Mary jane patterson biography

African-American educator. Born in near Raleigh, North Carolina; died in ; second of five children of Henry Patterson (a mason and former slave) and Emeline Patterson; graduated from Oberlin College,

Taught in Philadelphia (–69); appointed to Washington, D.C., school system (); served as principal of Washington Colored High School (–72, –84).

Mary Jane Patterson was born in pre-Civil WarNorth Carolina in , the daughter of Henry Patterson, an escaped slave, and Emeline Patterson .

When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in , virtually encouraging the kidnapping and selling of free blacks into slavery, the family moved north and settled in Oberlin, Ohio, where her father prospered as a mason. While her older brother also became a mason, Patterson and her three younger siblings attended Oberlin College, the first co-educational college in America and the first (in ) to admit African-Americans as students.

There she and two of her sisters, Channie