Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105i/Section 22/Isaac Hathaway

Overview
Isaac Hathaway was a prominent sculptor who made art depicting famous African-Americans of his time. On February 2nd, 1939, he was interviewed by the Federal Writers Project in Macon County, Alabama.

Early Life
Isaac Hathaway was born April 4th, 1872 in Lexington, Kentucky. His parents were Robert Elijah Hathaway and Rachel Scott Hathaway. His father and grandmother raised him and his two sisters, Fannie and Eva, because his mother died early on. Robert Hathaway used to be slave for Garrett Davis, a U.S Senator, but escaped to fight for the Union in the Civil War, and later became a minister. In an interview with the Federal Writers' Project, Hathaway discusses a moment in his childhood when his father took him to an art exhibition in Cincinnati. Hathaway looked for a bust of Frederick Douglass, but could not find one. This is when his father told him that they, as black men, would have to "produce artists of our own race to portray our own great men". This led Hathaway to pursue a career in the arts. He graduated from Chandler Normal College and went to the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston for two years to study in the arts. After, he spent two years in the Cincinnati Art Academy. He also studied at Pittsburgh Normal School, focusing on pottery making, glazing, and firing. He studied ceramics at the State University of Kansas and at the College of Ceramics of the State University of New York at Alfred.

Life as an Educator
From 1897-1902, Hathaway taught at Keene High School. In 1915, he taught ceramics at the State School, Pine Bluff, in Arkansas, for two years, as well as teaching at the high school there. He taught a course in correlated art at Georgia State Industrial College in 1932 and taught a similar course at the Alabama State Teachers' College. In 1935, he was a guest lecturer on fine arts at Bishop's College in Texas and taught art in the Summer school in 1935 and 1936.

In 1947, Hathaway introduced ceramics at the all-white Auburn University (then called Auburn Polytechnic Institute). In 1948, he became director of ceramics at Alabama State College in Montgomery, his last job until his retirement in 1963.

Accomplishments as an Artist
Hathaway became a well-known sculptor through his detailed busts of prominent African-Americans, such as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Bishop Richard Allen, John L. Webb, and more. He established the Afro-Art company, although the name was later renamed the Isaac Hathaway Art Company. This company distributed his works to schools and colleges throughout the United States, and some to South America, the West Indies, and Canada.

Hathaway was commissioned to make a death mask of Cassius Marcellus Clay in 1904. He made death masks of famous African-Americans as well, becoming the first artist to do so. Also in 1904, he made a model for the Wayne suicide case and reproduced the Bath-Furnace meteorite for the Smithsonian Institute. In 1937, he helped found the Department of Ceramics at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. While in Tuskegee, he sculpted a bust of George Washington Carver, which stood twelve inches tall. Carver was also teaching at Tuskegee at the time, and the two became friends as Hathaway started to experiment with using Alabama clay. In 1945, Hathaway became the first artist on record to use Alabama kaolin clay as a medium.

In 1946, Hathaway was chosen to design a Booker T. Washington coin, becoming the first African-American to design a U.S. coin. He was chosen again in 1951 to design a coin of George Washington Carver.

Hathaway was the first African-American shown to be working professionally in a movie newsreel.

Personal Life
In 1912, Hathaway married Ettic Ramplin. She died after giving birth to their son, Elsmer. Elsmer died in 1941 due to an unknown reason. Hathaway married a second time, but ended when the two divorced. In 1926 he met his third wife Umer Porter, who was also an artist. On March 12, 1967, Hathaway died in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Great Debate of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois
In the early twentieth century, two opposing ideas arose in the African-American community. These ideas concerned how African-Americans should advocate for the advancement of people of color in American culture. At the forefront of one side of the debate was Booker T. Washington. He believed that African-Americans should "prove themselves" in order to gain equal rights. He said this means they should focus on progressing themselves rather than speaking out against inequality because they could combat inequality by bettering their reputation. He also rejected higher education for African-Americans, stating that industrial education and training were the "means for black economic progress." Essentially, he wanted to incorporate African-American needs into the white power structure. W. E. B. Dubois challenged Washington's philosophy. He became a major spokesman for black civil rights, economic advancement, and educational excellence. He did not believe in maintaining the status quo as Washington did but rather promoted challenging it. He also advocated for a group of African-American leaders to work in black communities to help the advancement of other African-Americans. For this reason, he did not contradict Washington's idea of a focus on industrial training because he agreed that some African-Americans would still receive this type of training. Dubois promoted the use of college educated leaders and was concerned with Washington's ideas because in his view, they threatened the institutions of black colleges. Dubois's argument is interesting in that he advocates against universal college education for African-Americans on the basis that "a disproportionate number of our college-trained stu- dents are crowding into teaching and medicine," which he said had taken attention away from African-American's economic problem.

Washington and Dubois's debate came at a time when the place of African-Americans in society was changing. African-Americans faced economic challenges in the South. Few African-Americans owned property, causing them to have to rent. This drained funds, resulting in a dependence on credit. African-Americans were therefore unable to progress economically in the South. Another change that occurred was the Great Migration, when a large number of African-Americans from the South migrated to the North. This happened for a number of reasons, including the difficulties they faced in the South and the beginning of World War I. However, they still faced prejudice in the North. African-Americans were excluded from housing, and there were dozens of race riots.

Contributions of Washington and Dubois to Vocational Education
Vocational education is education that prepares people to work in a skilled craft or trade. Both Washington and Dubois made contributions to this type of education throughout their careers.

Washington established the Tuskegee Institute for the education of African-Americans. He developed two forms of education when he saw the worsening condition of agriculture in Tuskegee: adult and extension education. His idea of extending on-campus programs to adult farmers in Tuskegee helped them to become self-sufficient and increased their productivity.

Dubois's efforts to promote higher education for African-Americans were instrumental in Southern higher education institutions' approach to educating freed slaves and their children. His role in the formation of the NAACP helped provide the foundation for vocational educators to integrate programs and youth organizations.