The first Black female principal in Kansas City was ‘of national reputation’

By Diane Euston

There is a long list of innovative, inspirational people who have changed Kansas City for the betterment of us all. Although less represented in the pages of history, women have played a pivotal role every step along the way.

Stories of these women are a bit more elusive than those of men, and even more uncommon are the stories of women of color who influenced their communities. One Black woman named Anna Holland Jones (1855-1932) broke barriers in Kansas City’s segregated schools well before women had the right to vote or schools were forced into desegregation.

Although she wasn’t born in the area, her impact on the community for 25 years cannot be understated. She was the very first African American female principal in Kansas City, and her writings and community involvement had her often on a national stage of the movement for equality in race and gender.

An Impressive Pedigree

The story of Anna Holland Jones’ successes is rooted in her upbringing. For generations before her, Anna’s family persevered through obstacles that are hard for us to even imagine today.

Anna’s great-grandfather, Charles, was born in Africa in about 1774 and was enslaved in North Carolina. In 1794, he welcomed a son named Allen. Allen was Anna’s paternal grandfather.

Allen was trained by his slaveholder, Nathaniel Jones (1749-1815) as a blacksmith and lived on White Plains Plantation just east of Raleigh, N.C. Notably, when Nathaniel Jones died in 1815, his will indicated that his slaves be set free when they reached the age of 24 years old. But Nathaniel Jones’ son-in-law, John Pulliam, had other ideas.

In a court case from 1823, Allen Jones complained he was 28 years old and still was enslaved by the family despite the wishes of his deceased slaveholder. The case indicated Allen had “been sober, honest, industrious, and exemplary in every respect, as a good, faithful and trusty slave and servant.”

The petition must have worked, because Allen resurfaces in the records again in January 1829. He had saved his money as a blacksmith to purchase his wife, Temperance, and his three small children- including his oldest, James Monroe Jones, born in 1821.

Stories indicate that he entered into an agreement with the slaveholder for $3,000 to purchase his family, but when he raised the required amount, the man raised the price to $4,000.

Regardless, nothing would stop Allen Jones from freeing his family. The money was paid.

In December 1829, Allen Jones was able to purchase his father, Charles for $350 from George W. Jeffreys.

Education was paramount to the Jones household. As he set up his business in Raleigh, he also worked to build a school for Black children. The community was less than supportive; the school was allegedly “burned down and rebuilt three times.”

The community was outraged that this freedman would continue his endeavors. On October 14, 1842 in Raleigh, Allen “was forcibly taken from his own house, in the dead of night, by a mob, and so beaten, bruised and mangled, that doubts [were] entertained of his recovery.”

He thankfully did survive, and it’s said that Allen kept the bloody clothes from the beating as a reminder of the incident, sometimes showing it to children so they could see what he escaped.

The incident, although labeled a “disgraceful outrage” by the newspapers, was enough to have Allen Jones move his family far away from the area. He moved to Lorain County, Ohio outside of Oberlin for a fresh start.

Oberlin was settled in 1833 by staunch abolitionists who also founded Oberlin College. Just two years after its founding, the first Black settlers arrived. The town was the center of progressive ideas. Oberlin College was the first institution in the country where adult women could enroll in college level classes, thus it was the first co-ed college in the country.

Allen worked hard as a well-known blacksmith to send his four boys to Oberlin College. His oldest, James Monroe Jones, graduated in 1849- the fourth person of color ever at the institution to receive his diploma.

Two of his sons would go on to be teachers, one was a dentist and his oldest son, James, followed his father as a blacksmith and gunsmith. Early Black minister and educator Henry Highland Garnet designated the Jones family “the most educated colored family in America.”

James Monroe “Gunsmith” Jones (1821- 1905) opted to move to Chatham, Ontario after 1850. Located just east of Detroit, Mich., Chatham was a well-known final destination on the Underground Railroad. There, he met Emily Francis (1829-1914) and married her in 1854. He operated a blacksmith and gunsmith shop well known for its impressive engraving.

He even was commissioned to make a pair of pistols for Prince Albert Edward, future King Edward VIII.

Anna Holland Jones’ Early Life and Education

Anna Holland Jones was born September 2, 1855 in Chatham, Ontario. Even though her father, James and her mother, Emily, were freedmen, they weren’t about to sit back and stay quiet about the institution of slavery.

When the infamous abolitionist John Brown (1800-1859) visited Chatham to garner support for his soon-to-be-failed Harper’s Ferry raid in May 1858, Anna’s father was one of about 30 freedmen who attended the secret meetings with him. The Chatham Convention was held on two dates under the auspices of forming “a Masonic lodge of colored people” but in truth Brown planned his raid.

Anna was educated at the Wilberforce Institute, a school in Chatham started by freedmen in 1856.

By the 1870s, Anna moved back to Oberlin, Ohio to attend the high school and Oberlin College. Her family stayed behind in Chatham, and Anna graduated with her college degree in 1875. She was one of the youngest in her class of 60 students, and she was only one of two Black women in her class.

A biography written in “From Women of Distinction,” published in 1893, claimed, “During her college course she rarely stood second to any in scholarship, and in her junior year was elected class essayist.”

She returned back to Chatham to work as assistant principal over English and History at Wilberforce, Ohio, “but severity of climate led her to seek employment in the states.”

She worked for a time in the public schools in Indianapolis and St. Louis before working for four years at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo. For a period of time after, she returned to Wilberforce where she worked as “lady-principal” and instructor of English.

But she wasn’t limited in her talents. She also “was called upon at times” to teach logic, German, elocution and even zoology.

As fate would have it, her next stop long-term was Kansas City, Mo.

Advocating and Educating in Kansas City

Anna grew up in Chatham where one third of the population was African American, and the bulk of this community were encouraged to improve upon their situations. Thus, education was at the heart of the town.

There was a very different dynamic in Kansas City, Mo. where post-Civil War the opportunities for education of Blacks was severely limited. Lincoln School, established in 1867 at a rented space at 10th and McGee, was established as a grade school.

As the African American population grew, there was a serious need for a Black high school. In 1890, the first high school – Lincoln High School – was built by the school district at 19th and Tracy.

It was the only public high school available to African American students in all of Jackson, Clay and Platte Counties.

Led at the time by principal Gabriel Grisham (1856-1930), the growth of this high school required more teachers. Anna H. Jones was handpicked for the job, arriving in Kansas City in 1892 to teach English.

She was quite innovative for the time, believing that the role of a teacher was more than book learning. She ran her classroom as a welcomed environment that created passion and enthusiasm in her students. She once said, “He is not a true teacher who is not both a true friend and teacher.”

Her influence went far beyond the four walls of the newly built Lincoln High School; she also found purpose in advocating for her continued learning, despite obstacles put in her way due to the color of her skin.

In September 1896, the French government announced that they were going to establish a school to teach the French language in Kansas City to children and adults. Known as the Alliance Francaise, about 300 people signed up for the night classes, and Anna was one of them.

After one month of diligent study, Anna was told when she went to pay her dues that she wasn’t allowed to continue classes “because of her color.”

Alliance Francaise said “that white and colored young women could not associate together in classes of the kind.” When Anna protested, stating no one said anything for a month, she was told it “was an oversight.”

She certainly didn’t let this stop her from her studies. In 1900, she went to Europe and attended the Pan-African Conference in London. She read one of her papers there that was “proclaimed for its merits all over the world.”

To be an advocate for the advancement of women and of her race, Anna H. Jones was involved in numerous organizations at the local and national level. She joined the Ladies League, the NAACP, the Federation of Colored Charities and the Missouri State Federation of Women’s Clubs that worked for “the improvement of the moral and social status of the negro race in America.” She was elected president in 1903.

She also became a homeowner, buying a home at 1213 Bellefontaine Ave. in 1903. There, her younger sister Frederika ran a private school for a few years. She later bought more properties, working as a landlord and moved into her permanent home at 2444 Montgall.

She was one of the founding members of the Colored Women’s League in Kansas City in 1894, where, according to the Kansas City Call, “the colored women of the city caught the spirit and the stride of colored women and white women of the national to extend a helping hand to less fortunate women and girls.” She also donated a lot to the organization in 1915.

At the heart of her activism was speaking to the importance of education for African Americans. In 1905, she published a paper in the nationwide magazine “The Voice of the Negro” on “A Century’s Progress of the American Colored Woman.” She wrote, “The moral and social regeneration of a race is the work of centuries. . . The colored people realize that in the development of their women lie the best interests of the race, and, further, that education is essential to the highest type of womanhood.”

As a member of the Missouri State Teachers Association of the Negro Schools, she presented a paper on “Negro Secondary Education in Missouri,” and in 1909, she served the over-1,000-member statewide organization as secretary.

She truly broke down a barrier in 1911 when she was named principal of Douglass School at 27th and Jarboe, thus becoming the very first Black woman to serve as a principal in the Kansas City School District. She served in this capacity until 1918 when she moved back to Lincoln High School for her final years.

On the Road to Retirement and into the Pages of History

After 25 years as a teacher and principal in Kansas City – and 40 total years in the profession – 63-year-old Anna Holland Jones opted to retire in 1919. She looked for warmer weather closer to extended family to spend her final days.

The Kansas City Sun wrote of her departure that she was “one of the most scholarly as well as the most popular women that ever taught in the Kansas City schools.”

Her new home was a villa in Monrovia, Calif. where she and her sister (a retired medical doctor) would live with a “comfortable income derived from wise investments during her teaching days.”

She may have left for California, but part of her heart remained in Kansas City. She continued to subscribe to the Kansas City Sun, even writing letters back to the newspaper that were published in their pages. She also kept up by writing letters to former students.

Anna was able to enjoy her time in sunny California until a fall in February 1932 left her confined to her bed. She passed away March 7, 1932 at the age of 76. The Kansas City Sun wrote after her death, “It is impossible to tell just how many have been inspired by her to higher and nobler accomplishments. . . She was indeed a grand and noble character and left the world better because she lived in it.”

It’s not clear whether Anna Holland Jones ever knew how much of an impact her career would have on Kansas City or whether a woman of her intellect truly cared about the written accolades that appeared after her death. She was a trailblazer for women and an advocate for the betterment of the African American community in Kansas City.

No one can express it better than the woman herself. Anna Holland Jones wrote 120 years ago, “There is no truer gauge of the progress of a people, than the progress of its women.”

These words – and her legacy – remain palpable today.