Finding Charles H. Thompson, the lost president of Alcorn State University
By Tony A. Bounds and Dr. Donzell Lee
JA Guest Writers
It is generally commonplace for a college’s chronicled history to be personified through its presidents. Institutions of higher learning customarily highlight both their lauded accomplishments and disastrous failures within the tenures of respective administrations. Presidential chronologies are guiding scopes that provide telling insight into the evolution of our nation’s educational system. The set order by which they have been recorded are seldomly called into question. However, on rare occasions, the scholarly call emerges that warrants us to revisit a college’s presidential chronology. This has been such a case for one of Mississippi’s most noted schools.
The great conflict brought about by the Civil War, which lasted from 1861-1865, left a populace of formerly enslaved Black people beset by long standing social and political disenfranchisement. Congressional policies that closely crafted Southern Reconstruction sought with earnest intention to provide educational opportunities for African Americans. Through this endeavor, Alcorn University was established in 1871. The institution’s birth came during the term of Republican Governor James L. Alcorn and was subsequently named in his honor. Governor Alcorn then made choice of Hiram Revels, the nation’s first Black Senator, to lead the college. The University’s official history has held that Revels served in this position until 1882. However, a former Alcorn administrator’s attention to details and affinity for narratives have caused a recent stir.
This aspect of the school’s historic past began to be questioned in 2018 when then Interim President Dr. Donzell Lee was reading a biographical work on Revels. The publication referenced his two-year departure from Alcorn. It was then Dr. Lee realized the glaring contradiction between the university’s official presidential chronology and historically valid documents. Being prompted by a genuine curiosity, he diligently searched through available holdings held within the J.D. Boyd Library on campus in hopes of solving the mystery but to no avail. He also sought assistance from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Although initially unsuccessful, he purposed not to abandon the worthy quest.
In 2023, Dr. Lee was appointed as Interim President of Tougaloo College. In time, he was provided an overview of the school’s noted hallmarks by Institutional Historian Tony Bounds. When made aware that Hiram Revels had also served on Tougaloo’s Trustee Board in 1871, Lee seized this moment to initiate a dialogue regarding Revel’s departure from Alcorn. He further expressed his long-held desire to search out an obscure portion of the university’s past. Swiftly managing the enlistment of an intrigued colleague, he obtained the needed assistance that would aid him in finding Alcorn’s lost President. Over the year that followed, both surmised the only viable path remaining which might possibly solve the lingering mystery pointed again towards the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
The pressing inquiry was made to Andrew McNulty, a Cultural Resource Specialist at the state’s historical repository, who intently gave ear to the dilemma. It was readily agreed that the elusive answer would likely be revealed within the records of Governor Adelbert Ames who held the state’s highest office from 1874 to 1876. Fortunately, Governor Ames’ collection had recently been fully processed. The key to uncovering forgotten pages of Alcorn University’s narrative were promisingly just mere steps away. After the careful review of communications received by the Governor’s Office in 1874, there remained only the letter of resignation of Revels to Ames. No corroborating documentation identified Revel’s successor. Then finally, a single letter penned the following year on August 14, 1875, would yield the long anticipated answer. It read in part, “Dear Sir, Allow me to express to you my heartfelt thanks for the kindness and justice you do in reappointing me to the Office of President of Alcorn University,” signed by C. H. Thompson. The long-awaited answer had been found. Ironically, the welcomed discovery only inspired more questions. The preserved materials that followed in tandem laid bare a tumultuous administration.
A somewhat shrouded figure, Reverend Charles H. Thompson hailed from Little York, Pennsylvania. Born in 1820, he travelled across much of New England during his childhood with his father. After wedding Elizabeth Berry, they initially resided in New York City. By the mid Nineteenth Century, he became associated with American Missionary Association (AMA) that evolved from the Amistad Affair of 1839. The abolitionist society was mainly sustained by Congregationalist and Presbyterian Churches. This racially progressive entity sponsored Thompson’s education at Oberlin College where he successfully graduated in 1860.
Pursuing his call to Christian Ministry, he placed as Pastor of the Plane Street Colored Presbyterian Church located in Newark, New Jersey, the following year. Here, the couple remained for over a decade. In 1870, he attained his Doctor of Divinity from Avery College, going on to be secured as an educator and minister within the AMA. The organization ardently supported the social development of emancipated Freedmen across the South amid Reconstruction. It also played a pivotal role in founding several academic institutions that among them were included Tougaloo and Straight College that later merged with Dillard University.
Thompson was eventually called upon to assume pastoral leadership at St. Phillip’s Church in New Orleans. Coupled with his religious assignment also came an appointment on Straight’s faculty. Albeit the clergyman’s stay there was short lived. The dynamics of Mississippi’s gubernatorial election in 1873 positioned him to secure a more esteemed station as Alcorn University’s President. The race fought between Republican candidates James L. Alcorn and Adelbert Ames would indelibly determine the school’s next presidential appointment. Hiram Revels, who had headed the institution from its inception, joined the political fray by backing Alcorn. Despite his widely regarded status, Mississippi’s electorate could not favorably be swayed. Ames, after clinching victory, in standard fashion began the process of rewarding allies with prestigious appointments. Revels, perceiving the approaching inevitable, preempted his removal by resigning on July 27, 1874.
While no materials remain that clearly depict Thompson’s first year as president, surviving letters from 1875 vividly convey a troubled tenure. The college’s foremost figure proved sorely unequipped for the volatile climate that customarily surrounded political appointments. Regrettably, he came under the scrutiny of a Board of Trustees Investigative Committee shortly after extending gratitude to the governor for being reappointed in August. R. L. Evans, chairman of the Investigative Committee, in a letter submitted to Ames dated October 1, 1875, reported, “He [Thompson] has performed little or no duty as an Instructor and as an Executive Officer his administration has been a failure in this that he has rendered himself personally and officiously unpopular.” He continued, “As a financier his administration has been unfortunate much money has been uselessly expended and very little received in return…” This assessment certainly exacerbated Alcorn’s financial standing considering harsh legislative budgetary cuts a year prior and its outstanding debts among local merchants.
At Thompson’s arrival during 1874, he additionally accepted the position as Ex-Officio Superintendent of Properties. It appears after the newly appointed administrator took leave from campus, a rash of robberies and thefts occurred further complicating matters. The Investigative Committee’s assessment read in closing, “In view of these facts, we believe that the best interest of the institution require that Dr. Thompson should resign and as to the funds of the University are very low we recommend that there be no president appointed to take charge of the University before the first day of January next year.” Thompson in turn penned a letter the following day adamantly defending his conduct to the Governor.
He proceeded to detail the Board’s past egregious actions which undermined his authority. Thompson specifically noted the appointment of an individual as the Education Department’s Chair without his approval. The body also extended the unnamed academic broad authority in selecting assistant teachers. These disconcerting accounts prompted him to offer his resignation. The sole stipulation made by the President required that he be advanced one year’s salary. Having already cited the school’s budgetary shortfall, the Board unequivocally denied this request. Alcorn’s embattled leader in turn withdrew the proffered resignation. Thompson, in a measured attempt aimed at reconciliation with the Trustees, began teaching a limited schedule of courses. On site classroom observations were soon conducted by the Investigative Committee. To the absolute consternation of the President, he was given a less than favorable evaluation. On November 12, 1875, Board members again formally petitioned for his expulsion.
Alcorn’s chief administrator retaliated in a letter forwarded to the governor. He stated, “Of the 23 students in attendance since the opening of school, 8 have left, on the account of the arbitrary and oppressive ruling of these Trustees. I write you this letter, Governor, at the request of merchants at Rodney, and prominent citizens in the vicinity of the University. These gentlemen say they will sign a petition to the Governor, if need be, asking for the appointment of a mixed Board. They say that if the colored people want the Institution sustained by a Democratic Legislature, they must ask the Governor to appoint a Board composed of both political parties.” By the year’s closing, the campus had descended into a chaotic scene.
The situation was clearly problematic for Governor Ames, but other critical statewide issues warranted his attention. As Union troops were gradually being withdrawn from the state, intimidation and violence steadily reemerged against Black people. Political power within Mississippi ebbed back into the grasp of defeated Confederates. Relying only on drastically diminished federal forces and having no state militia, the governor lacked the power to restore order. All the while elected black officials and political candidates became defenseless victims of mob violence.
Democrats who held the state legislature ultimately initiated impeachment hearings against Governor Ames without probable cause. To avoid sure removal, he relinquished his office on March 29, 1876. Neither could Thompson hold the reigns of the Presidency at Alcorn. Both figures tendered their resignations in the same year. Now deposed, Alcorn’s former leader soon departed the state. As Thompson’s failed administration ended, the political acumen of Hiram Revels secured him a second term as Alcorn University’s president. Revels returned to the college as an appointee of incoming Governor John M. Stone and remained at its helm until 1882. Historical accounts relay that Dr. Charles H. Thompson permanently withdrew from his pursuits in higher academe along with politics and fully committed himself to Christian Ministry. He died during the year of 1902 and was interred in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Sources: Governor Adelbert Ames Collection (Mississippi Department of Archives & History) and https://radiantrootsboricuabranches.com.
