This is a special year for St. Philip’s College. It is kicking off its 125th anniversary on March 1.
St. Philip’s started in 1898 as a church school where a small group of African American girls learned marketable skills – cooking, sewing and caring for the sick. At the time, there were limited opportunities for blacks to advance in the workforce and fewer opportunities for the children and grandchildren of emancipated slaves to build skills.
At the turn of the last century, exclusionary educational practices prohibited students of color, especially women, from obtaining the training necessary for careers that opened doors to the middle class. Consequently, schools founded specifically to educate ethnic, religious and gender-based affiliate groups grew to meet the needs of minoritized populations and support local economies.
Editor’s note: This article begins a series that celebrates Black History Month by recognizing the contribution of Black leaders, students and community advocates in the history of our nation’s community colleges.
St. Philip’s began as a private school under the leadership of Bishop James Steptoe Johnson, who also founded the Texas Military Institution. A lawyer and Confederate, Johnson was the son of a prominent slave-holding family in Mississippi. He became an ordained priest in 1871.
An educator’s dream
Within a few years, the bishop hired then-23-year-old Artemisia Bowden, the daughter of former slaves. Bowden dreamed that St. Philip’s would be a great school. In her 52 years, she grew the institution from a day school to a normal school to an industrial school to a junior college.
In the 1930s, when the Episcopal Church withdrew funding for the school, Bowden raised money by refusing a salary, taking students on singing tours across the U.S., donating her personal property, employing family members without a salary and bartering in the neighborhood by selling eggs, chickens and vegetables.
Women like Artemisia Bowden and her friend, Mary McLeod Bethune, represented a minority of African American women at the helm of schools that would later become Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Today, St. Philip’s College has the unique distinction of being the only public college designated as both an HBCU and a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI).
Part of Bowden’s legacy is the establishment of San Antonio Union Junior College District, known today as Alamo Colleges District. The uncertainty of funding led to the decision to first align with the local school district, then create a college district.
When the district was formed, Bowden was demoted in name only from president to dean. As an African American woman, she was not allowed into the board room where decisions affecting the lives of St. Philip’s College students were made and was relegated to a chair in the hall. St. Philip’s College and San Antonio College, the founding institutions of the district, are joined today by Northeast Lakeview College, Northwest Vista College and Palo Alto College.
Bowden ushered the college through the expansion of the GI Bill, which resulted in an enrollment boom, and the integration of white students. Her dream was for St. Philip’s College to become a baccalaureate-offering institution.
In August 2015, Saint Artemisia Bowden was named president emeritus by Alamo Colleges District Board of Trustees and was named a saint, a holy woman by the Episcopal Church.
Power by degrees
St. Philip’s filled a need to educate Blacks in San Antonio. Because there was such a lack of access to education and training for African Americans, the college drew students from across Texas and from neighboring states where there were no opportunities for continuing education and degree attainment.
Education has an impact on families and is the backbone of economic stability and generational wealth. With many first-generation students still enrolling in St. Philip’s College, we are still addressing a significant element in that children of college-educated parents are more likely to earn college degrees, and degree attainment is key to the middle class. Leadership and marketable skills have opened doors to high-wage, high-demand careers.
125 years and beyond
SPC works with industry partners to ensure that what students learn in the classroom aligns with the skills needed in the workforce. In many programs, our lab equipment surpasses what students find in the real world, so our graduates are qualified through emerging technologies and prepared for the future.
For example, San Antonio’s workforce in one of the largest cyber hubs in the U.S. Our students learn in innovative labs, including an onsite cyber range, which can be configured to mimic real-world scenarios.
On January 26, St. Philip’s College earned approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to begin offering a bachelor of applied technology in cybersecurity degree, pending approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. This is the realization of Saint Bowden’s dream.
As we move closer to our 125th anniversary, we keep our eyes on the role the college will play in the years going forward.
