Cole at Oxford
History Extra
The first black man recorded as graduating from Cambridge was mixed-race violinist George Augustus Bridgetower (1778–1860). He was elected to Royal Society of Musicians in 1807, and attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he earned the degree of Bachelor of Music in 1811. He was the first West Indian graduate recorded in university records.
The second black man was New Yorker Alexander Crummell (1819–1898) who was sponsored by American Anglicans and admitted to Queens’ College, Cambridge as a family man in 1848. He certainly experienced verbal racism, even as late as the day of his graduation ceremony in 1853. Crummell then went to Liberia as a missionary, successfully spending the next 20 years there as a parish rector and Professor of Intellectual and Moral Science at Liberia College.
Had no African student applied to Oxford before 1870? Perhaps had some applied and were rejected Christian Frederick Cole (1852-85) was born in the village of Waterloo, in the British colony of Sierra Leone. His adopted father, a Church of England minister, gained a scholarship for their son to attend the best college in sub-Saharan Africa, a Freetown missionary school with high standards in the Classics. Principal Rev E Jones had been the first African-American to graduate from Amherst College in the USA and it was he who encouraged young Cole to apply for Oxford Uni. So Cole applied, sat for Greek, Latin, arithmetic & algebra exams, and was accepted.
In 1872 Cole’s father died and his uncle took over the guardianship responsibility. Despite Britain’s racist colonial views, Cole enrolled at University College to read for an honours degree in Classics, becoming the first black African to study at the university. He was constantly subject to ridicule and sarcasm verbally and in writing, but apparently was never physically harmed.
Christian Cole was not a residential student, but his uncle did pay for lodgings in the city and for university fees. Cole’s presence attracted attention both inside and outside the university. As a member of Oxford Union debating society, Cole actively debated in the given topics. His academic essays were commended by his tutors and lecturers, and after 4 years of hard study, Cole got his honours degree in 1877. It only fell apart when his uncle ran out of money to support his loved nephew. Instead Christian used his great musical talent to teach music to some undergraduates, and prepared other under-graduates for their divinity exams. Eventually he sought the assistance of the Master of University College in winning exemption from paying fees, but the request failed and Cole had to return to Africa.
By 1879 his friends in Sierra Leone had raised enough money to return him to London and to make a career in Law. He became the first black African member of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, one of London’s prestigious Inns of Court. After 4 more years, he was called to the bar as the first African barrister to practise in British courts.
How sad that despite being called to the bar, Cole couldn't secure any chambers in Britain and so took a barristership in Zanzibar instead. Even that success was short lived. Just a year later Cole contracted smallpox and died in Dec 1885 aged 33. In his brief life, Cole had carefully worked his way through the racial and cultural barriers of Victorian Britain to create two historic firsts. Who knows what other remarkable successes this young man might have achieved?
Had no African student applied to Oxford before 1870? Perhaps had some applied and were rejected Christian Frederick Cole (1852-85) was born in the village of Waterloo, in the British colony of Sierra Leone. His adopted father, a Church of England minister, gained a scholarship for their son to attend the best college in sub-Saharan Africa, a Freetown missionary school with high standards in the Classics. Principal Rev E Jones had been the first African-American to graduate from Amherst College in the USA and it was he who encouraged young Cole to apply for Oxford Uni. So Cole applied, sat for Greek, Latin, arithmetic & algebra exams, and was accepted.
In 1872 Cole’s father died and his uncle took over the guardianship responsibility. Despite Britain’s racist colonial views, Cole enrolled at University College to read for an honours degree in Classics, becoming the first black African to study at the university. He was constantly subject to ridicule and sarcasm verbally and in writing, but apparently was never physically harmed.
Christian Cole was not a residential student, but his uncle did pay for lodgings in the city and for university fees. Cole’s presence attracted attention both inside and outside the university. As a member of Oxford Union debating society, Cole actively debated in the given topics. His academic essays were commended by his tutors and lecturers, and after 4 years of hard study, Cole got his honours degree in 1877. It only fell apart when his uncle ran out of money to support his loved nephew. Instead Christian used his great musical talent to teach music to some undergraduates, and prepared other under-graduates for their divinity exams. Eventually he sought the assistance of the Master of University College in winning exemption from paying fees, but the request failed and Cole had to return to Africa.
By 1879 his friends in Sierra Leone had raised enough money to return him to London and to make a career in Law. He became the first black African member of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, one of London’s prestigious Inns of Court. After 4 more years, he was called to the bar as the first African barrister to practise in British courts.
How sad that despite being called to the bar, Cole couldn't secure any chambers in Britain and so took a barristership in Zanzibar instead. Even that success was short lived. Just a year later Cole contracted smallpox and died in Dec 1885 aged 33. In his brief life, Cole had carefully worked his way through the racial and cultural barriers of Victorian Britain to create two historic firsts. Who knows what other remarkable successes this young man might have achieved?
Cole's plaque, Oxford, 2017
BBC
A plaque to honour Cole’s successes was placed on University College’s exterior wall, opposite the College’s Law Library Oxford. What a very long time to make the honour happen!
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30 comments:
I guess I am either modern or odd but I don't get why the colour of someone's skin should play a role in their education, that said I know things were different back then and I am so glad we have for a large part moved on from such shallow minded stuff. I know there is still for many a long way to go before they see a person and not a colour.
The first women to graduate from Oxford did so in 1920. Cambridge did not award degrees to women until 1948, the first being the Queen, later Queen Mother, who was awarded an honorary degree. Different times!
What a history that I am interested in reading about. What an achievement by the predecessor
Of course he could, if he so wished and studied hard. Skin color has nothing to do with learning ability. If at the time, there were sadly, racial barriers - well that's another topic.
How did students apply to enter a university? If it was by written application, how was their colour noted?
What Deb said ^
Christian Cole must have a been a lovely young man, it's sad money ran out and that he died young, and far too long to have the plaque put there as well.
They were pioneers of colour being accepted in universities. It must have been hard for them and for Cole to struggle through and then not be accepted in law firms must have been hard for him. Then dying so young. All that talent gone.
Jo-Anne
not only did that student himself suffer if he was not admitted, or was admitted and then tormented. The entire community lost by wasting an ambitious and clever brain.
jabblob
Thank you. I think I should have said that in the post.. that being a black man was a nasty experience in Victorian times, but being a woman (of any colour), a Jew or a Chinese students was also very very difficult.
Thanks for the Cole Story. I can't imagine what this man went through, but for society to develop there are always pioneers. I really liked the post!
roentare
When I was studying British History at uni, I heard nothing about coloured students trying or failing to get into the best universities in England. Scotland had more universities in Victorian times ... I wonder if it was easier to get into a Scottish uni.
DUTA
absolutely. Learning ability had NOTHING to do with race, religious group, gender or even age. But I wonder if we are totally free of racism and sexism even now?
Deb and River
I cannot find any formal document that banned black men from Oxford or Cambridge, nor can I find if applicants sent their matriculation results by mail, or were interviewed in person. But I did find two important factors.
a] The universities relied on attracting only "quality men" by having huge fees (thus eliminating working-class families) and by making Latin compulsory (thus appealing only to clever Europeans. And
b] The colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge were autonomous and chose their own students. The Universities could not change the colleges' choices.
Margaret
Organisations like Target Oxbridge _do_ help African and Caribbean students heritage to secure places at Oxford and Cambridge, but some things change slowly. It took the uni a VERY long time to have a plaque crafted in honour of Cole, and it is in any case a very small plaque.
diane
it breaks my heart when deeply immoral people get to be prime ministers and presidents of nations, while talented moral people of the wrong religion or skin colour fail in their career dreams or die early.
Katarina
pioneers have to be very brave, and have to have a lot of support. Cole might have been the cleverest young man doing law, yet despite being called to the bar, none of his fellow lawyers helped him secure chambers in Britain
Hello Hels, When people apply to a fancy university, now or in the past, there is a series of sponsors and recommendations that would clue the university in on anything unusual about the student. Students tended to come from "feeder schools" so they were not unknown quantities when they applied. In the mid-20th century, photographs were required, which would reveal obvious racial characteristics, as well as let them guess if the students were Jewish or effeminate. This last was the greatest barrier of all; "gay"-seeming students, if they got in, were immediately dismissed or hounded to the point of suicide. Harvard was the most notorious in this regard.
.
That being said, and agreeing with everything you wrote in the main post, you know that I collect 19th century college photographs. For American colleges, at least, when Black or Asian students appear, they mostly seem well accepted, often at the center of small groups of friends. On the other hand, such students were so rare that they were probably viewed as a novelty, but they were not all automatically ostracized.
--Jim
Parnassus
After photography was well established, even sending photos could have led to "unwelcomed" students being accidentally admitted. Imagine the college authorities passing a photo around, asking each other how effeminate they thought a male was, or if a male had one Jewish grandparent or two. Mind you, I would have found rejecting an applicant outright less disgusting than admitting an applicant and then making his life a horror.
Parnassus
I had never heard the exact expression "feeder school", even though I understood that the top universities made decisions partially on the school an applicant had gone to. Apparently special grammar schools were originally Latin teaching schools, and therefore very suitable for preparing students for academic futures at top universities.
Hi Hels - there were a fair number of 'black' people living in the UK from Roman times - there was a lady found here on the Downs - she was Roman. I'm sure many of them were encouraged by the white male species ... who often did not credit them with the work they did. I've a number of books here to read on this subject - they make interesting reading. Thanks for the research and update - cheers Hilary
Hilary
Many thanks. If you have any books or journal articles I could find fairly easily, I would love to hear from you.
Both positive and sad. You and I have both experienced discrimination because of something about us that is not within our control. But we are white, and we cannot even imagine what base discrimination is like for black people
Boa tarde de segunda-feira minha querida amiga. Sou negro e sei o que é ser descriminado. Parabéns pelo seu trabalho e matéria.
Andrew
that universities were still racist and sexist in the Victorian era shouldn't surprise us too much. But that elite universities should have turned away very clever, ambitious students was beyond comprehension.
Luiz
I would have said that universities haven't made their admission decisions based on skin colour for a long time, hopefully. But read this and weep:
A bleak portrait of racial and social exclusion at Oxford and Cambridge has been shown in official data which shows that 20+ Oxbridge colleges made no offers to black candidates for undergraduate courses in 2009 and one Oxford college has not admitted a single black student in five years from 2005-10.
The Guardian, Tue 7th Dec 2010
Discrimination is bad on any count. Admire the perseverance of people who have battled it again and made a mark. Thanks for sharing this.
Pradeep
You have to really admire those who battled discrimination over and over again. Even those who were successful had to pay a high personal price.
I hope I would have been that strong, but I suspect that I might give up a battle too quickly.
Very interesting to read Hels.
It was a different world back then. I do admire the tenacity of these first people. They very first woman called to the bar of England & Wales was Helena Normanton. I've seen photos of her among so many male faces. I love how unfazed she was. A real trooper. :)
Liam
What a great university student and university lecturer she was! But when Helena Normanton applied to become a student at Middle Temple in 1918 was refused! She reapplied in Dec 1919, as soon as the Sex Disqualification Removal Act 1919 came into force, and was admitted to Middle Temple. Ivy Williams was the first woman called to the bar in Nov 1922 and immediately after, Normanton was the second. Of course this was a century after George Bridgetower, but she was still hugely brave.
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