Background
Review Doctor William J. Simmons was born a slave in Charleston, South Carolina, to Edward and Esther Simmons on June 29, 1849.
Review Doctor William J. Simmons was born a slave in Charleston, South Carolina, to Edward and Esther Simmons on June 29, 1849.
Simmons greatly developed Howard University"s teacher training programs when he took over the school. In addition, he was a writer, journalist, and educator. He was elected president of the Colored Press Association for his work as editor of the American Baptist, a newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky.
Due to stemming pressures from slave traders, Tardiff relocated his extended family to Roxbury, Pennsylvania, Chester, Pennsylvania, and ultimately settled down in Bordentown, New Jersey.
From 1862 to 1864 William served as an apprentice to a dentist. He served in the Union Army briefly, and returned to dentistry after the war.
In 1867, he joined a White Baptist church in Bordentown that was pastored by Reverend J. West. Custis. The congregation helped him through college.
He attended Madison University, Rochester University, and Howard University, from which he graduated with a bachelor"s degree in 1873.
He worked briefly in Washington District of Columbia at Hillsdale School. He served there until 1879. He was ordained that year and moved to Lexington, Kentucky where he pastored the First Baptist Church.
The following year, he became the second president of the Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute, which he worked for a decade.
The school was eventually renamed to Simmons College of Kentucky after Simmons due to schools progression under his tenure. Simmons received an honorary master"s degree from Howard University in 1881 and an honorary Doctorate degree from Wilberforce University in 1885.
In 1887, he published a book entitled Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising, which highlights the lives of 172 prominent African-American men, while serving as the school"s president He died on October 30, 1890, in Louisville, Kentucky.