SNAPSHOTS from our past
president sims ’ decades-long friendship and correspondence
with w . e . b . dubois
Robert Page Sims ( 1872-1944 ) was the second principal of the “ Bluefield Colored Institute ,” starting in 1906 , after serving five years under founder Hamilton Hatter .
For more than twenty years , he had a friendship and correspondence with W . E . B . DuBois ( 1868- 1963 ), one of great leaders for racial and political equality in the 20th century .
With Sims ’ leadership the school grew until , in 1932 , it became the Bluefield State Teachers College . In 1943 it became today ’ s Bluefield State College .
Sims was president for 28 years , stepping down in 1936 . For more than twenty years , he had a friendship and correspondence with W . E . B . DuBois ( 1868-1963 ), one of great leaders for racial and political equality in the 20th century .
Much of that correspondence is kept in the archive of DuBois ’ papers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst .
Here we reprint a selection of that correspondence .
We also invite a member of the faculty , or a student , to research this further and report more fully on the relationship between these two important men .
Archive Image Credit ( pictured right ):
Du Bois , W . E . B . ( William Edward Burghardt ), 1868- 1963 . Letter from w . E . 8 . Du Bois to R . P . Sims , March 11 , 1907 . w . E . 8 . Du Bois Papers ( MS 312 ). Special Collections and University Archives , University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
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