“Aware of the desire of black Californians for education, Cassey founded the Phoenixonian Institute in San Jose in 1861 (also known as St. Philip’s Mission School for Negroes). At a time when no other California high school, public or private, was open to African American students, and few secondary schools were established to train white students, the Phoenixonian Institute stood as a symbol of the quest by African Americans for educational opportunity. The Phoenixonian Institute became the first black secondary school in the western United States.
The Institute received statewide support from African Americans. The 1865 statewide Colored Convention meeting in Sacramento, for example, passed a resolution to tax each African American in the state one dollar per year to support the Institute. The Episcopal Diocese of California provided funds through 1865. The San Jose School Board provided additional supported from 1865 through 1874 through an agreement with the Institute to matriculate all black students who applied for admission to the regular public school system. Students were also charged tuition and board which ranged from $16 to $20 a month.” (learn more...)
Additional information: “Phoenixonian Institute Site“
