Jabez L. M. Curry Explained

Jabez L. M. Curry
Term Start:December 22, 1885
Term End:July 8, 1888
Term Start1:1865
Term End1:1868
Predecessor1:Henry Talbird
Successor1:Edward Quinn Thornton
Office2:Member of the
C.S. House of Representatives
from Alabama's 4th district
Term Start2:February 18, 1862
Term End2:February 17, 1864
Predecessor2:Constituency established
Term Start3:February 4, 1861
Term End3:February 17, 1862
Predecessor3:Constituency established
Successor3:Constituency abolished
State4:Alabama
Term Start4:March 4, 1857
Term End4:January 21, 1861
Successor4:Constituency abolished
Term Start5:December 6, 1847
Term End5:March 4, 1857
Predecessor5:F. W. Bowdon, John Hill, Henry B. Turner, Jr.
Successor5:Jno. T. Bell, J. B. Martin
Birth Name:Jabez Lafayette Monroe Curry
Birth Date:5 June 1825
Children:4
Parents:William Curry
Susan Winn Curry
Education:
Allegiance:
Branch:
    Rank:
    Commands:5th Alabama Regiment
    Battles:Mexican–American War
    American Civil War

    Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry (June 5, 1825 – February 12, 1903) was an American Democratic politician from Alabama who served in the state legislature and US Congress. He also served as an officer of the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War.[1] He was a slave owner and supported the Southern cause.[2]

    After the war, he became strongly interested in education of both blacks and whites, supporting increased access. Curry taught at the university level. He was also appointed as a diplomat to Spain, serving from 1885 to 1888, and again in 1902.

    Biography

    Curry was born in Lincoln County, Georgia, the son of planter William and Susan Winn Curry. His father was a cousin of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, the second president of the Republic of Texas. Lamar had married Tabitha Burwell Jordan, J.L.M. Curry's aunt. Curry grew up in a slaveholding family in Alabama and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1843, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society. While studying at Harvard Law School, Curry was inspired by the lectures of Horace Mann and became an advocate of free universal education.

    Politics and Confederate Army

    Curry became an attorney and held slaves. He served in the military and in public life. He served in the Mexican–American War of 1848. In this same period, he was elected to the Alabama State Legislature, serving in 1847, 1853, and 1855. He served two terms as a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives, from 1857 to 1861. After Alabama seceded with the outbreak of the American Civil War, Curry resigned from Congress and served in the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States.

    He was commissioned as a lieutenant-colonel in the Confederate Army, where he served as a staff aide to General Joseph E. Johnston and General Joseph Wheeler.[3]

    Postwar career

    After the war he studied for the ministry and became a preacher, but the focus of his work was free education in the South. He traveled and lectured in support of state normal schools, adequate rural schools, and a system of graded public schools. He was president of Howard College (now Samford University), Alabama from 1865–68. He next was a professor of history and literature at Richmond College, Virginia.[4]

    From 1881 until his death Curry was agent for the Peabody and Slater Funds to aid schools in the South. He was instrumental in the founding of both the Southern Education Board and the first normal school in Virginia, now known as Longwood University.

    According to Paul H. Buck in his Pulitzer-Prize winning history of the reconciliation of North and South, Curry played a major role in promoting reunification of the sections. He told the 1896 national convention of the United Confederate Veterans that their organization was not formed, "in malice or in mischief, in disaffection, or in rebellion, nor to keep alive sectional hates, nor to awaken revenge for defeat, nor to kindle disloyalty to the Union." Rather their "recognition of the glorious deeds of our comrades is perfectly consistent with loyalty to the flag and devotion to the Constitution and the resulting Union." The convention agreed with him and formally resolved the Confederate veteran has: "returned to the Union as an equal, and he remains in the Union as a friend. With no humble apologies, no unmanly servility, no petty spite, no sullen treachery, he is a cheerful, frank citizen of the United States, accepting the present, trusting the future, and proud of the past."[5]

    Curry was appointed by President Grover Cleveland as the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Spain during 1885–1888, and by President Theodore Roosevelt as ambassador extraordinary to Spain on the coming of age of King Alfonso XIII in 1902.

    Curry wrote works on education, American government, and Spanish history.

    Curry died on February 12, 1903, and is buried in Richmond, Virginia. His wife is buried in Talladega, Alabama, where they had earlier lived. Their home, the J.L.M. Curry House, also called the Curry-Burt-Smelley House, was designated as a National Historic Landmark and has been preserved.

    Legacy

    During his life, Curry was awarded the Royal Order of Charles III and several honorary degrees.

    The Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia was named for him posthumously in 1905, in accordance with a stipulation in a donation given that year by John D. Rockfeller, Sr. to fund the establishment of the school.[6] In spring 2020, the university president supported a recommendation to remove Curry's name from the school, because of his support for slavery and the Confederate cause.[7] This reflects a shared effort on the part of the institution and the broader Charlottesville community to mitigate the stains of racism and slavery.[8] In September the University's board of visitors voted to remove his name from the school.[9]

    As the naming subcommittee reported, Curry's legacy is worthy of careful scrutiny. His pro-slavery speeches from before the Civil War and membership in the Confederate House of Representatives demonstrate strong ties to the Southern cause. However, his later efforts to promote education for blacks during the Reconstruction era up through the end of the 19th century are reflective of more progressive ideals that were not shared by many of his contemporaries. He did promote a more vocational style of education for blacks than he would for whites.[10] This approach was shared by Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Institute, who believed that blacks should be prepared for the work most would encounter in their rural communities of the time.

    Curry Hall dormitory at Longwood University and the Curry Building at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro are also named for him.

    Curry was honored early in the 20th century by one of Alabama's two statues in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection. It was sculpted by Dante Sodini in 1908, the year the state donated it to the hall. In October 2009, the state replaced the statue with one of Helen Keller, activist and author.

    Curry's statue was transferred to Samford University, where he had been closely involved.[11] It was displayed in Samford's university center until the building was closed for renovation in 2018. At that point the statue was returned to the Alabama Department of Archives and History.[12]

    Works

    External links

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: Bioguide Search. 2022-01-29. bioguide.congress.gov.
    2. News: Weil. Julie Zauzmer. Blanco. Adrian. Dominguez. Leo. More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation.. 2022-01-29. Washington Post. en.
    3. Encyclopedia: Bailey. Hugh C. Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry. Encyclopedia of Alabama. 17 June 2015.
    4. Web site: Curry statue has new home on Samford campus. Samford University. en. 2019-04-22.
    5. Paul H. Buck, The Road to Reunion: 1865-1900 (1937) p. 242 online
    6. Web site: Our History. 2017-07-27. Curry School of Education and Human Development University of Virginia. en. 2019-04-22. April 16, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190416151615/https://curry.virginia.edu/about-us/our-history. dead.
    7. Web site: Curry School Renaming Recommendation Referred to University Board of Visitors. May 8, 2020.
    8. Web site: Charlottesville votes to end Thomas Jefferson's birthday as city holiday. July 2, 2019.
    9. Web site: 2020-09-11. Board Votes on 5 Renaming, Landscape Recommendations. 2020-09-12. UVA Today. en.
    10. https://news.virginia.edu/sites/default/files/report_of_the_naming_subcommittee_-_april_22_2020_.pdf
    11. Web site: D.C. statue now at Samford University. Diel. Stan. November 25, 2009. AL.com. en-US. 2019-04-22.
    12. Web site: Bains. David R.. 2019-07-09. Remembering Jabez Curry and his Statue at Samford. 2020-07-22. Chasing Churches. en.