
school's library by soliciting the support of prominent
citizens of Goldsboro. Among the citizens who gave
generously to his library fund was Henry Weil, a wealthy
Goldsboro businessman. With Weil's and other citizen's
contributions, he was able to purchase two hundred volumes
26
each year for the school's library.
Joyner also made a special effort to involve prominent
North Carolina citizens in the activities of the Goldsboro
58
graded schools. Cornelia Phillips Spencer, at Joyner’s
request, wrote a special cantata for the children to sing at
the decinnial celebration of the graded schools in May 1891.
Joyner then thanked Cornelia Spencer for the songs, and
recognized her as being for many years "a staunch and able
friend of public education, of everything that makes for the
good of the Old North State. f Tf
27
He also extended an
invitation to Judge Walter Clark of the North Carolina
Supreme Court, to attend the school's Columbus Day
celebration. Joyner wrote Clark: "I write to earnestly
request that you will assist us by giving us an address on
some appropriate subject of your own selection. ,,28
Besides his duties as superintendent, Joyner actively
participated in civic and social organizations in Goldsboro.
29
He became a deacon at the First Baptist Church in 1888,
and he also served for a number of years as a member of the
town council. In 1890 he served as secretary to the
Goldsboro alumni group of the University of North Carolina.
In May 1891, only ten years after he graduated from the
university, Kemp Battle invited him to deliver the
University Address at Chapel Hill. The subject of his
address was "Edgar „30Allan Poe.
In the summers of 1890 and 1891, Joyner continued his
work as an institute conductor, but took a vacation in the
summer of 1892. He told Mclver: "Mrs. Joyner and I spent
the past month in Lenoir. I have taken more rest of mind
59
and body this summer than for years and I have thoroughly
enjoyed it. „31 By this time the Joyners were the parents of
two sons. The younger, named William, was born the previous
spring ; the elder son named James was born in the winter of
1888.
While Joyner worked as an institute conductor in Duplin
County during the summer of 1890 , he received a very
encouraging letter from Superintendent Finger: "No doubt
you have noticed that the state Farmers' Alliance passed a
resolution to increase the school fund 25%, and that the
Democratic State Convention moved in the same direction. rt 3 2
Indeed it was the Farmers' Alliance and the teacher
institutes that centered their attention in the neglected
needs of rural North Carolina. Counties that had strong
Farmers t Alliance chapters provided support and
encouragement to the cause of public education. Conversely,
counties having no chapters provided the least support.\ The
Farmers' Alliance also began to exert its political
influence in the General Assembly in 1891; this session
became known as the "Farmers' Alliance Legislature. »»3 3
Certainly February 18, 1891 represented a milestone for
Mclver, Alderman, Joyner, and the other institute
conductors, when the General Assembly approved a resolution
to establish the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial
School for Women. The idea to develop a state-supported
institution to educate women came from the North Carolina
60
Teachers' Assembly which met at Black Mountain in the summer
of 1886. In 1889 the Teachers' Assembly presented a bill to
establish a state normal to the General Assembly. The
Senate approved the bill by a large majority, but it failed
in the House only by a few votes. In 1890 the Farmers'
Alliance expressed interest and passed a resolution
recommending that the state make provisions to provide
higher public education for women. Undoubtedly the Farmers '
Alliance provided the necessary support to get the General
Assembly to establish the State Normal and Industrial School
34
for Women.
Charles D. Mclver and Edwin A. Alderman, as institute
conductors, achieved statewide attention in their efforts to
bring the issue of the state normal school to the people.
In June of 1882 the state Board of Directors met in
Greensboro where the school was to be built and unanimously
elected Mclver president of the school. The Board of
Directors also selected Alderman to become the school's
first professor of English and history. Thus, the s tate
recognized the hard work these two men had done for North
Carolina in getting the State Normal and Industrial School
35
established.
A few months before the State Normal and Industrial
School was to open in October 1882, Joyner wrote Mclver:
"Several Goldsboro girls expect to enter your institution.
If I had the money several others would go." He added:
61
"Mrs. Joyner sent by mail a bundle of sundry articles of
apparel to Mrs. Mclver" to add to the supplies of the
36
school.
When the State Normal and Industrial School opened it
was not without critics. One such critic was Eugene G.
Harrell, editor of the Teacher, "who had worked along-side
of Mclver for the new institution." But later Harrell
became critical of the school and the work Mclver was doing
37
there. Harrell's discontent for Mclver increased and he
then tried to gain support from the superintendents in the
state's graded schools to discredit Mclver. Harrell wrote
Joyner: "The directors of the Normal and Industrial School
at Greensboro state that the institution is doing only the
normal and industrial work which it was chartered to do, by
the legislature; which statement is denied by many friends
of the school." Harrell then wanted Joyner to give his
38
views on the matter. Joyner heatedly replied:
I desire to say that I believe that The
Normal and Industrial School of Greensboro is
doing all that its most sanguine friends could
expect of it and all that its bitterest critics
and enemies could demand of it at this early
period of history.
I believe that the work of the institution
has been started along the right lines to
accomplish the purpose of its creation and to
carry out the spirit of the law creating it.
I have confidence enough in the ability and
conscientousness of the President of the
institution and the trustees to believe that it
will continue to be conducted in such a manner as
to accomplish the purposes whereinto it will be
62
enlarged and its usefulness increased as
circumstances and funds permit.
We teachers have labored long and hard for
the establishment of such an institution, let us
not now cripple it in its very infancy by
premaJyire critics. Give it a chance to live and
grow.
Harrell never published Joyner’s letter in the Teacher.
In June, the matter came to a halt when Harrell stated in
the Teacher, "We have closed our discussion of the Normal
and Industrial School for the „40present. Joyner later
recounted the situation to Mclver, "What I did was a
pleasure. I felt that it was a duty to an institution that
promises so much for our profession and for the young women
of our state." In response to Harrell's statement in the
Teacher Joyner added, "I suppose the fight is off now.
Harrell seems to have slipped out of a hole which he made
for himself by lying. It seems to me that he has stultified
himself. He has no sympathizers here. ,.41
Joyner's close friendship with Mclver led him to his
next position. In June, 1893 Alderman resigned his position
as professor of history and philosophy of education to
become a professor of history at the University of North
42
Carolina. The board of directors of the State Normal and
Industrial School met and, upon Mclver's recommendation,
they elected Joyner to serve as professor of English at the
Normal and Industrial School. Once again Joyner followed in
Alderman's footsteps, as he had done when he became
63
43
superintendent of the Goldsboro graded schools.
Charles B. Aycock, chairman of the Board of Trustees
acknowledged Joyner as being "an ideal superintendent, and
he carries with him from us all, not only our respect and
best wishes, but our sincere affection." Upon Joyner's
resignation, the board of trustees of the Goldsboro graded
schools unanimously adopted the following resolutions in his
honor:
RESOLVED 1. That while the board congratulates
the people of North Carolina upon securing the
services of one so well fitted to discharge the
responsible and delicate duties of the position to
which Mr. Joyner has been elected, yet it can not
abstain from expressing regret at the loss the
people of Goldsboro has sustained in losing the
superintending care over their children of one so
ripe in experience, so rich in endowments, and so
devoted in aim, as is Mr. Joyner.
RESOLVED 2. That during the years that Mr. Joyner
has been Superintendent of the Goldsboro Schools
his intercourse with the board of Trustees has
been uniformally pleasant, he has, by his kindness
and consideration endeared himself to the children
and the teachers, he has by his scholarship, good
judgement and tact kept the school upon the high
plain upon which it was pitched, and added to its
popularity; and, has in all respects, worthily
worn the ntle of his distinguished
predecessors.
When Joyner left Goldsboro with his wife and two young
sons to begin his duties as professor of English at the
State Normal and Industrial School, his loss was deeply felt
by the citizens of Goldsboro. Editor Roscower reported in
the Headlight that the loss of Joyner "will be Greensboro's
i»45
gain .
64
In 1893, the year Joyner arrived at the State Normal
and Industrial School, Charles D. Mclver had been busy with
strengthening the school by getting "the best personnel
obtainable." The new faculty, besides Joyner, included Mrs.
Lucy H. Robertson, a graduate of Chowan Baptist Institute.
She served as Joyner's assistant and later she became
president of Greensboro Female College, now Greensboro
College. Philander Priestley Claxton, superintendent of the
schools at Asheville, and later United States Commissioner
of Education, taught pedagogy. Miss Mary Petty, a graduate
of Wellesley College, taught chemistry and physics.
Dr. Anna M. Grove, the college physician, was a graduate of
the Woman's Medical College in New York and was often
referred to as "the female lady doctress. i»46
, The Normal and Industrial School consisted of three
departments in 1893: the normal department, the business
department and the domestic science department. The normal
department provided courses in English, history,
mathematics, natural science, in addition to the courses in
pedagogy or teacher training. The business department
offered courses in bookkeeping, typewriting, telegraphy and
stenography . The domestic science department offered
courses in general household economy, cooking, sewing,
cutting and fitting and care of the sick. In addition,
other special departments included Vocal Culture, Physical
Culture, and Industrial Art. Vocal Culture provided
65
instruction in reading, elocution and vocal music. Physical
Culture included courses in gymnastics, calisthenics, and
personal and public hygiene. Industrial Art provided
instruction in freehand drawing, architectural and
mechanical drawing, the history of art, modeling in clay and
47
decorative art.
Students could gain admission to the State Normal
based on county representation in North Carolina's
ninety-six counties. The quota was made up according to
each county's white school enrollment. When a county
reached its quota, the applicants were then administered an
exam by the county superintendent, Mclver graded the papers
48
and admitted the applicants based on their scholarship.
In addition to the residence requirements, students had to
be at least sixteen years old and "be in good health" and
able to complete an application in their own handwriting.
Along with the application, a statement of recommendation
from the student's last teacher had to be submitted with it.
In addition, students had to be able to analyze arithmetical
problems, "read any English page fluently at sight," express
thoughts accurately in writing, and answer questions "fairly
well" on English Grammar, Geography, History of the United
States, and the history of North Carolina, The cost for
attending the school according to Mclver was "low enough for
anybody . " The total fees which included tuition, room,
board, books, and a physicians and contingent fee amounted
66
49
to $128.26 a year.
At the time that Joyner arrived, the school conferred
diplomas and certificates, but no bachelor's degrees, The
diplomas were "life licenses" that entitled a student to
teach in the public schools of North Carolina for five years
50
before getting the license renewed.
By 1893, the school had two principal classroom
buildings: Main Building and Brick Dormitory. Both
buildings had brick walls trimmed in granite, and each was
three stories tall. Main had six large recitation rooms on
the first floor; both Joyner's and Mclver's offices were
located on that floor. From this arrangement it would
51
appear that they had almost daily contact with each other.
As professor and chairman of the English department,
Joyner described the course of study in English as embracing
four years of study that required students to recite three
times each week. He added that the masterpieces of English
literature served as a source "of inspiration and models for
the student." Courses of instruction also included English
composition which began with "the simplest forms of
composition; and progressed "with the more complex forms of
essay writing." The Second Annual Catalogue outlined his
courses of study:
First Year. A Brief Review of the
Essentials of English Grammar and the Laws of
Sentence-structure; Exercises in Letter Writing,
Dictation, Reproduction of Short Stories, etc.
with Special Attention to Sentence-structure ,
67
Capitalization and Punctuation; Study of Certain
Masterpieces of Irving, Hawthorne, and other prose
writers of this century.
Second Year. — Rhetoric; Parallel Readings;
Trent on Words; Critical Readings; Expository
Essays from Various Authors . . . the Names,
Character, and Influence of their Principal Works;
Morgan's History of English and American
Literature.
Third Year. — Study of the Elizabethan Era;
History of the Gothic Drama; Shakespeare, Merchant
of Venice, Macbeth, with Guides to Study; Critical
Theses; Tennyson's In Memoriam.
Fourth Year. Critical Study of
Representative Works of Representative Authors of
Each Important Era, Observing the Development of
the English Language and Literature; Essays of
Macaul De Quincey, and Carlyle; Essay
Writing .
Joyner derived much satisfaction from teaching English
literature at the Normal; but he also enjoyed taking
advanced course work. In the summer of 1895 he studied
English literature on the graduate level at Cornell
University in New York. In his letters to his wife, Effie,
he spoke of Cornell as having splendid scenery and a
delightful climate. He described Ithica, the city where
Cornell is located as being "a beautiful little city of
twelve thousand inhabitants, picturesquely situated at the
head of'Lake Cayuga in a circular valley and on the sides of
the »»5 3high circuling hills, He described his English
professor, Dr. Corsou, as being "stimulating, suggestive and
exceedingly entertaining. He is the best reader I have ever
known. His reading is not elocution. It is spiritual
68
interpretation. It is vocal expression of the indefinite,
in literature. „54
While he attended Cornell, he described to Effie the
shock of stumbling into a "beer garden" with some other
North Carolina teachers who were also studying there, "Mrs.
Robertson, Miss Boddie and Miss Moore of Greensboro Female
College" were all in Renwick Park outside a suburb of
Ithica . "We took our seats in what we supposed to be an
innocent pavilion, but soon found from the beer drinking
engaged in by both men and women about us that it must be a
beer garden." He added: "We kept our seats but ordered no
beer. it 5 5
He also corresponded frequently with his sons while he
was away. On one occasion he wrote, "Papa wishes he could
see his baby boy tonight. I expect though little William is
tucked away fast asleep from long ago. If you and
James were just here with papa, he would take you with him
tomorrow, and instead of riding on the train or the street
car on the land, we would ride on the nicest little
steamboat on the it 5 6water.
From Cornell, Joyner also wrote to Mclver: "I really
miss you very much Mac. I miss our delightful old fashioned
chats and I am hungry for some of your jokes." Joyner then
wanted Mclver to tear himself away from pressing business
cares and run" up to Ithica and spend the rest of the time
57
with him and the other teachers.
69
In the summer of 1896 the members of the North Carolina
Teachers’ Assembly elected Joyner to serve as their
president. The Teachers’ Assembly met at the Park Grove
Hotel in June of that year in Asheville. In his
presidential address before the teachers, Joyner said in
part:
. . . It is not our purpose today to speak of
education in the abstract, for that subject has
been worn threadbare but as education you can not
bestow too much attention upon the method of
education. . . .
We are modern in our views, We believe in
progress provided it is of the proper sort, but we
believe there is such a thing as being too modern,
if you will excuse the expression, We do not
believe in rejecting the old simply because of its
oldness nor in adjusting the new simply because of
its newness ....
There too, there is too much theorizing.
New methods are often set forth and
recommendations whose results have never been
fairly tested. . . .
This is a faster age. We have faster
horses, faster men, yes and faster girls too
at the present day than any previous of our
history. The chief aim of the teacher's
work should be to make the pupil work. . .
Teachers, falter not. What though your
profession has its trials, its troubles, its
disappointments, it has its pleasures and its
joys. What though your salaries be limited, there
are far nobler objects to live for than mere
acquisition of wealth. Yours is one of the
grandest fields of action on earth. Upon you
rests duties^ghe most sacred, responsibilities the
most solemn .
Joyner was also very active in the Baptist State
Convention. Regarding an address he gave to the Baptist
70
Association that met on August 9, 1896 at Morehead City,
Joyner wrote Mclver: "My paper was well received and
provoked considerable discussion, public and private.” He
added that Mclver would "find a very complimentary notice in
Sunday's News and Observer. t» 5 9 The notice read:
Prof. J. Y. Joyner of Greensboro read a very
fine essay, "Is there need for secular teaching in
the Sunday School?" It was in truth a very fine
and scholarly effort. Prof. Joyner is a man of
much fluency and power, and one of the most
powerful and captivating readers. Really, I have
not heard such reading since the days of the late
Major Senator Gales, who was one of g^e finest
readers and talkers the State ever had.
While Joyner resided with his family in Greensboro, he
achieved statewide recognition as an educator. For several
years he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the
Agriculture and Mechanical College, now North Carolina
Agricultural and Technical State University at Greensboro.
He also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the
Baptist Female University, now Meredith College in Raleigh.
His civic duties in Greensboro included serving on the Board
61
of Alderman and mayor protem.
In 1897 the General Assembly increased financial
support for the State Normal by putting it on equal funding
as that of the University of North Carolina. In addition to
the increased appropriations, the General Assembly voted to
change the name of the school to the Normal and Industrial
62
College .
Although the Normal received additional money from the
71
state and a new name, the local school tax that Joyner and
Mclver had worked hard to attain was becoming uncertain by
the summer of 1897. ( Due to a solid black vote the
Fusion!sts were gaining political control in many of the
eastern counties, towns and cities. This had the effect of
causing many whites to oppose local school taxes when the
blacks were in control of the government. | In June of 1897,
Joyner wrote Effie, "We think the prospects good for local
taxation in Guilford. i»63 Joyner was wrong. Guilford County
64
voters rejected the local tax.
In November 1898 a typhoid epidemic struck the college
campus. By the time the epidemic ended, twenty-two girls
65
had died from the dreadful disease. Joyner, who served as
dean of the faculty and students, had the responsibility of
"accompanying the bodies home." Many years passed before he
66
overcame the horror of it.
To add insult to injury, the Biblical Recorder reported
that the officials "of the institution, the pupils and their
parents deserve unspeakable sympathy. In such a time no one
can be hasty in judgment, The epidemic was not
necessary. Some one has blundered sadly." This attack from
the Baptist newspaper upon the defenseless institution was
more than Joyner could take. Even though he was a devout
67
Baptist, Joyner immediately cancelled his subscription.
The typhoid epidemic had little if any impact on the
enrollment when the school reopened a year later on January
72
68
30, 1900.
Besides Joyner’s administrative and teaching duties
with the college, he worked as chairman of the North
Carolina Textbook Commission, which was responsible for
selecting books for use in the state’s public schools. The
commission he chaired met at Yarbourgh House in Raleigh in
1901. Concerning his work on the commission he told Effie
that it had ’’been a busy week with us. We have been working
day and night on striving to finish our work early next
week. ” He added that he had "not retired before twelve
o'clock any night" and that he was planning "to retire early
tonight and rise about five ,,69tomorrow.
When Mclver began working with the newly developed
Southern Education Board in 1901, his duties often took him
away from the campus. In his absence Joyner, as dean of the
faculty, was left in charge. On one occasion Joyner wrote
Mclver in reference to a campus social: "I have very
serious doubts about the merit of the entertainment. .
I do not much believe that a man could get anything great of
'To Have and To Hold , ' but we will do the best we can with
it. „70
Joyner’s close association with Mclver at the State
Normal and Industrial College in Greensboro made him more
keenly aware of the mission to improve the educational needs
of North Carolina. Without realizing what the future held
for him, Joyner's work at the State Normal was providing him
73
with a foundation for becoming an educational leader in
North Carolina.
CHAPTER V
NORTH CAROLINA CRUSADER FOR UNIVERSAL EDUCATION: 1902-1907
At the turn of the twentieth century North Carolina
witnessed an educational awakening that changed the entire
course of education in the state, as well as the South.
This southern education movement was generated through the
efforts of ^Robert Curtis Ogden:, a Northern philanthropist
and businessman who became a leader in the campaign after
attending the First Conference for Education in the South,
held at Capon Springs, West Virginia in 1898. Annually
until 1914, Ogden conducted a conference which addressed the
education problems confronting each state. Also in
attendance at these conferences was a "train load" of
wealthy Northerners who brought journalists along to report
and cover the proceedings. From throughout the region,
Southern educators, businessmen, politicians, and school
teachers also flocked to these conferences. 11 was in fact
a meeting of the North and the South below the Mason-Dixon
line. The Southerners, however, exerted primary influence
and control over these conferences, and the Northerners
provided the capital to execute the conference
recommendations and goals
^In April 1901 the Fourth Conference for Education in,
the South was held in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her e ,
the delegates organized the Southern Education Board to
75
conduct educational 2campaigns throughout the South. Also ,
at this conference the General Education Board was created,
with the extensive financial support of John D. Rockefeller,
Sr . Unlike the Southern Education Board, organized to
influence popular support for public education, the General
Education Board provided money directly to public and
private schools throughout the United States.^'
With the help of the Southern Education Board, Charles
Duncan Mclver, Chairman of the Southern Education Board
Campaign Committee and president of the North Carolina
Normal Industrial College, and Charles Brantley Aycock, a
strong supporter of universal education undertook "a
vigorous educational campaign for the public schools in
North Carolina. „ 3 North Carolina initiated the first
L
statewide campaign for the promotion of public education.;
This campaig n , conceived by these two men was launched in
Raleigh on February 13, 1902. Over forty-three educators
from across the state attended the meeting. James Yadkin
Joyner, dean of the faculty and professor of English at the
State Normal and Industrial College at Greensboro, was among
those educators who adopted a "Declaration Against
Illiteracy."I The purpose of this declaration was to promote
4
universal education through oratory and the printed word.
This declaration also had an evangelical appeal and
requested ministers to preach one sermon a m.o nth on the
subject of education. The platform also urged authorities:
76
(1) To consolidate small school districts; (2) To build
comfortable school houses; (3) To lengthen the public school
5m
term through local taxation.
Within a few days after the opening of the Raleigh
conference, State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Colonel Thomas F. Toon died suddenly of a heart attack,
after only one year’s service in that office.^ Colonel W.
H. Osborne of Greensboro advocated that the office, vacated
by Toon's death, be filled with a representative from
Guilford County, a county that led the state in public
education, but had no office holders in Aycock’s
administration. Osborne then met with Mclver and Joyner at
the State Normal and urged Joyner to let him go to Raleigh
and advise Governor Charles Brantley Aycock to appoint
Joyner as State Superintendent. Joyner realizing that,
indeed, Aycock might appoint him to the office, listened
reluctantly.
Joyner’s friendship with Governor Aycock went back to
their student days at the University of North Carolina. In
the 1880s, the two had separate law practices in Goldsboro,
and when Joyner served as Superintendent of the Goldsboro
graded schools, Aycock was chairman of the school board.
During the meeting with Osborne and Mclver, Joyner told them
that "Aycock will smoke his old long-stem clay pipe and
listen to the Greensboro delegation," and when they are
finished Aycock will say, "Gentlemen, I agree with all you
77
say and especially with what you say about Guilford County's
being entitled to the appointment. How about appointing Jim
Joyner?
Joyner predicted exactly what occurred between the
Greensboro delegation and Governor Aycock. In fact, shortly
after the Greensboro delegation returned from Raleigh,
Joyner received a telegram from Aycock asking him to come to
Raleigh for a conference. Joyner went, and according to his
account, they "argued for hours." He pleaded with Aycock to
find someone better qualified. He then told the governor
that he "was most happy in his work and associations where
he had built his own home and family around him." Joyner
continued, saying that he "believed he was doing a useful
service through teaching and other useful „8pursuits.
Moreover , the superintendency paid less than his present
salary as dean and professor of English at the State Normal.
Joyner, after being out argued by Aycock, accepted the
superintendency because the governor "made education the
slogan of his campaign and election and the chief aim and
purpose of his administration." When Joyner accepted the
position , he saw himself giving more to the people of North
Carolina through wider service. This decision was one of
the greatest struggles of his life, it was also one that he
never lived to regret.^
On Sunday February 26, 1902 Joyner took the oath of
office as State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
78
administered by Justice Walter Clark, of the Supreme Court,
in the presence of Governor Aycock, F. A. Woodward, the
treasurer, B. F. Dixon, the auditor, and R. D. Gilmer, the
attorney general. From the brief ceremony at the state
capital building, "Joyner entered immediately into his work
in the office of the department. „10 When Joyner left
Greensboro, the editor of the Greensboro Telegram said,
"everybody in Greensboro regrets the loss of Professor
Joyner from active citizenship here but a city loses
nothing, all things considered by contributing such a man to
the entire ,.11state.
Joyner had excellent qualifications to serve North
Carolina as state superintendent. He was a teacher and
superintendent of Lenoir County schools before he reached
the age of twenty-one. He taught under Calvin Wiley at the
Winston graded schools. In Goldsboro, he became a
successful attorney and later superintendent of the
Goldsboro graded schools. During the 1890s, he was a summer
institute conductor. Later, he became dean of the faculty
and professor of English at the Normal and Industrial
College for Women. In 1896, he became president of the
North Carolina Teachers' Assembly. He served as alderman in
Greensboro and later mayor pro-tern. In 1901 he became
chairman of the North Carolina Textbook Commission.
Joyner's friendship with Aycock, Mclver, and Alderman went
back to his student days at the University of North
79
Carolina. Rose Holder, in her biography of Charles D.
Mclver, observed that these men belonged to the "inner
circle" and "no matter that members of the 'inner circle’
shifted their positions now and then. They remained the
inner circle ! it 1 2
(_When Joyner became superintendent the situation of the
public schools looked bleak. Moreover, teachers had little,
if any, professional training and the public had scant
interest in raising taxes for the public schools. "Only
thirty districts in the entire state, all of them in towns
and cities had levied a tax for the support of schools."
Furthermore , "the state had nine hundred and fifty public
school districts" in which a school house did not even
exist. Where schools existed children were "taught in
poorly ventilated rented buildings" and those "in 1,132
districts „13sat on rough pine boards chinked with clay.
With respect to this situation, Joyner wrote Dr. James Lamar
Monroe Curry, who worked in the Department of Education in
Washington, D.C., and since 1886 had been a crusader for the
public schools of the South. Joyner advised him that he
could not "tell what the future" held but he was certain
that, "duty clearly led me here and I am content to leave
the unknown to that Power that molds men's lives in spite of
their puny efforts." He would, Joyner continued to Curry,
do the best he could "for the little children of this
„14
state. A
80
Indeed Joyner had very little to build upon when he
became superintendent. The salaries for the county
superintendents were so low that those who accepted the
office received it as a "political or a charity job. »»1 5
Moreover, some county superintendents never visited the
16
public schools or ever stepped foot into a classroom.
Despite these negative factors, Joyner was optimistic.
Moreover, Joyner and Aycock shared the same simple
educational philosophy. They both believed in "educating
everybody and educating everything. n 1 7 Horace Mann,
American educator and philosopher "insisted that the
discipline of a free school must be the self-discipline of
the individual." Mann strongly advocated self-government
18
and self-control. Joyner held a similar view, "universal
education and democracy, the twin spirits that direct the
destiny of the age. . . . The power and the necessity of
education, the right of every child to have a chance to get
it." Furthermore , Joyner believed it to be the duty of
every state and each community to give all children the
19
chance to get an education. Like Horace Mann, Joyner
believed it was.the duty of the state and the communities to
provide tax money for the purpose of educating all children.
Joyner's main concern during every year that he served
the state was the issue of local taxation. Local taxation
was the major question presented to all the rallies held in
the 20counties and school districts throughout the state.
81
jJoyner firmly believed local taxation to be the only means
of providing a system of universal education for all the
children of North Carolina. Joyner strengthened his
argument for local taxation by pointing out that "sixty-nine
percent of all the money raised by public schools in these
United States is raised by local taxation." In North
Carolina the only system that provided "a system of schools
running for eight or ten months in the year supplied with
excellent houses and teachers are the cities, the larger
towns and the rural districts that have supplemented their
general state and county tax by local taxation.
Towns and cities having graded schools fared much
better than the rural areas of North Carolina where the
public schools were mainly log cabins or dilapidated
buildings . Through the efforts of the Southern Education
Board and the General Education Board the public campaign
began with a rally in Greensboro on April 3, 1902 to raise
money for the rural schools in Guilford County. State and
educational officials attending the rally were "Governor
Aycock, Mclver, and Dr. Buttrick, the executive secretary of
the General Education Board , and the new state
superintendent of public instruction, Joyner." A member
from nearly every college in the state also attended this
rally, as did numerous county superintendents, whose
railroad fares were paid from the campaign fund of the
Southern Education Board. At this rally "four thousand
82
dollars was raised," through private subscription and the
General Education 22Board added four thousand. In all, this
rally raised eight thousand dollars for the rural schools of
Guilford County.
I Joyner praised the "example set by Greensboro in
bringing about a closer union and sympathy . . . between
town, city and county" in combating the perplexing school
problem "existing in the rural schools throughout Guilford
County n 2 3. Joyner hoped the Greensboro rally might lead
other communities to follow suit. After the Greensboro
rally the towns of Goldsboro, Fayetteville, Hickory,
Washington, Henderson and Oxford requested Joyner's office
24
to conduct rallies in their towns and cities. As a result
of the rallies, Joyner optimistically asserted that, "The
day is dawning, the educational forces are rallying around
the common standard, the battle is on the victory sure."
Likewise, the rallies gave credence to Joyner's assertion
25 /
that "Illiteracy is doomed in North Carolina."
To successfully coordinate the rallies conducted in the
summer of 1902, Joyner appointed Eugene Clyde Brooks to the
position of executive secretary of the Central Campaign
Committee . Before becoming secretary , Brooks had
2 6
successfully directed the Monroe graded schools, A s
secretary of the Central Campaign Committee, Brooks' main
concern "was to find outstanding speakers" to address "rural
gatherings for the purpose of inducing a vote for the local
83
taxes and for the consolidation of small school
districts. »»2 7
Rockingham County was the setting for the first rally
held that summer and twenty-nine others were conducted in
quiet succession. The speakers for the first rally included
Thomas J. Jarvis, a former governor of the state, and Dr.
Charles D. Mclver. Over "one hundred school committeemen
and every teacher in the county, besides hundreds of other
citizens were present." Speaking for two hours, Jarvis made
an emotional plea for education that "few could resist." In
the afternoon Dr. Mclver delivered a speech on "local
taxation and the consolidation of districts, in a practical,
and »t 2 8strong convincing manner.
Many of the rallies that followed were typical of the
first one held in Rockingham County. Not all rallies,
however, were as successful as that one. iOpposition to
local taxation hindered the success of many rallies.
Joyner's friend, Mclver, was quite perceptive about the
situation: "It does not seem practicable for us to send
anyone to Buncombe County who would be of service to the
cause of education." There was no local tax election in
Buncombe County and for that reason Mclver believed that no
29
local tax rally should be conducted there. \
J . B . Carlyle, a professor of Latin at Wake Forest
College, presented a realistic yet cautious view of the
rally scheduled for Robeson County. He indicated to Joyner
84
that the meeting at Back Swamp had been "well advertised"
but the "delay in farm work will make it impossible to get
good crowds." He added that "the failure of the elections
at Rowland and Ashpole makes it important that we should
proceed with caution at other points in the ,,30county. Even
Joyner’s colleague, Brooks, told Joyner at one of the
rallies, "I hear you had a bum meeting even if you did
,,31
orate .
Despite the criticism, the News and Observer reported
that there was an "Educational Awakening" in North Carolina
which was developing into a permanent fixture: "The people
are thinking about this great problem of universal
education—not the few--but the many and they will solve
it. "zHi
Certainly not all the rallies advocating the adoption
of local school taxes were met with success. The fact
remained, however, that by the end of the summer of 1902,
with over thirty rallies covered by the Central Campaign
Committee, "only fourteen counties adopted local taxation,"
but elections were still pending in many other districts.
Probably Joyner was not overly pleased with these results,
but despite discouragement, he never gave up hope.
Commenting on his perception of North Carolinians, Joyner
understood their initial caution, "because they move only
from conviction but it is their history that they take no
backward step in any great movement for good once begun. He
85
further believed "that the movement will gather momentum
with the passing t» 3 3years.
The race issue became a tenacious issue for Joyner and
Governor Aycock. An ominous undercurrent of the entire
educational campaign was due primarily to white opposition
to black schools. Moreover, the majority of whites wanted
tax money to be distributed only to support white schools,
and opposed the idea of having their tax money used to
support black schools. Governor Aycock, however, opposed
distribution of taxes based on race. When the issue came
before the General Assembly, "Aycock ' s opposition to the
measure determined its fate." Although it was defeated by
the General Assembly in 1901 and 1903, it reappeared in
1905 . Aycock appealed to the "people's sense of right and
justice had found a responsive chord; the amendment" to
divide taxes among the races "could not muster a corporal's
guard in 1905.^
^Like Governor Aycock, Joyner also advocated education
for blacks. Believing the white race must help the black
race through education, Joyner maintained that if, £Lw e do
not our e will pay the heaviest penalty for the
failure. Joyner further believed that at the present
time the best education for blacks was in the field of
agriculture, since the majority of blacks in North Carolina
worked on farms: "There is greater demand on the farm for
the negro in the South at present." He indicated that
86
strides were being made in regards to black agricultural
education under the supervision of Charles Lee Coon, who was
the new superintendent of the state black normal schools.
Joyner noted that through Coon's efforts industrial and
agricultural training was being developed at the four black
normal schools to give "training to the teachers of the
race," and to instill "into them right ideals. „3 6 Governor
Aycock further refuted arguments that education was harmful
to blacks. He did so through the use of "statistics from
the penitentiary records to support his contention that
education was beneficial to Negroes." He cited statistics
showing that "less than half (47.6 percent) of the Negro
population was illiterate." He also emphasized that
"illiterates comprised well over half of the Negro inmates
of the penitentiary
The ambiguity of the race issue existed in the
"grandfather clause" of the Constitutional Amendment of 1899
making "intelligence an absolute qualification for suffrage
after 1908.”3^ In 1900, this literacy amendment became part
of the white supremacy campaign as a means of disfranchising
blacks from voting. Moreover, this amendment did bar many
blacks from voting, as well as prohibiting them from
entering politics.
t Although black education did improve from 1900 to 1905;
advancement of black public schools still ranked far below
the progress of the white public schools. Joyner
87
pessimistically observed the situation of the black public
schools and indicated that "more was spent on rural Negro
schools in 1895 than in 1905." Joyner added that if "our
white schools showed the same results for the past twenty
years, would we not be necessarily alarmed at that evidence
of lack of progress?"^
Another problem facing Joyner was the issue of child
labor in cotton mills and factories. The cotton mills and
other factories throughout North Carolina employed young
children at low wages. Many of these children never had the
opportunity to attend school on a regular basis. In
Joyner’s Biennial Report of 1902, he cited statistics
indicating the severity of the problem: "Reports from
twenty-three counties in which cotton mills are located,
show , in the cotton mill districts a total white school
population of 33,280 and a total enrollment of 14,499 white
children in the schools of these districts, and a total
average daily attendance of 9,014." Joyner believed that
the time for the state to take action on the matter had
come. In view of these facts, "legislation upon this
question should be delayed no longer. "40a-
In 1903, Joyner recommended that the General Assembly
adopt a child labor law that prohibited: (1) children under
twelve from employment in any cotton mill or factory;
(2) children under fourteen years of age who cannot read or
write from employment in any cotton mill or factory;
88
(3) children under fourteen years of age should not be
employed in any cotton mill or factory. He believed that
since mill owners had built schools within their factory
towns that "mill owners will heartily co-operate with the
state in all reasonable efforts to educate these
children."^
Josephus Daniels, the editor of the Raleigh News and
Observer, strongly favored the adoption of a child labor law
"forbidding the employment of children in factories where
they work indoors." Moreover, a bill of this nature had
been proposed in the General Assembly for the past ten years
and each time it had been proposed it "has been defeated."
Finally, in March, 1903 the General Assembly agreed to a
partial solution to this problem by enacting a law
"forbidding the employment of children under twelve years of
and regulating the hours of labor. „42age This modest child
labor law enacted by the General Assembly in 1903, hardly
met the standards that Joyner advocated in 1902, but it
represented a first step in the right direction in reaching
a partial solution to the child labor problem.
Despite the many problems confronting public education
in North Carolina in 1903, the Central Campaign Committee,
comprised of Joyner, Aycock and Mclver conducted a broader
and considerably more organized campaign than the one
43
conducted in the summer of 1902. Moreover, by June over
"seventy-eight of the ninety-seven counties of the State had
89
planned educational rallies in connection with the township
meetings" to bring the issue of local taxation before the
voters. By the end of the campaign of 1903 more than 350
rallies had been held: in over seventy-eight of North
Carolina's ninety-nine counties, Local tax districts
increased "from 56 to 181, more than 300 districts had been
abolished by consolidation, and 676 new school houses had
been built.
Joyner attributed the success of the 1903 campaign to
the efforts of the Southern Education Board in providing
funds to conduct rallies and to the numerous individuals
volunteering their time to speak at these rallies. Joyner
also attributed the success of these rallies to volunteer
organizations, such as the Women's Association for the
Betterment of Public School Houses. In the last decade of
the nineteenth century, this association came into being
through the efforts of Charles D. Mclver, at the State
Normal in Greensboro. The association "represented women
teachers and citizens in various sections" of the state.
These women worked "for building new school houses and
remodeling old ones, for equipping them and improving them."
This association's work was more than just simply
beautifying school grounds and applying paint on buildings
to make them look better. Likewise, the women organized
school libraries and looked after health and sanitation in
the schools.^^3
90
Joyner also recognized that the press played a vital
role in promoting public sentiment for education: "The
relation of the Press to public education is the relation of
the Press to the freedom, the safety, the prosperity and the
happiness of our people." Therefore, Joyner recognized the
press, more than any other factor as being a potent force
"in the great revival of educational interest in North
Carolina, and in the recent rapid educational progress of
the state." Not only was the press dependent upon an
intelligent reading public for financial support, but it was
"also dependent upon readers and the avenue of intelligence
for the it 46promotion of every other interest. ?k
Due to the growing public sentiment for public schools,
Joyner urged the General Assembly to enact the State
Literary Fund in 1903. The sum of $200,000 that had
accumulated from the sale of swamp lands was made into "a
separate fund to be used as a loan fund for building and
improving public school houses. „4 7 Under the ruling of the
State Board of Education, "only one-half of the cost of new
school houses and grounds or the improvement of old school
houses was lent to any county for any district." Preference
was given to rural districts of less than one thousand
inhabitants that supported its schools through local
taxation, private subscription and to large districts formed
48/„
by consolidation of small districts. &
According to Joyner, the educational legislation passed
91
by the General Assembly in 1903 was "liberal and
progressive" and at the same time "wise and conservative. ,,49k'
The most liberal and progressive was the State Literary
Fund. In 1904, the State Literary Fund distributed loans
amounting to $120,500 to over seventy counties. "The money
helped improve 325 existing buildings and build 288 new
school buildings." Joyner declared that "the value of these
school buildings amounted to $349,406 just by lending
$120,500. „50 With the help of this loan fund, Joyner was
happy to report that 694 new school houses were built in the
years 1903 and 1904 "more than one new schoolhouse a day for
,,51
every day in two years. Despite all the success in
building schools during this period, Joyner realized that
the schools were still "inefficient and unequal to the
educational demands of this „52century. 1
Together, Joyner and Aycock continued to work hard in
order to make the public schools more efficient and equal.
Time, however, was running out for Aycock; he could not seek
reelection in 1905, because the state constitution
prohibited governors from serving a second terra. By the
close of Aycock’s term, the state school system had improved
remarkably since 1900. "School districts for white children
were reduced by 86 and the number for black children by
171. „53 Public sentiment favoring school advancement and
expansion strengthened. Dual financial support by local and
state funds increased. The supervision of schools became
92
more centralized, State institutions of higher education
improved . ^
When Aycock ended his term as "education governor" in
1905 , he still had Joyner as state superintendent to
continue his policies in the years ahead, To a remarkable
degree the "views of Joyner and Aycock were similar and at
times their language was much alike, n 5 5 When Aycock left
the state’s highest office, he continued to participate in
the educational awakening by serving as an advisor to Joyner
and the Central Campaign Committee, until his death in
56
1912.
In September and October, Joyner took a break from his
duties as superintendent to go on a trip to Europe with his
closest friend, Charles D. Mclver. When Mclver first tried
to persuade Joyner to accompany him, Joyner declined, "not
wishing as he said to leave Mrs. Joyner for so long a time."
She insisted, however, that her husband go on the trip, It
was her insistence, plus the effect Joyner's first refusal
had produced on Mclver that "caused Joyner to change his
mind. „57 Before Joyner and Mclver departed from New York on
the German steamship, the B1u c h e r , the two were invited to
have dinner at the Century Club with Robert Ogden, president
of the Southern Education Board, who resided in New York.
At the dinner Joyner drank his first bottle of champagne,
and he later reflected that "had this occurred in North
Carolina and had it been circulated through the newspapers
93
the state would have been shocked. ,,58
On the trip to Europe, Joyner kept a daily journal for
Mrs. Joyner. Mclver reported to his wife, Lula Mclver, that
Joyner "is writing a volume to Mrs. Joyner. I think he is
spouting „ 5 9poetry. Joyner reported to his wife that
"Mclver and I are enjoying this trip like two boys. We have
talked and thought of no business in fact we have imposed a
penalty of one dollar on the „60one that mentions business.
Indeed Joyner and Mclver did not discuss business on the
trip. Joyner did, however, reveal to his wife that, after
seeing a man in the boiler room of the ship shoveling coal
in the furnace, that capital should provide labor's children
the right to an education. Joyner believed universal
education was the only equalizing force between the rich and
the poor .
While in Europe the two visited Paris, Berlin,
Edinburgh and London. Joyner reported that Paris was a
"wonderful city" but he was "glad to get out of it." He
summed up his impression of Paris in two words: "artistic
and artificial. „61 Of all the European cities Joyner was
most impressed with London, due "to the closeness of
language and customs with our country." London was a city
Joyner became enchanted with. As a former English professor
he loved English literature and remarked, "we saw
Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and it was delightful and
enjoyable „62.
94
Upon his return to Raleigh, he was more energetic than
ever to handle the tasks that awaited him. In 1905 the new
governor, Robert B. Glenn, an "anti-organization" governor,
63
championed organized labor. Speaking before the General
Assembly, Governor Glenn noted that in his opinion "Joyner
was the ablest and most efficient" superintendent "the State
has t»6 4ever had. Even so, the General Assembly with the
exception of the State Public High School Act of 1905 made
few material changes in education. Governor Glenn's
administration witnessed the "South Dakota bond"
controversy, the state's regulation of railroads, and
prohibition competed with educational progress for the
attention of politicians and citizens. ,,65 Even though the
momentum for educational improvement continued, educational
"accomplishments received less public notice and acclaim.
Before 1905, the only public high schools existing in
North Carolina were in the large towns and cities, and the
majority of those were basically inadequate. Many of the
teachers were improperly trained and lacked the skills
necessary to teach on the high school level. Joyner
recognized this problem and advocated the improvement of
teachers, for "without the vitalizing touch of a properly
qualified teacher, houses, grounds and equipment are largely
dead mechanisms. »f 6 7 ; But before Joyner could recommend to
the General Assembly that more public high schools be built
throughout North Carolina, he had to provide teachers with
95
more training. During 1902 and 1904, 128 white and 79 black
teacher’s institutes "were held in which 7,923 white
teachers and 3,287" black teachers attended. By the summer
of 1904, 4,866 were enrolled in county institutes and Joyner
was pleased that "so large a number of public school
teachers" had attended "institutes and summer schools in one
summer . "684'
By getting more teachers trained in the institutes and
summer schools, Joyner was beginning to lay the foundations
for public high schools throughout North Carolina. As early
as 1902 Joyner promoted the establishment of public high
schools. "North Carolina cannot command the full confidence
and patronage of the people or hope" to provide her children
with "educational opportunities equal to those offered by
the public schools of most of the States of the Union,
unless instruction in the higher branches is provided in
these schools. t»6 9 Furthermore, Joyner believed that the
public high schools constituted a modern progressive system
of public education.^
Due to the sparsity of public high schools in North
Carolina before 1905, the private sector flourished with
hundreds of private high schools and academies throughout.
North Carolina.1 The majority of these high schools and
academies were denominationally supported, mainly by the
Baptists and Methodists. Students who attended these
schools had to pay tuition and those students whose parents
96
could not afford to pay the tuition rarely attended high
school unless they lived near a public high school. Few
did.
The most strongly outspoken of the denominations were
the Baptists who staunchly opposed the establishment of
public high schools.^-;, The Baptists, however, did favor
common schools supported by the state and the localities.
By 1900, the Baptists throughout North Carolina were "coming
to the conviction that it was their responsibility to fill
the gap between elementary schools and the colleges. t» 7 2 J.
W. Bailey, the editor of the Biblical Recorder, wanted the
Baptists to develop a system of Christian schools in every
Baptist association in North Carolina. Bailey wrote in the
Biblical Recorder in July, 1 903: "The denominational
colleges must get in touch earlier with a supply of
students" and "this must be done by the secondary or high
school. Nothing can shake a Christian system of higher and
secondary education. t» 73
Bailey was wrong . Something did shake the
denominational high schools and academies; "in 1905, a
movement was started which in the next quarter of a century
proved the utter undoing of every private and denominational
and ,.74secondary school in the state. The movement that put
an end to these denominational schools and academies
occurred when Joyner’s plan for a statewide system of
township public high schools received approval by the
97
General Assembly in 1905. The amendment the General
Assembly approved did not provide for rural high schools,
but marked the modest beginning of a statewide public high
school system in North Carolina. ^4'
Although Joyner was a staunch Baptist, and a member of
the board of trustees at the Baptist Female University in
Raleigh, he maintained a strong position favoring the
separation of church and state. In a letter to the
superintendent of Rutherford County schools, Joyner
expressed his feelings about this sensitive issue. The
state could make no contract "with the teacher of any
sectarian or denominational school and no part of the school
fund could be used in connection with a denominational
school." Joyner declared: "I had rather be damaged than be
coward enough to be driven to do what I do not believe the
law and my conscience approve by threat of damage by
„76
exposition.
Moreover, the conflicts between the church and the
state were less frequent than those conflicts that occurred
in the latter part of the nineteenth century. A reflection
of this good will between the church and the state is due to
the fact that the Baptist State Convention of 1905 commended
the efforts of "our Christian Superintendent of Public
Instruction in making possible the educational awakening. t» 7 7
Still dogmatic criticism concerning the public schools
emerged . John C. Kilgo, president of Trinity College, felt
98
the "child at school is valued in terms of the market. .
Religion with all that the term should mean, is left to the
accidents of circumstances or the spontaneity of
dispositions. „78
Funds for the public schools in North Carolina
continued to increase in 1905 and 1906. By 1906 there was
over two million dollars in the school fund, "besides a
considerable sura contributed by individuals to lengthen the
rural school term," and more funds were available to provide
better equipment for the schools. School funds also
increased through local taxation, indicating that the
educational rallies conducted every summer since 1902 were
achieving marked success. The entire amount raised by local
taxation in 1906 was $448,610.35, of that amount $61,307.96
went to the rural schools and $387,467.01 went to the city
79
schools.
The North Carolina Journal of Education became a
permanent education journal in North Carolina in September
1906. Eugene Clyde Brooks became editor of this journal
after resigning the superintendency of the Goldsboro city
schools . This journal represented a milestone for
professional educators and revealed the growing
professionalism educators were achieving in North
Carolina 30. j#
As this journal came into being Joyner and other
educators throughout the state received a serious blow.
99
Charles D. Mclver died suddenly of a stroke on September 17,
1906, while accompanying William Jennings Bryan on a
8 1
political "whistle-stop” tour through North Carolina.
Mclver's death was felt not only by his close friend Joyner
but by the state and the Southern Education Board. The
state had lost one of its most dedicated workers and
outstanding champions of public education.
Joyner, busy filling appointments in the mountain
districts of the state, did not have "the sad satisfaction
of a last look at the face of his dead friend." Mclver's
death severely affected Joyner and he could not see how he
82
could adjust himself to the change. Concerning Mclver's
death, Rev. Henry W. Battle, of Greensboro, Joyner's former
pastor wrote Joyner: "It seems to me that you are Dr.
Mclver's logical and most appropriate successor in office
(or should be), and it would give the the greatest happiness
welcome and dear family back home. n 8 3to you your Joyner
loved his home in Greensboro and two years before Mclver's
death he revealed to his wife that "I do feel that we will
„84
come back home in less than two years.
Indeed in November, 1906 Joyner had been tempted to
leave the office of state superintendent and succeed Charles
D. Mclver as president of the Normal and Industrial College.
Former Governor Aycock urged Joyner not to accept the
position but remain state superintendent: "If you will
remain in your present position for the next eight or twelve
100
years," Aycock told Joyner, "illiteracy will be practically
destroyed ,,85among us. Joyner, still perplexed about the
situation answered, "All I can say Charles, is I am seeking
to see my duty clearly and if I can see it with God's help,
I shall „8 6try to do it. After much painful deliberation
about the situation Joyner decided to decline the offer,
with the assurance that the Southern Education Board would
8 7
continue to supply funds for his work in North Carolina.
Joyner's decision to remain as state superintendent was
certainly in marked contrast to his reluctancy in accepting
the position in 1902. Perhaps Joyner's dedication to the
principle of wider service to the state led him to decline
the offer. Furthermore, public education was more popularly
accepted among the public, and due to this popularity
politicians were showing more respect to the state's chief
school officer.
During the fall of 1906, Joyner prepared some of the
most liberal recommendations for the public schools to be
considered by the General Assembly. Among those
recommendations Joyner urged the adoption of an annual
appropriation of $100,000 for urban and rural public high
schools, the continuation of the $200,000 appropriation for
elementary schools, an annual appropriation of $10,000 for
the State Colored Normal Schools, and a compulsory
attendance law. Joyner further urged that the General
Assembly enact a law declaring schools to be a necessary
101
expense of the state in order for the constitutional
8 8
limitation on taxation to be exceeded.
When the General Assembly convened in January, 1907
many of Joyner’s recommendations were approved. The General
Assembly adopted the State Public High School Act by
appropriating $45,000 in the establishment of rural high
89
schools . According to Joyner, "this was the first step in
the direction of placing high school instruction, for
preparation of life or for college within easy reach of the
masses of country boys and girls" and he further hailed this
act to be the most significant result of "educational
90
progress of this period and perhaps of this decade."
The bill declaring education to be a necessary expense
did not gain approval by the senate, Since the legislature
failed to declare education a necessary expense, Joyner
decided to seek a reversal of Barkesdale v . The
9 1
Commissioners of Sampson County. In the Barkesdale
decision the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1885 ruled two
to one that education was not a necessary expense.
Therefore, maximum county property taxation could not
exceed 66-2/3 cents per $100 assessed value, and this was
insufficient to maintain the schools for four months. ^
Concerning the situation Joyner wrote Alderman that he
could not "help believing that the present enlightened
court, consisting of five of the best lawyers of the state
will over-rule the old decision. Tf Joyner felt
102
confident that he could win the case due to "the changed
conditions, the changed demands of civilization, the
increased need for education, the increased ability of every
county" to provide public schools with good buildings and
93
equipment.
Joyner selected Franklin County for the test case due
to its accessibility to Raleigh. The Southern Education
Board provided the money for Joyner to employ F. S. Spruill,
a prominent attorney, to represent the commissioners, R. B.
White, another prominent attorney, to represent the county
board of education and former governor C. B . Aycock to
represent the school children of the state in support of the
94
tax. The case was heard before the Supreme Court in
October, 1907. In J. R. Collie v. The Commissioners of
Franklin County, the Supreme Court reversed its 1885
decision . Justice Walter Clark in one of the concurring
opinions said:
It may be a question worthy of serious
reflection whether, by recent amendments to the
constitution, which relate to suffrage and which
are adopted for the purpose of securing an
intelligent electorate, and prescribing an
educational test for the voter, it has not become
the duty of the state to educate her people, and
by reason thereof, such education has become a
necessar^ expense, to be met by appropriate
taxation.
Indeed this victory for Joyner represented one of the
greatest educational victories of the decade. After the
victory, Joyner wrote Wycliffe Rose, a member of the
103
Southern Education Board in Nashville, Tennessee: "I
suppose you have noticed from the papers that we have won
and this is a great victory for the cause of education."
Joyner declared that the decision "involves to a great
extent the whole question of better salaries, better
equipment, better houses, and better supervision, especially
in the weaker counties. » 9 6
Due to Joyner r s successful leadership as state
superintendent, the students at his alma mater, the
University of North Carolina, recognized his success by
dedicating the student yearbook, The Yackety Yack to Joyner.
According to the editors of the 1907 yearbook "it seems as
though there is something in the life here at Chapel Hill
that breeds in one a desire to champion the cause of popular
education." This spirit will always "live here and impress
itself upon our students, and in all the fights," Joyner
"shall make for the children of „97our state.
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSION
James Yadkin Joyner's early and formative years were
greatly influenced by men destined to become educational and
political leaders in North Carolina, as well as the South.
These men included Edwin Anderson Alderman, Charles Brantley
Aycock, and Charles Duncan Mclver. As students at the
University of North Carolina, their friendships developed
into a clique that has become more commonly known as the
"inner circle." Indeed it was the "inner circle" that
influenced Joyner and the others throughout their careers,
but the man having the most influence upon Joyner was his
close friend Mclver. Concerning Joyner's career decisions,
especially in education, Mclver played a major role, as
evidenced in his decisions to become a graded school
teacher, institute conductor, graded school superintendent,
college professor, and state superintendent of public
instruction.
Besides the "inner circle" there were other prominent
educators that influenced Joyner. These men were Kemp
Plummer Battle, Edward Pearson Moses, and Calvin Henderson
Wiley, but of these three men, the man most directly
responsible for Joyner's decision to teach was Moses.
Indeed, in North Carolina in the latter part of the
nineteenth century it was Moses perhaps more than any other
105
educator that influenced more young men and women to become
professional educators.
As an educator Joyner’s most outstanding contribution
to public education in North Carolina occurred when he
reluctantly accepted Governor Aycock's appointment to become
State Superintendent of Public Instruction. His appointment
to this office occurred at a time when North Carolina was
experiencing an educational awakening. £ As superintendent,
he undoubtedly enabled this education movement to strengthen
and run on a much smoother course. He promoted educational
rallies for the purpose of stimulating public sentiment for
local taxation in order to build public schools, consoli¬
date school districts, enforce compulsory attendance laws,
lengthen the school term, increase state aid for public
schools, and train and certify more teachers for the public
schools. His most outstanding accomplishment during this
period was to write and secure passage of the State Public
High School Act of 1907. Before that time there had been no
statewide system of public high schools in North Carolina.”
Joyner’s service to the state did not end in 1907; as
the state’s highest school officer he continued to serve the
state until his retirement in 1919. Following 1907 his
achievements broadened when he received national recognition
by being the first North Carolinian to ever be elected
president of the National Education Association in 1910.
Although Joyner did not witness as many educational
106
changes in the second decade before World War I, some
innovations were obtained. Among these were the State Farm
Life School Law of 1913 that provided rural farm boys and
girls practical training in the areas of farming and
homemaking. These schools had accommodations for boarding
students and each school had a farm that provided the
students practical experience in farm work.'*'
jfln 1913 Joyner advocated the development of the State
Equalization Fund. This fund supported the establishment of
the six month school term in counties that had a four month
term. By 1918 the State Equalization Fund was made
mandatory in all the state's counties. By 1913 the General
Assembly also passed an act that made compulsory attendance
mandatory between the ages of eight and twelve years. A
companion to this act was the enactment of a child labor law
that excluded children under twelve years of age from being
2 ,
employed in factories, ijf
During Joyner's final years as state superintendent he
persuaded the General Assembly to provide the funding to
strengthen the six month school act, as well as increase the
salaries for teachers and county superintendents. He also
advocated that the state provide more funds to the black
normal schools. Joyner firmly believed that "If the state
fails to perform its duty in the proper education of its
negro citizens, the white race as well as the black will pay
the penalty. "3<|.
107
When Joyner retired as superintendent in 1918 at the
age of fifty-six, he returned to spend his years in
retirement on his farm in La Grange. The postwar
agricultural depression of the 1920's, however, brought
Joyner out of his retirement in an effort to help the
farmers of North Carolina improve their economic condition.
From 1922 to 1926 Joyner worked with the Tobacco Growers
Co-operative Association in Raleigh, and for a few years
served as that organization's president. This "co-op"
association enabled the farmer to obtain better prices on
the tobacco auction market than the farmer would have
otherwise obtained had he not been a member of the
association. For a few years this "co-op" did help the
tobacco farmer in eastern North Carolina survive some of the
4
worst economic effects of the post World War I depression.
From 1926 to 1932 Joyner worked as an assistant manager of
the Prudential Life Insurance Company in Raleigh.
At the age of seventy Joyner retired to his 1,200 acre
farm in La Grange but he continued to serve actively in
local county and state affairs. He served on various state
commissions and committees. Under the administration of
Governor Cameron Morrison, Joyner served on the State Ship
and Water Transportation Commission, the Atlantic and North
Carolina Railroad and the Finance Committee.^ During
Governor Angus W. McLean's administration he served on the
Commission of Adult Education . ^ Governor 0. Max Gardner
108
appointed him to the Aycock Statue Committee, the Adult
Illiteracy Committee and the Committee on Agricultural
Credit Corporations.^ During the second world war Joyner
served on the District Three Appeal Board for the State
Selective Service System under the administration of
8
Governor J. Melville Broughton. During the administration
of Governor Robert Gregg Cherry he served on the Commission
to Consider Provisions for a Suitable Memorial for Andrew
9
Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson.
In addition to Joyner's service to various governors of
the state of North Carolina after his retirement as state
superintendent, he continued to serve on the Board of
Trustees of private and public colleges and universities
throughout North Carolina. These institutions included
Meredith College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, the North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical State
University at Greensboro and East Carolina University.
Throughout the many colleges of this state that Joyner had
been associated with there are buildings that bear his name.
These campuses include East Carolina University, the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Western
Carolina University and Meredith College. Many elementary
and junior high schools, as well, have been named in his
honor throughout the state.
Joyner was always loyal to the Democratic party and as
late as 1952 he strongly favored the election of A d1 ai
109
Stevenson for the presidency.
A few days before his death in Lenoir County on
February 23, 1 954, he had been "vigorously alert and
mentally keen. ,,10
During the ninety-one years that he lived, he gave
unselfishly in service to his native state. He was a
dreamer who lived to see his dream for a much better and
progressive system of public education come true for all
North Carolinians.
110
CHAPTER I: NOTES
1
Gilbert Allen Tripp, "James Yadkin Joyner's
Contribution to Education in North Carolina as State
Superintendent" (unpublished master's thesis, University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939), p. 5.
^Walter Hines Page. The Rebuilding of Old
Commonwealths (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1902),
P- 26.
3C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1971), P •
376.
^Josephus Daniels, Editor in Politics (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1941), pp. 402-403.
3D e we y E. Grantham, Southern Progressivism: The
Reconciliation of Progress and Tradition (Knoxville : The
University of Tennessee Press, 1983), p. 251, hereinafter
cited as Grantham, Southern Progressivism.
6k. D. W. Connor and Clarence Poe, Life and Speeches
of Charles B. Aycock (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company,
1912) , P • 122, hereinafter cited as Connor and Poe, Charles
B. Aycock.
Ill
CHAPTER II: NOTES
1
Hugh Lefler and Albert Ray Newsome, North Carolina:
The History of a Southern State (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1973), P • 458 , hereinafter cited as
Lefler and Newsome, North Carolina.
2
Mary Elizabeth Massey, "The Confederate Refugees in
North Carolina," North Carolina Historical Review, XL (April
1963): 165., hereinafter cited as Massey, "The Confederate
Refugees ."
3
Moseley Hall named in honor of Col. William D.
Moseley who moved from there to Florida in 1839. He became
Florida’s first governor when that state joined the Union in
1845, cited in William Nathan Walker, "James Yadkin Joyner,"
University Magazine, vol. 24 (November 1906): 60 ,
hereinafter cited as Walker, "James Y. Joyner."
^
Jame s Y. Joyner to Master Stephen Eure, Jr., 10
December 1907, James Y. Joyner Papers, Southern Education
Board Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson
Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
hereinafter cited as Joyner Papers, SEB.
R[obert] D[iggs] W[imberly] Connor, North Caro1ina :
Rebuilding An Ancient Commonwealth, vol. 3 (Chicago: The
American Historical Society, 1928) p. 402, hereinafter cited
as Connor, North Carolina vol. 3.
^Massey, "The Confederate Refugees," 163.
^Laura Foster Renard, "The May, Long, Joyner, Williams
Families of North Carolina: Pitt County Areas," Durham,
1974, 48.
8
Walker, "James Yadkin Joyner," 64.
^Connor, North Carolina, vol. 3, P • 402.
10
Sarah Wooten to Council Wooten, 4 June 1843, Council
Wooten Papers, East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y.
Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North
Carolina .
^Samuel A’Court Ashe, Stephen B. Weeks, and Charles L.
Van Noppen, Biographical History of North Carolina: From
Colonial Times to the Present, vol. 6, (Greensboro: Charles
L. Van Noppen, 1907) p. 334, hereinafter as Ashe, Weeks and
Van Noppen, Biographical History of N.C., vol. 6.
112
12
James Y. Joyner to Master Stephen E. Eure, Jr . , 10
December 1907, Joyner Papers, SEB.
13
Connor, North Carolina, vol. 3, P • 402.
14
U. S . Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census,
Eighth Census of the United States, I860: Slave
Inhabitants, Lenoir County, Bear Creek District, :84.
15
Talmage C. Johnson and Charles R. Holloman, The Story
of Kinston and Lenoir County (Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton,
1954), P • 47, hereinafter cited as Johnson and Holloman,
Kinston and Lenoir County.
16
M[arcus] C[icero] S[tephens ] Noble, History of the
Public Schools of North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University
of North Carolina Press, 1930), p. 239.
17
Hugh Talmage Lefler, North Carolina History: As Told
By Contemporaries (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1934), p. 364.
18
Kinston Journal, 17 November 1881.
19
Ashe, Weeks and Van Noppen, Biographical History of
N.C., vol. 6, P. 306.
20
Kinston Journal, 23 February 1882.
21
Kinston Journal, 28 July 1880.
22
Kinston Journal, 26 May 1881.
23
Kinston Journal, 7 August 1879.
24
Kinston Journal, 9 June 1881.
25
James Joyner to Master Stephen E. Eure, Jr., 10
December 1908, Joyner Papers, SEB.
26
James Joyner, Report Cards, La Grange Academy,
1876-1877, East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J.Y. Joyner
Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North
Carolina, hereinafter cited as Joyner Papers, ECMC.
27
Kemp Plummer Battle, History of the University of
North Carolina 1868-1912, vol . 2 (Raleigh : Edwards &
Broughton , 19 12) p . 245 , hereinafter cited as Battle,
History of U.N.C., vol. 2.
113
28
Rose Howell Holder, Mclver of North Carolina (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957) p. 49.,
hereinafter cited as Holder, Mclver.
29
Oliver H. Orr, Jr., Charles Brantley Aycock (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960) p. 46,
hereinafter cited as Orr, Aycock.
30
Holder, Mclver, P • 51.
31
Battle, History of U.N.C _1_ 9 vol. 2, P- 128 and 238.
32
Robin Brabham, "Defining the American University:
The University of North Carolina, 1865-1875," North Carolina
Historical Review, LVII (October 1980): 427-455.
33
Phillips, Russell, The Woman Who Rang The Bell
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1949) p.
150, hereinafter cited as Russell, The Woman Who Rang the
Bell.
34
Kemp Plummer Battle, Sketches of the History of the
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina, 1889) p. 43, hereinafter cited as Battle,
Sketches of U.N.C..
35
Henry Wagstaff, Impressions of Men and Movements of
the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University
of North Carolina Press, 1950) p. 35, hereinafter cited as
Wagstaff, Impressions of Men and Movements of U.N.C..
36
Battle, History of U.N.C i. 9 vol. 2, P • 143.
37
Holder, Mclver, P • 47.
38
James Lee Love, Tis Sixty Years Since: A Storv of
the University of North Carolina in the 1880s (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1945) p. 4.
39
Dumas Malone, Edwin A. Alderman: A Biography (New
York: Doubleday, Doran & Company: 1940) p. 14, hereinafter
cited as Malone, Alderman.
40
Tom Rouse to James Y. Joyner, 23 October 1881, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
41
Battle, History of U.N.C., vol. 2, P • 276 .
42
Connor and Poe, Charles B. Aycock, pp . 42 and 43.
114
4 3
Archibald Henderson, Campus of the First State
University (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1950) p. 254, hereinafter cited as Henderson, First
State University.
44
Henderson, First State University, pp. 245-246.
45
Holder, Mclver, P • 49.
46
Ebb Wooten to James Joyner, 31 April 1879, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
47
Battle, History of U.N.C i. 9 vol. 2, P • 24.
48
Holder, Mclver, P • 54.
49
Noah J. Rouse to James Joyner, 1 September 1882,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
50
Battle, History of U.N.C 9 vol. 2, P • 181 .
51
Noah J. Rouse to James Joyner, 9 October 1882, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
52
Battle, Sketches of U.N.C., p. 62.
53
Kemp Plummer Battle, History of the University of
N o rthC a r o1in a : From Its Beginning to the Death of
President Swain, 1789-1868. vol. 1 (Raleigh: Edwards &
Broughton, 1907), p. 72.
54
Battle, Sketches of U.N.C., P • 63.
55
Maurice C. York, "The Dialectic and the Philanthropic
Societies' Contribution to the Library of the University of
North Carolina, 1886-1906," North Carolina Historical
Review, LIX (October 1982): 329.
56
Philanthropic Society Library Registry, 1879-1881,
pp. 150-204, University Archives, Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel
Hill.
57
Philanthropic Society Minutes 1876-1882, pp. 88, 196,
204, University Archives, Southern Historical Collection,
University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill.
58
Henry E. Faison to James Joyner, 2 August 1879,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
115
59
Ashe, Weeks, and Van Noppen, Biographical History of
North Carolina, vol. 6, P. 308 .
60
James Y. Joyner, "Shall Capital Punishment be
Abolished?" 1880, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
^James Y. Joyner, "What Shall We Do With Our Girls?"
1880, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
62
Louis R. Wilson, Selected Papers of Cornelia Phillips
Spencer (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1943) p. 212.
63
Holder, Mclver, P • 52.
64
Holder, Mclver, P • 52.
65
Connor and Poe, Charles B.Aycock, P • 22.
66
Malone, Alderman P • 17.
67
James Y. Joyner, University of North Carolina, grade
report, 22 December 1880, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
68
Ebb Wooten to James Y. Joyner, 15 November 1880,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
69
Battle, Sketches of U.N.C., P • 158.
70
John Joyner to James Y. Joyner, 16 May 1881, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
71
Battle, History of U.N.C vol. 2, P • 235 .
7 2
James Y. Joyner, "Self Government," May 1881, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
73
Battle, History of U.N.C • 9 vol. 2, P • 236.
116
CHAPTER Ills NOTES
1
Kinston Journal. 5 May 1881.
2
Kinston Journal. 16 June 1881.
3
Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public
Instruction for the Scholastic Years 1881-1882 (Raleigh:
Edwards & Broughton, 1883), pp. 76 and 81.
^Louis Round Wilson, The University of North Carolina,
1900-1930: The Making of a Modern University (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1957), pp. 84-86.
^Wagstaff, Impressions of Men and Movements at U.N.C..
P • 35.
^0rr, A-ycock, P • 64.
^Charles William Dabney, Universal Education in the
South, vol. 1 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1937) pp. 193-195, hereinafter cited as Dabney,
Universal Education, vol. 1.
8
Dabney, Universal Education, vol. 1, P • 195.
9
La Grange Academy Bulletin, 1881 , Joyner Papers,
ECMC.
10
La Grange Academy Bulletin, 1881 , Joyner Papers,
ECMC.
11
Kinston Journal, 12 January 1882.
12
Kinston Journal, 12 January 1882.
13
James Y. Joyner, untitled speech to the citizens of
La Grange, 1882, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
14
James Y. Joyner to Master Stephen E. Eure, Jr • t 10
December 1907, Joyner Papers, SEB.
15
Johnson and Holloman, Kinston and Lenoir County, P •
163.
16
Noah J. Rouse to James Y. Joyner, 9 October 1882,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
117
17
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 17 September 1884,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
18
Effie Rouse to James Y. Joyner, 20 September 1883,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
19
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 11 October 1883,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
20
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 20 September 1883,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
21
Julius Tomlinson to James Y. Joyner, 11 October 1884,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
22
Battle, History of U.N.C •_ 9 vol. 2, P • 158.
23
James Y. Joyner to Calvin Henderson Wiley, 14 October
1884 , Calvin H. Wiley Papers, Southern Historical
Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
24
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 20 October 1884,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
25
William Eskridge King, "The Era of Progressive Reform
in Southern Education: The Growth of Public Schools in
North Carolina, 1885-1910" (unpublished doctoral
dissertatioij, Duke University, 1970): 45-66, hereinafter
cited as King, "The Era of Progressive Reform."
26
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 20 October 1884,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
27
Johnson, "James Yadkin Joyner," 362.
28
William R. Allen to James Y. Joyner, 9 February 1885,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
29
Johnson, "James Yadkin Joyner," 362.
30
Ebb Wooten Faircloth to James Y. Joyner, 2 February
1885, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
31
Charles 0. Daniels to James Y. Joyner, 19 March 1885,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
32
Johnson and Holloman, Kinston and Lenoir County, p.
126.
33
King , "The Era of Progressive Reform," pp. 81-82.
118
34
Charles D. Mclver to James Y. Joyner, 23 July 1885,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
35
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 31 July 1885, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
36
Julius Tomlinson to James Y. Joyner, 27 July 1885,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
37
Calvin Wiley to James Y. Joyner, 19 August 1885,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
38
Edgar W. Knight, Education in the United States (New
York: Greenwood Press, 1951) p. 400.
39
Ethel Stephens Arnett, Greensboro, North Carolina:
The County Seat of Guilford County (Chapel Hill: University
of North Carolina Press, 1955) p. 57.
40
Bettie D. Caldwell, F o u’n ders and Builders of
Greensboro (Greensboro: Jos. J. Stone & Company, 1925) p.
192, hereinafter cited as Caldwell, Founders of Greensboro.
41
Caldwell, Founders of Greensboro, p. 41 .
42
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 25 September 1885,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
43
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 15 December 1885,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
44
Fannie B. Cox to James Y. Joyner, 26 December 1885,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
45
William R. Allen to James Y. Joyner, 19 January 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
46
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 10 February 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
47
Malone, Alderman, P • 27.
48
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 9 March 1886, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
49
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 14 April 1886, Joyner
Papers , ECMC.
50
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 6 April 1886, Joyner
Papers , ECMC.
119
51
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 17 December 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
52
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 24 April 1886, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
53
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 6 December 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
54
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 12 August 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
5 5
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 2 December 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
56
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 25 October 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
57
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 2 December 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
58
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 8 May 1886, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
59
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 28 May 1886, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
60
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 14 October 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
6 1
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 10 October 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
62d. T. St. Clair to James Y. Joyner, 6 April 1886,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
63
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 11 June 1886, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
6 4
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 25 June 1886, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
65
Transcript and Weekly Messenger, Goldsboro, N.C • 9 29
April 1887.
66
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 18 May 1887, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
6 7
Sidney M. Finger to James Y. Joyner, 12 May 1887,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
120
68
Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public
Instruction for the Scholastic Years 1887-1888 (Raleigh:
Edwards & Broughton, 1889) pp. 29-30.
69
Newspaper clipping of the Franklin Press, Franklin,
N.C • 9 July 1887, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
70
James Y. Joyner, North Carolina Teacher's Assembly
Certificate, June 13, 1887, annual dues, three dollars per
year . Joyner Papers, ECMC.
71
James Y. Joyner to Master Stephen.E. Eure, Jr • 9 10
December 1907, Joyner Papers, SEB.
72
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 3 November 1887,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
73
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 22 November 1887,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
74
Johnson, "James Yadkin Joyner," 362.
7 5
James Y. Joyner to Master John Noah Joyner, 1 1
December 1888, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
121
CHAPTER IV: NOTES
^Headlight (Goldsboro), 8 May 1889, hereinafter cited
as Headlight.
^Malone, Alderman, P • 35.
3
Charles D. Mclver to Charles B. Aycock, 13 April
1889, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
4
Sidney M. Finger to Charles B. Aycock, 13 April 1889,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
^George T . Winston to Charles B. Aycock, 23 April
1889, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
^Charles D. Mclver to James Y. Joyner, 13 April 1889,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
7News and Observer (Raleigh), 28 April 1889,
hereinafter cited as News and Observer.
8
Edward P. Moses to James Y. Joyner, 29 April 1889,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
9
Dabney, Universal Education in the South, v o 1 . 2, P •
195.
10
James Y. Joyner to Effie Rouse, 4 April 1883, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
11
Dabney, Universal Education in the South, vol. 2, P •
196.
12
Malone, Alderman, P • 36.
13
Headlight, 18 September 1889.
14
Superintendent of Public Instruction Biennial Report:
1887-1888 (Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton, 1889), pp. 89-91.
15
King, "The Era of Progressive Reform," 97.
16
Superintendent of Public Instruction Biennial Report:
1888-1890 (Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton, 1890), p. 1.
17
King, "The Era of Progressive Reform," 108.
18
Effie R. Joyner to James Y. Joyner, 31 July 1889,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
122
19
Superintendent of Public Instruction Biennial Report:
1888-1890 (Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton, 1890), pp. 3-8.
20s. M. Finger to James Y. Joyner, 9 July 1889, S. M.
Finger Superintendent of Public Instruction Papers, Division
of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina,
hereinafter cited as Finger Papers, Superintendent of Public
Instruction.
21
Holder, Mclver, P • 96.
22s. M. Finger to James Y. Joyner, 29 August 1889,
Finger Papers, Superintendent of Public Instruction.
23
Headlight, 18 September 1889.
>24
"Twelfth Annual Report of the Superintendent of the
Goldsboro Public Schools: 1892-1893," pp. 13-14, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
f;25„Twelfth Annual Report of the Superintendent of the
Goldsboro Public Schools: 1892-1893," p. 14, Joyner Papers,
ECMC.
26
James Y. Joyner to Charles D. Mclver, 24 April 1890,
Mclver Papers, Special Collections Depository, Jackson
Library, University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
hereinafter cited as Mclver Papers.
27
Russell, The Woman Who Rang the Bell, P • 215.
28
James Y. Joyner to Walter Clark, 1 October 1892,
Walter Clark Papers, Division of Archives and History,
Raleigh, North Carolina.
29
Headlight, 5 April 1888.
30
Johnson, "James Yadkin Joyner," 374.
31
James Y. Joyner to Charles D. Mclver, 22 August 1892,
Mclver Papers.
"^Sidney M. Finger to James Y. Joyner, 29 August 1890,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
^King, "The Era of Progressive Reform," 118-120.
123
34
Elizabeth Ann Bowles, A Good Beginning; The First
Four Decade s of the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1967), pp. 5-8, hereinafter cited as Bowles, A Good
Beginning .
35
Holder, Mclver. P- 118.
36
James Y. Joyner to Charles D. Mclver 22 August 1892,
Mclver Papers.
37
Holder, Mclver, P • 136.
38
Eugene G. Harrell to James Y. Joyner, 27 February
1893, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
39
James Y. Joyner to Eugene G. Harrell, 22 June 1893,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
40
Holder, Mclver, P • 140.
41
James Y. Joyner to Charles D. Mclver, 7 June 1893,
Mclver Papers.
42
Malone, Alderman, P • 52.
43
Johnson, "James Yadkin Joyner," 363.
44 „Twelfth Annual Report of the Superintendent of the
Goldsboro Public Schools: 1892-1893," 1 and 16, Joyner
Papers, ECMC.
45
Headlight, 29 June 1893.
46
Holder, Mclver, pp. 141-142. For more detailed
information concerning Philander Priestley Claxton 1 s duties
at the Normal, see Charles Lee Lewis, Philander Priestley
Claxton, Crusader for Public Education, (Knoxville,
University of Tennessee Press, 1948), pp. 72-85.
47„Prospectus of the Normal and Industrial School of
North Carolina, 1892-1893," 8, 10-11, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
48
First Annual Catalogue of the State Nor m a1 and
Industrial School (Greensboro, North Carolina: C. F. Thomas
Printer, 1892-1893), p. 38.
49 „Prospectus of the Normal and Industrial School of
North Carolina, 1892-1893," 16 and 18.
50
Bowles, A Good Beginning, pp. 27-28.
124
51
Bowles, A Good Beginning, p. 9.
5 2
Second Annual Catalogue of the State Normal and
Industrial School (Greensboro, North Carolina: C. F. Thomas
Printer, 1893-1894), pp. 24-25.
53
James Y. Joyner to Effie R. Joyner, 9 July 1895,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
54
James Y. Joyner to Effie R. Joyner, 4 August 1895,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
55
James Y. Joyner to Effie R. Joyner, 20 July 1895,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
56
James Y. Joyner to Master William Joyner, 19 July
1895, Joyner Papers.
57
James Y. Joyner to Charles D. Mclver, 22 July 1895,
Mclver Papers.
58
James Y. Joyner, "Address Delivered before the
Teachers’ Association," 1896, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
59
James Y. Joyner to Charles D. Mclver, 11 August 1896,
Mclver Papers
60
News and Observer, 9 August 1896.
61
James Y. Joyner to Master Stephen E. Eure, Jr • J 10
December 1907, Joyner Papers, SEB.
62
Holder, Mclver, pp. 161 and 177.
63
James Y. Joyner to Effie R. Joyner, 13 July 1897,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
64
Holder, Mclver, P- 176.
65
Bowles, A Good Beginning, pp. 124 and 128.
66
Holder, Mclver, P • 193.
67
Holder, Mclver, P • 194.
68
Holder, Mclver, P. 194.
69
James Y. Joyner to Effie R. Joyner, 28 April 1901,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
125
70
James Y. Joyner to Charles D. Mclver, 13 November
1901, Mclver Papers.
126
CHAPTER V: NOTES
^Dabney, Universal Education in the South, vol. 2, P •
43.
2
Grantham, Southern Progressivism, p. 247.
3
Grantham, Southern Progressivism, P • 250.
L-;
*y- Grantham, Southern Progressivism, p. 250.
^James Y. Joyner to Charles D. Mclver, 7 April 1902,
James Y. Joyner Superintendent of Public Instruction Papers,
Division of Archives and History, Raleigh, hereinafter cited
as Joyner Papers, SSPI.
Sews and Observer, 20 February 1902.
^Autobiographical account of James Y. Joyner's
appointment to the office of Superintendent of Public
Instruction; 4 February 1943, James Y. Joyner Papers,
Manuscript Department, Duke University Library, Durham,
hereinafter cited as James Y. Joyner, "Appointment to the
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction."
8
James Y. Joyner, "Appointment to the Office of
Superintendent of Public Instruction."
^
Ja me s Y . Joyner, "Appointment to the Office of
Superintendent of Public Instruction."
10
News and Observer, 27 February 1902.
11
Greensboro Telegram, 7 April 1902.
12
Holder, Mclver, P • 215.
13
Dabney, Universal Education in the South, vol. 2, P •
337 .
14
James Y. Joyner to J. L. M. Curry, 26 February 1902,
Joyner Papers, SSPI.
15
Dabney, Universal Education in the South, vol. 2, P •
337 .
16
Grantham, Southern Progressivism. P • 247.
127
17
Connor and Poe, Charles B. Aycock, P- 138.
18
Lawrence A. Cremin, The Transformation of the School:
Progressivism in American Education 1876-1957 (New York:
Alfred A. Knoph, 1964), P- 11.
19
Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public
Instruction of North Carolina, for the Scholastic Year
1900-01 and 1901-02, J. Y. Joyner Superintendent of Public
Instruction (Raleigh: State Printers and Binders, 1902)
iii, hereinafter cited as Joyner, Biennial Report,
1900-1908.
20
Dabney, Universal Education in the South, vol. 2, P •
341.
Jg21 Joyner, Biennial Report, 1900-1902, P- XLIV.
2 2
H. Leon Prather, Sr. Resurgent Politics and
Educational Progressivism in the New South, North Carolina,
1890-1913 (Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press, 1979), P • 217, hereinafter cited as Prather,
Resurgent Politics.
23
News and Observer, 8 April 1902.
24
Charlotte Daily Observer, 8 April 1902.
?- ^News and Observer, 7 April 1902.
2 6
Willard B. Gatewood, Jr. Eugene Clyde Brooks
Educator and Public Servant (Durham: Duke University Press,
1960), P • 35, hereinafter cited as Gatewood, Eugene Clyde
Brooks .
27
Gatewood, Eugene Clyde Brooks, P • 39.
28
Edgar W. Knight, Public Education in North Carolina
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1916), pp.
334-335, hereinafter cited as Knight, Public Education.
29
Charles D. Mclver to James Y. Joyner, 22 July 1902,
James Y. Joyner Papers, Southern Education Board, Southern
Historical Collection, Chapel Hill, hereinafter cited as
Joyner Papers, SEB.
30
J. B. Carlyle to James Y. Joyner, 7 June 1902, Joyner
Papers, SEB.
128
31
Eugene Clyde Brooks to James Y. Joyner, 16 June 1902,
Joyner Papers, SEB,
,A 32
“r News and Observer, 4 June 1902.
33
Joyner, Biennial Report, 1900-1903, pp. 92-93.
cK^Connor and Poe, C. B. Aycock, P • 136.
35
Joyner, Biennial Report, 1902-1903, P • 75.
36
Joyner, Biennial Report, 1902-1903, P • 80.
A*37Orr, Aycock, P • 240. For more on Charles Lee Coon's
contribution to education in North Carolina, see George-Anne
Willard, "Charles Lee Coon: North Carolina Crusader for
Social Justice" (unpublished Masters thesis, East Carolina
University, 1966) I-VII.
„^38Joyner, Biennial Report, 1900-1902, p. LXi.
i?39 Louis R. Harlan, Separate and Unequal (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1958), p. 106.
^Joyner, Biennial Report, 1900-1902, pp . L-Li .
^41Joyner , Biennial Report, 1900-1902, pp . L-Li.
42
News and Observer, 8 March 1903.
43
News and Observer, 26 March 1903.
44
Knight, Public Education, p. 336.
4 43Dabney, Universal Education in the South, vol. 2, P •
341 . For more on the woman's association, see James L.
Leloudis, "School Reform in the New South: The Woman ' s
Association for the Betterment of Public School Houses in
North Carolina, 1902-1919," Journal of American History,
VIIX (March 1983): 886-909.
A46j. Y. Joyner to J. B. Sherill, 14 July 1904, James Y.
Joyner Papers, East Carolina Manuscript Collection, Joyner
Library, East Carolina University, hereinafter cited as
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
47
Dabney, Universal Education in the South, vol. 2, P •
342.
48
Joyner, Biennial Report, 1903-1904, pp. 19-20.
129
4 49 News and Observer, 22 March 1903.
^ 50Joyner, Biennial Report. 1903-1904, P- 19.
<#51 Joyner, Biennial Report. 1903-1904, P • 5.
#52 Joyner, Biennial Report, 1903-1904, pp. 90-91.
53
Orr, Aycock, P- 332 .
54
Orr, Aycock, P- 333.
55
Orr, Aycock, P- 333.
56
Orr, Aycock, P. 335.
57
Holder, Mclver, P • 247.
58
J. Y. Joyner to Mrs. J. Y. Joyner, 10 September 1905,
Joyner Papers, ECMC. •
59
Charles D. Mclver to Mrs. C. D. Mclver, 14 September
1905, Mclver Papers.
60
J. Y. Joyner to Mrs. Effie R. Joyner, 14 September
1905, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
61
J. Y. Joyner to Mrs. Effie R. Joyner, 25 September
1905, Joyner Papers, ECMC.
62
J. Y. Joyner to Mrs. Effie R. Joyner, 1 October 1905,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
63
King, "The Era of Progressive Reform," 274.
64
Samuel A. Ashe, Stephen B. Weeks, Charles L. Van
Noppen, eds. Biographical History of North Carolina, vol. 6
(Greensboro: Charles L. Van Noppen, 1907), p. 339.
65
News and Observer, 19 March 1905.
$66King, "The Era of Progressive Reform," 275.
67
Joyner, Biennial Report, 1902-1904, P • 56 .
68
i Joyner, Biennial Report, 1903-1904, P • 6.
69
\ Joyner, Biennial Report, 1902-1903, P •
46.
X..70
Joyner, Biennial Report, 1902-1903, P • 48.
130
4? 71 David S. Smiley, "Educational Attitudes of North
Carolina Baptists, North Carolina Historical Review XXXV
(July 1958): 316.
72
George Washington Paschal, "Baptist Academies in
North Carolina," North Carolina Historical Review XXVIII
(January 1951): 61, hereinafter cited as Paschal, "Baptist
Academies. "
73
Biblical Recorder (Raleigh) 22 July 1903.
74
Paschal, "Baptist Academies," 62.
75
News and Observer, 19 March 1905.
76j. Y. Joyner to J. D. Morris, 14 March 1904, Joyner
Papers, SSPI.
77
Luther L. Gobbel, Church-State Relationships in
Education in North Carolina Since 1776 (Durham: Duke
University Press, 1938), p. 205.
7 8
John C. Kilgo, "How Does Religion Concern Education?"
THe South Atlantic Quarterly II (July 1903): 214.
^Joyner, Biennial Report, 1905-1906, P- 7.
80
Gatewood, Eugene Clyde Brooks, pp. 92-93.
81
Holder, Mclver, P • 256.
82
James Y. Joyner to W. B. Mer rit , 22 September 1906,
Joyner Papers, SSPI.
83
Rev. Henry W. Battle to James Y. Joyner, 24 September
1906, Joyner Papers, SSPI.
84
James Y. Joyner to Mrs. Effie R. Joyner, 2 July 1904,
Joyner Papers, ECMC.
85c. B. Aycock to James Y. Joyner, 9 November 1906,
Joyner Papers, SSPI.
86
James Y. Joyner to C. B . Aycock, 12 November 1906,
Joyner Papers, SSPI.
87
James Y. Joyner to E. A. Alderman, 17 July 1907,
Joyner Papers, SSPI.
$ 88Joyner, Biennial Report, 1905-1906, pp. 60-61.
131
89
Dabney, Universal Education in the South, vol. 2, P •
344.
^90Joyner, Biennial Report, 1907-1908, P • 8.
91
King , "The Era of Progressive Reform," 281-282.
92
Prather, Resurgent Politics, P ? 69.
93
James Y. Joyner to E. A. Alderman, 17 July 1907,
Joyner Papers, SEB.
94
James Y. Joyner to E. A. Alderman, 17 July 1907,
Joyner Papers, SEB.
495North Carolina Reports; Cases Argued and Determined
by the Supreme Court of North Carolina, Fall Term 1907
(Raleigh: Commercial Printing Company, 1917) Vol. 143, 134.
96
James Y. Joyner to Wycliffe Rose, 15 October 1907,
Joyner Papers, SEB.
9 7
Yackety Yack 1907. Vol 7. (Chapel Hill: The
literary societies and fraternities, 1907), p. 5.
132
CHAPTER VI: NOTES
1
Joyner, "The County Farm-Life School Law and
Explanations," (Raleigh: E. M. Uzzell and Company, State
Printers , 1913 ) , pp. 1-2.
# 2 Johnson and Holloman, Kinston and Lenoir County, P •
242, also see Johnson "James Yadkin Joyner," 377.
U- 3Joyner, Biennial Report, 1917-1918, P • 48.
4
Joyner, "The Tobacco Grower’s Co-operative
Association," East Carolina Teachers College; Training
School Quarterly, X (October 1922): 1-3. For more detailed
information on the Tobacco Grower’s Co-operative Association
see Nannie Mae Tilley, The Bright Leaf Tobacco Industry,
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1948), pp .
452-464.
5
D. L. Corbitt, ed . , Public Papers and Letters of
Cameron Morrison, Governor of North Carolina, 1921-1925
(Raleigh: Edwards and Broughton, 1927), pp. 329 and 355.
6
D. L. Corbitt, ed., Public Papers and Letters of
Angus Wilton McLean, Governor of North Carolina, 1925-1929
(Raleigh: Council of State, State of North Carolina, 1931),
P. 894.
7
D. L. Corbitt, ed., Public Papers and Letters of
Oliver Max Gardner, Governor of North Carolina, 1929-1933
(Raleigh: Council of State, State of North Carolina, 1937),
pp. 436, 714, 756 and 763.
8
D. L. Corbitt, ed., Public Addresses, Letters and
Papers of Joseph Melville Broughton, Governor of North
Carolina, 1941-1945 (Raleigh, Council of State, State of
North Carolina, 1950), P • 454.
9
D. L. Corbitt, ed • f Public Addresses and Papers of
Robert Gregg Cherry, Governor of North Carolina, 1945-1949
(Raleigh: Council of State, State of North Carolina, 1951),
P- 987.
10
Johnson and Holloman, Kinston and Lenoir County, P-
240.
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134
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