BHS Day 14: Alexander Twilight

Hi and Happy Valentine's Day! Today's entrant is another one who is a bit of a mix of categories and in technicalities, probably should have been put in the ELM Spotlight but because he was a very important first in Black politics, I wanted to put him in the Activism & Political Spotlight instead. His is definitely not a name you hear anymore, especially in politics, so I wanted to make sure it was mentioned. His legacy is more in education than it is in politics, but I didn't want to put him in the ELM and leave one of his major accomplishments as a footnote. I'm a little conflicted about where I put him, but I'm not conflicted about having including him. It feels like a bit of a mismatch to me personally. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading about today's entrant. 

Name: Alexander Twilight, 1795-1857 

Profession: Minister and politician

Why is the Spotlight on him today? For breaking through the educational barriers for Blacks at the time and the legacy he left behind in both politics and education

Notables:
--was the first Black college graduate in the country after finishing all of his secondary courses and two years of college-level curriculum in just 7 years
----was the first mixed race and Black person to be elected to a state legislature when he was elected to the Vermont General Assembly
--raised enough money on his own after working various labor positions from the age of 8 until 20, to pay for his admission into grammar school
--was, along with his parents, the first Black family in his hometown of Corinth, Vermont
--was posthumously honored with an auditorium named after him at Lyndon State College
--was behind the construction of the first granite building in Vermont, Athenian Hall, or the Old Stone House, as its known by today, which he designed, found the funds for and personally oversaw the construction of
--built his family's home on his own, which still stands today across from the Old Stone House Museum
--was posthumously honored with a preparatory school named after him in Sacramento
--the old Athenian Hall later became the Old Stone House, which was then transformed into the Orleans County Historical Society and Museum, which now honors Twilight's legacy as well as that of the county in which it was erected
--was licensed to preach by the Champlain Presbytery of Plattsburgh and served as the minister of several congregations throughout his career
-- served as headmaster of the Orleans County Grammar School twice
--was posthumously honored with a hall named after him at his alma mater, Middlebury College

Further reading links:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4


Quote of the Day: 
""I like the way the Stone House still looms up on that hilltop, where the wind blows all the time. There it sits, unshaken and monolithic, as I write this sentence and as you read it, every bit as astonishing today as the day it was completed. What a tribute to the faith of its creator, the Reverend Alexander Twilight: scholar, husband, teacher, preacher, legislator, father-away-from-home to nearly 3,000 boys and girls, an African American and a Vermonter of great vision, whose remains today lie buried in the church-yard just up the maple-lined dirt road from his granite school, in what surely was, and still is, one of the last best places anywhere." --Howard Frank Mosher in 1996 in an article for Vermont Life Magazine