On an unusually warm February afternoon, community members gathered along Main Street and later on Ninth Avenue South to honor two pillars of Columbus’ Black history – a pioneering historian who preserved the legacy of African American inventors and a school that transformed freedom into opportunity.
Two Mississippi Historic Markers were dedicated Friday commemorating Henry Edwin Baker Jr. and the original site of Union Academy.
Mayor Stephen Jones opened the ceremony by reminding attendees that history connects past achievement to future possibility.
“We are standing on the shoulders of giants who made this city what it is today,” Jones said. “A city that forgets its past has no way to find its future.”
Preserving ‘Black innovation’
Born enslaved in Columbus in 1857, Henry Edwin Baker Jr. rose to national prominence through scholarship and perseverance.
He became the third African American admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1874, where he endured severe harassment and isolation before leaving the academy. He later graduated from Howard University School of Law and built a career in the U.S. Patent office, eventually becoming its highest-ranking Black employee.
Recognizing that African American inventors were being erased from historical records, Baker launched a nationwide effort to document their achievements, sending thousands of letters to patent attorneys across the country.
His research identified more than 1,200 Black inventors and culminated in publications such as “The Negro Inventor” and “The Colored Inventor: A Record of Fifty Years.”
The marker proposal originated from a Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science MoreStory Monuments project led by student researcher Eli Bankston. History teacher and project leader Chuck Yarborough said the effort reflects a broader goal of telling “the most complete understanding of our entire community.”
During the program Friday, MSMS Senior Althea Wells delivered a dramatic portrayal of Baker’s wife, Violette Clark Baker, describing the discrimination her husband endured and the determination that defined his career.
“My Henry stood for what was right,” Wells said in character. “He provided a spotlight for those who could not stand for themselves.”
A school built on ‘hope’
The ceremony then moved to Ninth Avenue South, where a second marker now commemorates the original site of Union Academy – the first public school for African Americans in Columbus, founded in 1865 to educate newly freed people following the Civil War.
Yarborough called the school “an institution of hope.”
“Union Academy wasn’t just an educational institution,” he said. “It was an institution of hope – hope that young people would have the opportunity to achieve great things through education.”
The school faced threats, violence and even arson during Reconstruction but endured through community support and determination. For decades, Union Academy produced educators, business leaders, pastors and elected officials who shaped Columbus and northeast Mississippi.
Local historian Rufus Ward previously wrote about the need for a historic marker at the site, describing it as one of the most significant locations in the city’s history. Friday’s dedication fulfilled that long-standing call to formally recognize the school’s beginnings.
MSMS senior Vincent Young portrayed longtime principal William Isaac Mitchell, who led the school beginning in 1878 after being born into slavery himself.
“Education wasn’t even a concept for most Black children during slavery,” Young said in character. “But that changed right here on this very spot.”
Mitchell guided Union Academy through decades of segregation and unequal funding while expanding opportunities for Black students.
“At one time I wondered what my legacy was,” Young concluded. “After 107 years to reflect, I’m now seeing that my legacy was you all.”
‘History come alive’
Throughout the ceremony, speakers emphasized that the two markers are connected by a shared theme: education as liberation and memory as preservation.
District 41 Rep. Kabir Karriem said Baker’s work documenting Black inventors and Union Academy’s local mission to educate newly freed citizens represent parallel struggles for recognition and equality.
“He preserved good names,” Karriem said of Baker. “Union Academy declared our children would be educated, prepared and empowered.”
The markers were sponsored by the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau as part of an expanding African American Cultural Trail aimed at strengthening historical tourism and community understanding.
Closing the ceremony, Jones reflected on the impact of seeing students embody historical figures.
“Today we saw history come alive,” he said. “My hope is that when people walk past these markers years from now, they stop and read and know that Columbus is a place where history lives.”
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