Arthur Harold Parker was born on May 7, 1870, in Springfield, Ohio, to former slaves of white, Black and Chickasaw Indian descent. Arthur was one of five children.

Under slavery, many states prohibited slaves from learning to read and write, so, like other freed slaves, Parker’s parents stressed the importance of education to their children.

While he was in high school, Parker’s mother fell ill from childbirth. He worked in his father’s barber shop while continuing to attend high school classes. He also studied law for two summers under the tutelage of one of his barbering clients.

After graduating from high school with the honor of being chosen as the graduation speaker, Parker planned to attend Oberlin College. An injury suffered by his father, however, ended this dream. Instead, he packed up his barbering tools and went “prospecting” in the South.

A young A.H. Parker.

Arrival in Birmingham

Parker arrived in Birmingham, Alabama, on Aug. 17, 1887, at the home of two of his uncles — Arthur Sensabaugh, a Methodist pastor, and James Clayton, a schoolteacher. Clayton recognized Parker’s teaching talents and encouraged him to take the teacher exam. After passing the exam, Parker was offered a teaching position and became the 13th African American teacher in the Birmingham school system.

Parker was assigned to the second graders of the new Slater School, which opened in January 1888. He advanced to teaching the third and fourth graders the next fall. As a sign of things to come, the Slater School had recently purchased an organ, so Parker spent his spare time learning to play. He became such an accomplished organist that he played for school programs, as well as side jobs, and taught music classes. He also began working as a private secretary for William Pettiford, pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

During summer 1889, Parker returned home to Ohio to visit family. Before returning to Birmingham — and at the insistence of his mother — he became engaged to and married his high school sweetheart, Mary Anderson.

Parker’s mother died in November 1890, and Mary died in July 1891. In the wake of these losses, Parker became determined to pass the principal’s exam. He did so in September 1892 and was transferred to the Cameron Elementary School. In addition to heading that growing school, Parker was superintendent of the Sunday school at 16th Street Baptist Church.

On June 5, 1895, Parker married Bessie D. Pettiford. She died of childbirth complications in 1896. Despondent over his loss, he stopped teaching and took a position with the Internal Revenue Service.

In 1898, Parker met and married Anna B. Gilbert, who encouraged him to return to teaching. He did so as the seventh-grade teacher and assistant principal at Lane School in fall 1899.

In 1899, the Birmingham Board of Education agreed to create a high school for African American students. Superintendent Dr. John Herbert Phillips selected Parker to become the sole teacher for the Industrial High School when it opened.

Birth of a school

In September 1900, Industrial High School — dedicated to Black students — opened on the second floor of the Cameron School. The number of students rose from 18 to 45 by the end of the school year. Parker emphasized practical instruction in woodworking, sewing, cooking, laundry work, mortis, hand carving and drawing. His students also learned grammar, literature and mathematics. He presided over the school’s first graduation, held June 3, 1904, at 16th Street Baptist Church.

In 1905, Parker was elected president of the Alabama State Teacher’s Association. He delivered an address to the assembled body at its next annual meeting in Mobile in April 1906. He also completed construction of a new home, which he helped finance by working as the head of the bookkeeping department for the Alabama Penny Savings Bank between 1900 and 1912.

In September 1910, Industrial High moved to the Lane’s Auditorium building at 11th Street and Eighth Avenue North. Specialized instructors were added to the faculty to teach cooking, sewing and manual training. The next year a night school for adults started, and then a summer school for teachers. Parker also took part in the first of a series of statewide summer institutes for teachers in each county.

In 1914, the school building was condemned by the city and a deal was struck to buy the former United Presbyterian School at Eighth Avenue and Ninth Street North. Soon after, a cluster of 14 cottages on an adjacent lot was purchased and converted for classroom use.

In 1915, Parker began teaching summer classes at the Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University. “Education is life, and I can conceive of no finer thing than doing efficiently one’s daily work,” he said.

A.H. Parker retired as principal of Industrial High School in 1939. (contributed)

Influenza epidemic

In 1918, Industrial High School began setting up and printing a student newspaper. Days later, the school was temporarily closed and converted to a hospital to tend to victims of an influenza epidemic. Students served as nurses.

In 1924, at Eighth Avenue North and Third Street, a brand-new Industrial High School building opened. This well-equipped, modern facility was considered the result of Birmingham’s progressive stance on race.

Parker was also awarded the Negro Citizens’ Loving Cup for “that citizen who had done the most for his race in 1924.”

In 1933, Miles College conferred upon Parker an honorary degree, the Doctor of Letters.

The Industrial High School Printing Department published “A Dream That Came True: Autobiography of Arthur Harold Parker” during the 1932 to 1933 school year.

Parker retired as principal of Industrial High School in 1939. In his honor, the school was renamed A.H. Parker High School, which celebrates 125 years this year.

Parker died on Aug. 17, 1939. Services were held in the Parker High School Auditorium. He was interred in historic Oak Hill Cemetery, where a number of other notable Birmingham residents are buried.

Principal A.H. Parker surrounded by his Industrial High School students. The school, founded in 1900, was renamed A.H. Parker High School in 1939. (Birmingham Public Library Archives)