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Industrial
Institute for the Colored Race (also known as Kowaliga Industrial School, or Kowaliga School) was established in roughly 1895, the first building cornerstone was laid on August 1896, and it was incorporated in 1899. Benson was one of many first trustees of the school, and he did a lot of national fundraising for the school and scholarships.
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After Benson's death in
October 1915, he was buried on the grounds of the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute. The school he created continued for many more years after his death, educating hundreds of Black students during a place and time where this education was difficult to access. The
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After university, Benson moved back to his hometown. With the help of his father he created the
Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute in roughly 1895. The focus of the school was to improve the lives of the local African American population living in rural Alabama. The Kowaliga Academic and
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From 1900 until June 1915, Benson serving as the founding president to the Dixie
Industrial Company, an industry-centered company designed to put his former students to work locally. He was ousted by the stockholders, which ended in a legal battle that continued after his death.
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William E. Benson was born on 1873 in
Kowaliga, Alabama to parents Julia (or Lucy Jane Wiley) and John Jackson Benson (September 1850–November 9, 1925). He was the only son, and had three sisters.
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Owen, Thomas McAdory (1921). "Kowlinga
Academic and Industrial Institute for the Colored Race".
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school closed around 1925. Kowaliga was submerged by Lake Martin after the construction of a
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Partial group of teachers (c. 1913) from
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in
Nashville, and later graduated with a B.A. degree (1885) from
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School founder, principal, businessman, real estate developer
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History of
Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography
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312:"William Benson and the Kowaliga School"
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203:"Timeline: The rise and fall of Benson"
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200:Hedreen, Siri (April 28, 2021).
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378:at Wikimedia Commons
104:John Jackson Benson
338:The New York Times
308:Atkins, Leah Rawls
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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