Sarah J.
Smith Thompson Garnet
July 31,
1831 to September 17, 1911
African-American teacher,
school principal, and civic worker, Garnet was born in Queens County,
Long Island, New York, the first of eleven children of Sylvanus and
Annie (Springstead) Smith. Her parents, both of mixed
African-American and Native American stock, were landholders and
successful farmers. Since there were no schools available for
African-American children in the immediate vicinity, Sarah received
her early education from her paternal grandmother, Sylvia Hobbs, who
maintained a school in the attic of her home on Hempstead Plains. At
the age of fourteen Sarah began teaching in an African free school, a
caste school established by the Manumission Society in Williamsburgh
(later part of Brooklyn), N.Y. At the same time she studied at
various normal schools in and around New York City. Her first
teaching assignment in the public school system was the principalship
of a grammar school in New York City which was subsequently
designated as P.S. (Public School) 80. She served continuously as
principal of this school from the date of her appointment, April 30,
1863, to the date of her retirement, Sept. 10, 1900. The last years
of her life she devoted to the seamstress shop which she had begun in
1883, along with her teaching, on Hancock Street in Brooklyn.
Mrs. Garnet had the distinction of being the first African-American
woman to attain the rank of principal in the New York City public
school system, and she was considered a most efficient administrator.
The public presentations and closing exercises of her school--among
them the "Literary Salads" made up of quotations from standard
authors--always drew large crowds. Some measure of the quality of her
work may be found in her students, who included Harry H. Williamson,
podiatrist and author; Walter F. Craig, violinist; and Florence T.
Ray, Fannie Murray, and S. Elizabeth Frazier, who became successful
teachers and leaders in the public schools. On a lesser scale, she
touched the lives of many through the night school program which she
initiated, emphasizing, in addition to literary education, sewing,
homemaking, and vocational training. Mrs. Garnet was both resourceful
and persistent. Though frail of body, she had an "unconscious grace
and dignity," a serenity and tact, that won the regard of both her
pupils and her supervisors.
Combined with a successful career in teaching and administration were
marriage and family life. At an early age she was wed to the Rev.
James Thompson, an Episcopal Minister who became the rector of the
St. Matthew Free Church of Brooklyn. Mrs. Thompson became an active
member of his church and remained an Episcopalian throughout her
life. Thompson died in the late 1860's, leaving her with two
children, both of whom died young. About 1879, she became the second
wife of the Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, a noted educator,
Presbyterian clergyman, and abolitionist. His death in 1882 left her
again a widow.
Inspired, perhaps, by Garnet's active role in public affairs, and
aided by her prominence as the widow of so renowned a leader, Mrs.
Garnet in her later years took part in several organizations devoted
to the uplift of the African-American people. She was the founder and
leading spirit of the Equal Suffrage Club, a small organization of
black women in Brooklyn which met in her shop or in her home to
advance the cause of political rights for women; although of limited
influence, the group remained in existence from the late 1880's until
her death. She early joined the National Association of Colored
Women, serving in modest capacities for several years. She was active
in efforts to remove discriminations against African-American
teachers in New York and on one occasion, it is said, joined Bishop
W. B. Derrick in testifying before the state legislature at Albany.
In 1911 she went to London, England, as a delegate to the first
Universal Races Congress. On her return, although then eighty years
of age, she actively distributed to her club suffrage literature she
had acquired in England. She died that fall at her Brooklyn home of
arteriosclerosis and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. A
younger sister of Mrs. Garnet, Susan Maria (Smith) McKinney Steward
(1845-1918), graduated from the New York Medical School for
Women and Children and pursued a successful career as a physician in
Brooklyn and later at Wilberforce University in Ohio.
Article published in "Notable American
Women" Volume II
written by Leedell W. Neyland and ©1971 by Radcliffe
College
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