Joseph Carter Corbin
| Joseph Carter Corbin | |
|---|---|
Corbin in 1887.
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| Born |
March 26, 1833 Chillicothe, Ohio |
| Died | January 9, 1911 (aged 77) Pine Bluff, Arkansas |
| Alma mater | Ohio University |
| Occupation | Educator, journalist |
| Political party | Republican |
Joseph Carter Corbin (March 26, 1833 – January 9, 1911) was an educator from Ohio and Arkansas. He was a founder and the first principal at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff from 1875 until 1902. Before the end of slavery, he was a journalist, teacher, and conductor on the Underground Railroad in Ohio and Kentucky. After the American Civil War (1861-1865) ended slavery, he moved to Arkansas and then to Missouri where he continued to teach. From 1873 to 1874 he was superintendent of public schools in Arkansas. He ended his career in education spending a decade as principal of Merrill High School in Pine Bluff.
Joseph Carter Corbin was born in Chillicothe, Ohio on March 26, 1833 to William and Susan Corbin. William and Susan were from Richmond, Virginia, where they were slaves before they moved to Chillicothe. Joseph was their eldest son, and he attended schools in Chillicothe where John Mercer Langston was a classmate. At the age of 15, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky and taught in schools there as an assistant to Henry Adams, who would become his brother-in-law. After a few years he moved back to Ohio and attended Ohio University, where he graduated in 1853. He returned to Louisville where his father's family lived and took work as a clerk, first in a mercantile agency and then in a bank. He was also active in the Underground Railroad as a part of a circle involving John Patterson Sampson, S. W. C. Liverpool, John McLeod, and Louis D. Eastin. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Corbin edited and published the Colored Citizen in Cincinnati. At this time, Corbin was a member of the "colored school board committee" with a number of local black leaders, including William Henry Harrison. Sometime after the war he was granted a A. M. and Ph. D. from his alma mater.
In 1872, Corbin was hired as a reporter for the Arkansas Daily Republican and moved to Arkansas. There he was appointed chief clerk of the Little Rock Post Office and in 1873 the state superintendent of public schools which he served for two years, defeating Thomas Smith for the position. In 1873, with Corbin's urging, the legislature approved the creation of Branch Normal College at Pine Bluff, to be the black arm of the state university and later known as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Corbin was being dismissed after Democratic takeover of government in the Brooks–Baxter War of 1874. He then taught at the Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, Missouri for two years.
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