Early Local African American Educators

The significance to Kansas City schools of African Americans R.T. Coles or Richard T. Coles, G.N. Grisham, and W.W. Yates is detailed in this book. Coles placed significance on the manual arts for the African American students in the Kansas City School District. "Like his good friend James Dallas Bowser, Coles also edited a weekly newspaper, the Kansas City Dispatch, and he served with Bowser on the Inter-Racial Committee of Twelve organized in 1920." Grisham was principal of Lincoln School and a nationally known African American educator of the time. Yates was also a principal of Lincoln School as well as Wendall Phillips School. He was married to Josephine Silone Yates, a leader in the African American women's club movement who is also described.