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| [[Image:St Mark's School.jpg|right|thumb|275px|St Mark's Academic and Industrial School's second building, shown in a 1909 publication]] | | #REDIRECT [[St Mark's School]] |
| '''St Mark's Academic and Industrial School''' was a private school founded in [[1892]] by [[James Van Hoose]], deacon of the [[Cathedral Church of the Advent]] and later [[Mayor of Birmingham]], for the education of African American children. The school was the first in Birmingham to offer secondary education to black students. Although it charged a modest tuition, the school was funded primarily by the [[Episcopal Diocese of Alabama]], the Episcopal Board of Missions and the American Church Institute for Negroes.
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| The school was established on a side street with just 8 students and two teachers, both white women from New York and Michigan, respectively. In [[1899]] [[Charles Brooks (minister)|Charles Brooks]] came to Birmingham from Baltimore, Maryland to serve as pastor at [[St Mark's Episcopal Church]] and as principal of the school. High school grades were added under his leadership, and the school awarded its first high school diploma in [[1900]].
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| In [[1911]] the school had 358 students (of which 300 were girls) and eight teachers. All but 8 of the boys and 62 of the girls were in the elementary grades. By [[1914]] enrollment was reduced to 192, of which 171 were in the elementary grades, and the staff was seven strong. By then a two-story brick building had been completed.
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| Later a new four-story brick school building was completed on the corner of [[18th Street South|18th Street]] and [[4th Avenue South|Avenue D]] (4th Avenue South) in [[Southside]].
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| In addition to basic education and literature, the school taught industrial arts and practical courses in cooking, sewing, laundering and housekeeping to students typically destined to work as servants or laborers.
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| ==Notable graduates==
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| * [[Mattie Lula Parham]], grandmother of [[Condoleezza Rice]]
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| ==References==
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| * United States Bureau of Education (1912) ''Report of the Commissioner of Education Made to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year Ended June 30, 1911''. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office.
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| * {{Owen-1921}}
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| * Smith, Barbara (1976) ''St Mark's Academic and Industrial School, 1892-1940''. Birmingham. privately printed.
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| * Fallin, Wilson (1997) ''The African American Church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1815-1963: A Shelter in the Storm.'' New York, New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0815328834
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| * Schnorrenberg, Barbara (December 2002) "The Best School for Blacks in the State': St. Mark's Academic and Industrial School, Birmingham, Alabama, 1892-1940." ''Anglican and Episcopal History.'' - originally a presentation delivered to the 5th Southern Conference on Women's History in 2000.
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| [[Category:Former schools]]
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| [[Category:1892 buildings]]
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| [[Category:18th Street South]]
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| [[Category:4th Avenue South]]
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| [[Category:Demolished buildings]]
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| [[Category:Diocese of Alabama]]
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