Robert Page Sims (1872–1944) was an early

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

academic, civil rights leader, scientist, and college president who held positions at

Virginia University of Lynchburg Virginia University of Lynchburg (VUL) is a private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Christianity, Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. VUL offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctora ...

and

Bluefield State College Bluefield State University is a public historically black university (HBCU) in Bluefield, West Virginia. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. History The Bluefield Colored Institute was founded in 1895 as ...

. Sims was born in Meyerstown, West Virginia, to Charles and Lucy (Page) Sims and grew up working on a farm. Sims graduated from

Storer College Storer College was a historically Black college in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, that operated from 1867 to 1955. A national icon for Black Americans, in the town where the 'end of American slavery began', as Frederick Douglass famously put i ...

, a Freewill Baptist school, in

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 269 at the 2020 United States census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac River, Potomac and Shenandoah River, Shenandoah Rivers in the ...

, in 1893 and then

Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is a Private university, private, Conservatism in the United States, conservative, Christian liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1844 by members of the Free Will Baptists. Women were admi ...

, a Free Will Baptist school in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, in 1897. He also did post-graduate work at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. In 1901 Sims married Professor Stella James Sims, a graduate of

Bates College Bates College () is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian ...

, whom he knew from Storer, and they had six children together. Sims taught first at the Virginia Seminary (

) as a science professor. Next he taught at the Douglass School in

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell County, West Virginia, Cabell and Wayne County, West Virginia, Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The County seat, seat of Cabell County, the city is located at the confluence of the Ohio River, O ...

. He then served five years as assistant principal of

under President Hamilton Hatter before becoming president himself in 1906. While serving as president he maintained a correspondence and professional relationship with

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relativel ...

regarding civil rights issues for African Americans and attended the

Pan-African Congress The Pan-African Congress (PAC) is a regular series of meetings which first took place on the back of the Pan-African Conference held in London in 1900. The Pan-African Congress first gained a reputation as a peacemaker for decolonization in ...

in Europe in 1921. Sims stepped down as president of Bluefield in 1936 but continued to stay involved with the school. He died in 1944. He was buried at the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Bolivar, West Virginia, near Harpers Ferry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Robert Page 1872 births 1944 deaths Hillsdale College alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Free Will Baptists Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Activists from New Hampshire People from Jefferson County, West Virginia Activists for African-American civil rights American academic administrators 20th-century African-American scientists Storer College alumni Bluefield State College faculty Educators from Bluefield, West Virginia Scientists from Bluefield, West Virginia