Arthur Ulysses Craig

Arthur Ulysses Craig was born in Weston, Missouri, U.S.A. in December 1872. Graduating from Atchison High School in 1890, he matriculated at the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Kansas in the autumn of 1893. On 16 July 1895, Arthur Craig wrote a letter to Booker T. Washington in hopes of obtaining a faculty position at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In December 1895, Craig took charge of the electrical engineering department at Tuskegee, where he taught for five years. He oversaw the installation of an electric lighting plant at the Institute (said to be Macon County's first). The plant used a dynamo which was purchased in 1898, and the first electric lights were used to light the chapel that year. Electric lighting was gradually extended to the other buildings at the Institute.

In 1901, Craig began teaching at the Armstrong Manual Training School in Washington, DC.

References and further reading:

Jennifer L. Lieberman, "The myth of the first African-American electrical engineer: Arthur U. Craig and the importance of teaching in technological history", History and Technology, Vol 32, No. 1, pp 70-90

Electrical World and Engineer, "Black Belt Electricians", 27 October 1900, pg 641