1893. His parents Michiel and Elizabeth Reason, were immigrants from Haiti who arrived in the
United States shortly after the Haitian Revolution of 1793. His parents emphasized the
importance of education, and very early on the young Reason displayed an aptitude for
mathematics when he was a student at the New York African Free School. Which was an
institution founded by the members of the New York Manumission Society which was
Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, but the African free school was basically a school to provide
education to slaves and freed people of color, while there he became a child prodigy in
mathematics, where he began his career …show more content…
He then attended McGrawville College, an integrated institution founded by members of the
Baptist Church in McGraw, New York. In 1847, Reason, along with Charles Bennett Ray,
founded the New York-based Society for the Promotion of Education among Colored Children.
When the predominantly white Free Mission College (later renamed New York Central College)
opened in Courtland County, New York in 1849, it admitted black students and hired Reason to
serve on the faculty. In so doing, this is when Reason earned his title and became the first
African American to teach at a predominantly white college, but while there, math was not the
only thing Reason was capable of teaching. Reason, who was professor of belles letters (essays,
particularly of literary and artistic criticism, written and read primarily for their aesthetic effect.)
, Greek, Latin, French, and adjunct professor of mathematics at Central College, was joined by
two other African American scholars in 1850, George B. Vashon and William Allen. After three
years at Central College, Reason left to assume the position of principal at the Institute …show more content…
One of the high
points of his career as a New York City educator was in leading the fight in 1873 to end racial
segregation in the city’s public schools. A prolific writer, Reason wrote political journalism as
well as poetry. His most noted poems are “Freedom” “The Spirit Voice” and “Silent Thought".
Reason’s philosophy of education was founded on the presumption that industrial education
(manual arts) was a pivotal means to African American freedom. Unlike Booker T. Washington,
however, Reason saw the importance of both industrial and classical education and even started a
normal school (teachers’ training college) in New York City. He was an active reporter on
education to the Black National Convention movement of the 1850s; he was secretary of their
1853 convention in Rochester, New York. He spoke out against the American Colonization
Society and Garnet's African Civilization Society. In 1849 Reason, along with J. W. C.
Pennington and Frederick Douglass, sponsored a mass demonstration against colonization at
Shiloh Presbyterian Church in New York City. At the meeting, Reason quoted a