Irvine Garland Penn
| Irvine Garland Penn | |
|---|---|
Penn in 1913
|
|
| Born |
October 7, 1867 New Glasgow, Virginia |
| Died | July 22, 1930 (aged 62) Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Alma mater | Rust College, Wiley College |
| Occupation | Educator, writer, journalist |
| Religion | Methodist |
Irvine Garland Penn (October 7, 1867 – July 22, 1930) was an educator, journalist, and lay leader in the Methodist Episcopal church in the United States. He was the author of The Afro-American Press and Its Editors, published in 1891, and a coauthor with Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and Ferdinand Lee Barnettof The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbia Exposition in 1893. In the late 1890s, he became an officer in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he played an important role in advocating for the interests of African Americans in the church until his death.
Irvine Garland Penn was born on October 7, 1867 in New Glasgow, Virginia. He moved to Lynchburg, Virginia at the age of 5. He entered the newspaper business before his senior year in high school, and finished high school some time later. He continued his education, eventually receiving a master's degree from Rust College in 1890 and a doctorate from Wiley College in 1908.
In 1886, he was a correspondent for the Richmond Planet, the Knoxville Negro World, and the New York Age, and frequently wrote about African Americans. In 1886, he became editor of a small black paper called the Laborer. In 1887 he became teacher in Lynchburg. He was promoted to principal of the school in 1895.
His writing became well known and frequently took on civil rights and injustice faced by African Americans. He published a volume of biographies of African American newspaper editors and journalists, The Afro-American Press and Its Editors, in 1891. In 1893, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Ferdinand Lee Barnett, and Penn published a pamphlet, The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbia Exposition, as a part of a boycott by African Americans of the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition in response to segregation of African American exhibits. Two years later, he was the director and organizer for the African American exhibits at the 1895 Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition, and was important in the decision to put Booker T. Washington in a leading role, which partially launched Washington into the national spotlight.
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