William H. Perry of Louisville, Ky

Description:	Portrait of Dr. William Henry Perry, Sr. (1860-1946). He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. The son of former slaves with connections to the Lost Creek community. He was educated in local segregated schools in the city where his mother was a teacher, until the family moved to Louisville, Ky, in 1876. He graduated from Central High School in that city, with honors in 1877, and began a teaching career. He was made principal of the Eastern School (later Booker T. Washington School) in 1881, and of the Western Elementary School in 1893. He earned a Bachelors of Law from Louisvilles Central Law School (Simmons University) in 1892, (of which he also later became Vice President) was instrumental in founding the Kentucky State Industrial College for Negroes (now Kentucky State University), in 1886 served as president of the Kentucky Negro Education Association (1885-1887) President of the Kentucky State Teachers Association became a 33rd degree Scottish Rite mason was one of the founders of the (Negro) Red Cross Hospital of Louisville, in 1899 studied foreign languages under a private tutor studied literature and journalism at the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (New York) in 1893 returned to Terre Haute to study business at the Terre Haute Commercial College studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Chicago, and later earned a medical degree from Illinois Medical College at Chicago (now Loyola University Medical School) in 1907. He passed the Illinois State Board the same year, and when he passed the Kentucky Board exam in 1908, he became the first African American Board Certified physician in the state. He retired from the public education system in 1927, but continued to teach nursing courses at the Red Cross Hospital. The Western Elementary School where he had served as principal for 35 years was posthumously named for him in 1952
Origin:	c1920
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/lcg/id/40
Collection:	Lost Creek Grove
Subjects:	African American Medicine People

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