Josephine Silone Yates (1852 or November 15, 1859 – September 3, 1912) was an American professor, writer, public speaker, and activist. She trained in chemistry and became one of the first black professors hired at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. Upon her promotion, she became the first black woman to head a college science department. She may have been the first black woman to hold a full professorship at any U.S. college or university.
Yates also made significant contributions to journalism (sometimes under the pseudonym Mrs. R. K. Potter) and the overall social mobility of black women. For example, she was a correspondent for the Woman's Era (the first monthly magazine published by black women in the United States). She wrote for other newspapers and magazines, as well, including Omaha, Nebraska's Enterprise.
Yates was a major figure in the African-American women's club movement. She was instrumental in establishing women's clubs for African-American women because she helped found and was the first president of the Kansas City Colored Women's League (1893), and was the second president of the National Association of Colored Women (1900–04).
Early life and education
Josephine Silone's birth is given variously as 1852 and November 15, 1859. She was the second daughter of Alexander and Parthenia Reeve Silone in Mattituck, New York. During her childhood, Silone and her family lived with her maternal grandfather, Lymas Reeves, who had been freed from slavery in 1813.
Silone started school at the age of six, and was rapidly advanced by her teachers. In fact "at the age of nine, she reportedly studied physiology and physics and possessed advanced mathematical ability. At the age of nine, Silone submitted "a story for publication to a New York weekly magazine. Though the article was rejected for publication, she received a letter of encouragement, which increased her ambition to succeed."
Silone's uncle, Reverend John Bunyan Reeve, was the pastor of the Lombard Street Central Church in Philadelphia. At the age of 11, she went to live with him so that she could attend the Institute for Colored Youth. There she was mentored by its director, Fanny Jackson Coppin. The next year, Rev. Reeve moved to Howard University, and as a result, Josephine went to live in Newport, Rhode Island with her maternal aunt, Francis I. Girard. There, she attended grammar school and later Rogers High School. Yates was the only black student at both, but was well received by her teachers due to her academic prowess. Her science teacher considered her his brightest pupil and enabled her to do additional laboratory work in chemistry. As the first black student to graduate from Rogers High School, Josephine graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1877 and received a medal for scholarship.
Silone chose to attend the Rhode Island State Normal School in Providence to become a teacher, rather than pursue a university career. She graduated with honors in 1879, the only black student in her class. She was the first African American certified to teach in the schools of Rhode Island and later earned a master's degree from the National University of Illinois.
Teaching
In 1879, Josephine Silone moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, to work as one of the first black teachers at Lincoln University. President Inman Edward Page considered it essential to replace the previously white faculty with black teachers, as role models for the school's African-American students. The teachers lived on campus in the dormitories with the students. Josephine taught chemistry, elocution, and English literature. Upon her promotion to head of the natural science department, she became the first black woman to head a college science department and the first black woman to hold a full professorship at any U.S. college or university.
In 1886, she was offered the position of "lady-principal" at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama led by Booker T. Washington. She declined.
Josephine Silone Yates was clear about her purpose in teaching. In a 1904 essay, she wrote: "The aim of all true education is to give to body and soul all the beauty, strength, and perfection of which they are capable, to fit the individual for complete living."
Marriage and family
In 1889, Josephine Silone married William Ward Yates. Many schools prohibited married women from teaching, and upon her marriage, Josephine Silone gave up her teaching position at Lincoln. She moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband was the principal of Phillips School. Her daughter Josephine Silone Yates, Jr. was born in 1890. Her son William Blyden Yates was born in 1895.