Last week I began a new series commemorating Black History Month which focused on education as a safety instrument for thousands of African Americans. This perspective is not typically synonymous with safety, but if it is viewed in a broad sense one can understand how the two words are equal.
This week we will explore William Hooper Councill, who also made a significant impact in the field of education in our state. His impact was so far reaching that he had two schools named after him, one was a Birmingham City School– William Hooper Councill Elementary. In 1898 it originally opened as Davis School at the corner of 20th Street and Avenue L (now Avenue P) in the Ensley neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama.
” data-medium-file=”https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/COUNCILL-238×300.jpg” data-large-file=”https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/COUNCILL.jpg” tabindex=”0″ role=”button” class=”size-medium wp-image-126597″ src=”https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/COUNCILL-238×300.jpg” alt=”” width=”238″ height=”300″ srcset=”https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/COUNCILL-238×300.jpg 238w, https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/COUNCILL-768×967.jpg 768w, https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/COUNCILL-334×420.jpg 334w, https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/COUNCILL-640×806.jpg 640w, https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/COUNCILL-681×857.jpg 681w, https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/COUNCILL.jpg 800w” sizes=”(max-width: 238px) 100vw, 238px” />
The current school building was constructed on a triangular site for 1,040 African Americans students in 1926 and expanded in 1928. It was renamed in the memory of Councill, the founder and first president of A & M College at Normal, currently known as Alabama A & M University in Normal (Huntsville), Alabama.
The other school was the first public school for Negros in Huntsville – William Hooper High School. It began as Councill Training School in 1897. The school closed in 1966 during integration. In 2018, the school’s alumni broke ground on the old school site for the William Hooper Councill High School Memorial Park.
Councill was born a slave in Fayetteville, North Carolina on July 12, 1848, to William and Mary Jane Councill. His father escaped to freedom in 1854 to Canada. He made several attempts to free his family without success.
In 1857, Councill, his mother and brothers were taken to Huntsville, Alabama by slave traders and sold on the auction block to Judge David Campbell Humphreys. Unfortunately, two of his brothers were sold and he never heard from them again.
During the American Civil War, he and his remaining brothers were taken to rural areas to keep them from joining the Union Army. Before the war ended, he and his brothers escaped to the Union lines.
After the war, they attended the Freemen’s Bureau’s school opened by northerners in Stevenson, Alabama. He began teaching and became the first person to teach a school for Black students outside of a city in northern Alabama. This drew opposition from the Ku Klux Klan. Councill helped start the Lincoln School, four miles west of Huntsville in 1868. By 1870, the school had 36 students.
During the reconstruction, he served as an assistant enrollment clerk in the Alabama Legislature in 1872 and 1874. He was secretary of the Colored National Civil Rights Convention in Washington, D. C. in 1873. He taught at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia and edited a newspaper, the Negro Watchman in 1874 in Huntsville.
Councill used his connections in the Democratic Party and state legislature to gain approval for his plan the start the Normal School for Negroes in 1875. This school is presently known as Alabama A & M University. He became the first principal and later, president. He was appointed to notary public by Governor Rufus Cobb in 1882. The next year, Councill was admitted to the practice before the Supreme Court of Alabama.
In 1884, Councill married Maria H. Wheeden from Huntsville. He and Booker T. Washington (Tuskegee Institute later Tuskegee University) were contemporaries and competed for funding from the Alabama Legislature and other northern philanthropists. Under Councill’s leadership the school was second only to Tuskegee Institute in size among Alabama Negro industrial schools.
Councill died on April0, 1909, following a long illness. In 2020, Alabama A & M University announced the construction of the William Hooper Councill Eternal Flame Memorial, described as “a lasting tribute…” It will be erected at the current gravesite.
