Roscoe Conkling Bruce Sr. (1879 - 1950)

Born 21 Apr 1879 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Clara Washington (Burrill) Bruce — married 3 Jun 1903 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Descendants

Died 16 Aug 1950 at age 71 in New York City, New York, United States

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Biography

Roscoe Bruce Sr. is Notable.

Roscoe Conkling Bruce, a protégé of Booker T. Washingon, was an American educator who became known for stressing the value of practical industrial and business skills as opposed to academic disciplines for Black students. His goal as head of the Academic Department of Tuskegee from 1902-1906 was to make it "a first class industrial school rather than a second class academic."^[1]

Life Events

Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce and his wife Josephine Beall Willson.

Roscoe was born on April 21, 1879, in Washington D.C., United States,^[2] the only child of U.S. Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce and his wife Josephine Beall Willson.^[3] He was named for Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, in gratitude for his support of Blanche, a freed slave, on his entry to the U.S. Senate, only the second Black to do so, and the first to serve a full term.^[4]

On June 4, 1880, 13-month-old Roscoe was living with his family on M Street in Washington, D.C. with his father, Blanche, U.S. Senator, and mother, Josephine (recorded as Jenne); as well as the household staff: 22-year-old Virginia-born Jesse Scott; 30-year-old Virginia-born Alice Scott; and 30-year-old Maryland-born Lizzie Perkins.^[5]

Roscoe's father died in March 1898, with his obituaries naming many of the luminaries of the Washington political scene, including Frederick Douglass, and President William McKinley.^[6] Roscoe was to inherit his father's library, all else (after payment of any pre-existing debts, and providing for funeral expenses) going to his mother.

On June 8, 1900, Roscoe, a 21 year old student, was a resident in the dormitories of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[7] Upon graduating magna cum laude from Harvard in 1902, he was hired by Booker T. Washington to take over the Academics Department of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (where his mother was the dean of women), and push forward Washington's plan to foster self-reliance and practical skills in Black students.^[4]

At the age of 24 years, Roscoe and Clara Washington Burrill were married on June 3, 1903, in Washington, D.C.^[8] Roscoe and Clara were to have three children: a daughter, Clara Josephine, and two sons, Roscoe Conkling, Jr., and Burrill Kelso.

In 1905 he spoke eloquently at Harvard on his views on the role of education for African Americans at that time.^[9]

With the support of Booker T. Washington, he moved his family from Tuskegee back to Washington D.C., and became the supervising principal of a district, controlling one quarter of the black schools in 1906,^[9] and soon was promoted to Assistant Superintendent in charge of the Colored Schools of the District of Columbia.^[10]

On January 2, 1920, Roscoe, an assistant superintendent of schools, was living in Washington, D.C., with his family: his wife, Clara; their children, 15-year-old Clara, 13-year-old Roscoe Jr, and 10-year-old Burrill; and Roscoe's widowed mother, 63-year-old Josephine Beall (Willson) Bruce.^[11] Clara's sister, Mary, and brother, Edmond, were living next door.

He resigned his position in 1921 after a scandal involving the behavior of one of his employees. He took a position organizing secondary education for Black students in Kimball, West Virginia, and than as principal of a high school there, before moving in 1927 to Harlem in New York, where he lived the rest of his life.^[4] In April of 1930 the Bruce family was living on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, New York. Both Clara and Roscoe were managers of real estate. Also residing with them at the time were their daughter, Clara, now married, and her son, one-year-old Barrington (named for his father, actor Barrington Guy); their youngest son, 20-year-old Burrill; and Roscoe Jr, and his wife, Bessie, a stenographer and novelist.^[12]

Roscoe Conkling Bruce died on August 16, 1950, in New York City, aged 71 years; he was buried beside his wife in Woodlawn Cemetery in Benning, Washington, D.C.^[13]

Other Reading

Roscoe was not without controversy in his life. His stance on emphasizing practical learning and skills, as opposed to academic qualifications, had him at odds with fellow educators and the parents of many of those he wished to train. His alliance with Booker T. Washington put him on the wrong side of many influential Black leaders, such as W.E.B. Dubois and the editor of the Washington Bee, a prominent African-American newspaper.

[T]he support of [[Booker T.] Washington was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, his political machine provided resources and support not available to most blacks; on the other hand, this support pigeonholed Bruce into a reliance upon Washington since the opposition to Washington extended to encompass Bruce. The assistant superintendent lacked the strength to stand alone against his detractors. The opposition, led by W. Calvin Chase, editor of the Washington Bee, sniped and fought with Bruce throughout his tenure with the District's schools. Curriculum, hiring and firing, as well as Bruce's personal life were used adroitly by Chase to help topple Bruce. Nevertheless, the unwavering support of Washington and a white-dominated school board allowed Bruce to continue as assistant superintendent despite the strident attacks of Chase and others. The death of Washington in 1915 left the Tuskegee machine in the District of Columbia in disarray. In addition, the long struggle to protect Bruce had wearied the resolve of the school board to continue the defense.^[10]

What followed was the last straw. In addition to those education-related issues, Bruce was also caught up in scandal when an instructor he hired, Dutch Professor Herman Marie Bernolet Moens, an ethnologist, took naked photographs of Black high school students. Moens was later charged with possession of a number of obscene pictures, and admitted at his subsequent trial that he had had "illicit relations" with at least one under-aged girl, and to frequenting prostitutes.^[4]

Following the scandal with Moens, a movement was begun to have Bruce removed from his position in education, leading to charges against him in April 1919. The charges brought against him had no legal standing, and the school board determined that he was competent to remain. However, the Parent's League took their outrage to Congress, where it was resolved that he was not a good administrator, but was of sound character.^[4]

Scandal, once engaged, seemed to stick like glue. Roscoe's son, Roscoe Jr., spent a year-and-a-half in prison for embezzling from an apartment complex in New Jersey where he had been the manager, and then arranging a fake burglary to cover it up. The legal costs sent the senior Bruces into bankruptcy, and their elite friends abandoned them. Roscoe and Clara were reduced to living on welfare.^[4]

Daughter Clara attracted her own drama and gossip by leaving Radcliffe before graduating, when she eloped with an actor. The younger Clara and her husband, Barrington Guy, an actor, avoided racism, but not criticism, by using their light complexions to "pass" as white.^[4]

The only family member to avoid the taint of scandal was Burrill, by doing nothing at all to draw any kind of notice. He faded into obscurity, barely rating a mention in the book written about his grandparents, The Senator and the Socialite: the True Story of America's First Black Dynasty, by Lawrence Otis Graham.^[14]

Sources

1. ↑ Andrew Zimmerman, Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South (NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010).
2. ↑ United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Name: Roscoe Conkling Bruce; Race: Black; Birth Date: 21 Apr 1879; Residence Date: 1917-1918; Street Address: 1716- 17" NW; Residence Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Draft Board: 09; Physical Build: Medium; Height: Medium; Eye Color: Brown; Relative: Clara Burrill Bruce
3. ↑ Social Security: "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007"
   Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007
   Ancestry Record 60901 #8649359 (accessed 9 August 2022)
   Name: Roscoe Conkling Bruce; Gender: Male; Race: Black; Birth Date: 21 Apr 1879; Birth Place: Washington, District of Columbia; Father: Blanche K Bruce; Mother: Josephine B Willson; Notes: Dec 1936: Name listed as ROSCOE CONKLING BRUCE.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6} Roscoe Conkling Bruce on Wikipedia — Wikipedia contributors, "Roscoe Conkling Bruce," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Conkling_Bruce (accessed April 30, 2022).
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6C7-JJJ : 12 November 2020), Roscoe Conkling Bruce in household of B. K. Bruce, Washington, District of Columbia, United States; citing enumeration district ED 27, sheet 82B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,122.
6. ↑ Father's Death — "United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q593-YLFH : 18 July 2020), Roscoe C Bruce in entry for Mr Blanch Bruce and Hon Blanche K Bruce, 1898.
7. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9RY-MBN : accessed 7 February 2021), Roscoe C Bruce in household of James C Donalson, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 678, sheet 10B, family 68, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,656.
8. ↑ "District of Columbia Marriages, 1811-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XLQB-K58 : 15 January 2021), Roscoe C Bruce and Clara W Burrill, 03 Jun 1903; citing p. 82, Records Office, Washington D.C.; FHL microfilm 2,108,265. Name: Roscoe C Bruce; Event Type: Marriage; Event Date: 03 Jun 1903; Event Place: District of Columbia, United States; Sex: Male; Age: 24; Birth Year (Estimated): 1879; Spouse's Name: Clara W Burrill; Spouse's Sex: Female; Spouse's Age: 23; Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated): 1880
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Roscoe Conkling Bruce, “Freedom Through Education,” (1905) BlackPast.org. (2007, January 28). Address delivered in Sanders Theater, Memorial Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Memorial Day, 1905.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Douglas Eugene Pielmeier, "Roscoe Conkling Bruce and the District of Columbia's Public Schools, 1906 to 1921," Thesis, (College Park, Md: University of Maryland)
11. ↑ "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNLT-RSC : 1 February 2021), Roscoe C Bruce, 1920.
12. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4GB-YNQ : accessed 7 February 2021), Roscoe C Bruce, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1226, sheet 39B, line 51, family 677, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1578; FHL microfilm 2,341,313.
13. ↑ Burial — Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 06 February 2021), memorial page for Roscoe Conkling Bruce Sr. (21 Apr 1879–16 Aug 1950), Find A Grave: Memorial #58916212, citing Woodlawn Cemetery, Benning, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, USA; Maintained by Clifford (contributor 47115422).
14. ↑ Available to read online at scribd.com (date: 202102007) - availability may not last.

• BDM registrations, census returns.

• "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZFW-914 : 20 January 2021), Roscoe Conkling Bruce, 1917-1918.
• "United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XR5D-K4X : 24 November 2020), Roscoe Conkling Bruce, 1942; citing NARA microfilm publication M1936, M1937, M1939, M1951, M1962, M1964, M1986, M2090, and M2097 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• Wife's Death — "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WYM-3X1 : 3 June 2020), Roscoe C. Bruce in entry for Clara Bruce, 1947.
• Obituary — "United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPB6-NC3X : 18 July 2020), Roscoe C Bruce, 1950.

See also:

• Wikipedia: Roscoe Conkling Bruce
• Wikidata: Item Q7367503, en:Wikipedia

• Gutenberg.org

• Oxford African American Studies Center

• Black New Yorkers

• Library of Congress

• Black Past — African American History (1905) ROSCOE CONKLING BRUCE, “FREEDOM THROUGH EDUCATION”