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Matthew Winfred Dogan was born on December 21, 1863 in Pontotoc, Mississippi. His parents, William and Jennie Dogan, were born slaves, but were able to purchase their freedom and that of their six children in 1858. Determined to educate their children, the family moved to Holly Springs, Miss., in 1869 where there was a school organized by the Freedman’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. At Rust College, Dogan was recognized as valedictorian of his 1886 senior class and then began as a math teacher in Holly Springs. He married his childhood sweetheart, Fannie Faulkner, in 1888 and they had seven children, two of whom died in infancy. In 1892, Dogan moved to Central Tennessee College (later Fisk University) in Nashville, Tennessee as a mathematician. In 1896, Bishop Robert Jones promoted Dogan to Wiley College, making him its second African American president. When Dogan arrived, Wiley was struggling in its 20th year of operation with 285 students. By 1905, Dogan oversaw the construction of thirteen buildings and almost doubled enrollment. Dogan successfully secured the funding for a Carnegie Library on campus. After two years of debate, the building was completed in 1907 entirely by student labor and remained the only truly public library in Marshall until 1972. Dogan also established an endowment for Wiley and, after four years, had raised more than $600,000. Time and again, Dogan supported his students and professors, even preventing potentially violent confrontations within the segregated community. Dogan spent decades at Wiley College, retiring in 1942. He died in 1947 and is buried in Wiley Cemetery. Matthew Dogan’s legacy may be remembered through several schools in East Texas that bear his name and as an advocate for educational equality. (2014) |
