"Inman-Page" (December 29,1853-1935)

His parents were slaves on a Virginia plantation.Thought vary slightly,when he was 10 and a houseboy on the plantation,he and his parents ran through Union lines while soldiers of both the North & South were in the area.The family later moved to Washington, D.C. it was in the nation's capital that Inman,while earning money as an errand boy,attended a private school.He later spent two years at what is now Howard University.Inman was among the first African American students admitted to Brown University;he and classmate George Washington Miford were the first two African American students graduates,in the same year.George went on to become a lawyer.

Inman,who was class valedictorian,was selected to be the class orator for the 1877 commencement.A white man who heard the speech persuaded Inman to accept a teaching position at Natchez Seminary in Mississippi.That marked the first in a series of increasingly distinguished educational successes.He went in to become president of Langston University in Oklahoma for 17 years.Inman also was president of the Western Baptist College in Macon,Missouri,and of Roger Williams University in Nashville.

In 1918,Brown bestowed upon him an honorary degree.Those who knew Inman described as "tall and strong in body," and brilliant in mind,an African American who worked for the noble achievements of others of his race.Later he was appointed supervising principal Of Oklahoma City's separate school system where he stayed for 12 years.About a year before he died,he was name principal emeritus in honor of his outstanding contributions to the city's school system.His death at 82 in the home of his daughter,Zelia N.Breaux in Oklahoma City,made banner headlines.

His funeral in Oklahoma City was attendeds of friends,colleagues,and relatives.Later,hundereds of others waited " in the stiff,cold north wind" for his burial on the campus of Langston University.After  his death,one newspaper editorialist wrote: "Old Man Ike," as his puplis endearingly referred to him,"was a terror to the disobedient and the mischievous,not because of cruel penalities visited upon them but because students adhorred the through of their idol knowing of their delinquency."