Joseph Carter Corbin • Founder, First Principal | Branch Normal College (1875-1902)
A profound mathematician, talented musician; a holder of bachelor and master of arts degrees from Ohio University and a conferred Ph.D. from one of the southern Baptist colleges, Corbin would have made an outstanding leader in any institution of higher learning, even by present standards. An outstanding linguist, Corbin read and spoke Latin, German, French, Spanish, Hebrew and Danish. He headed Branch Normal from 1875-1902, more than a quarter of a century.
Born on March 26, 1833, in Chillicothe, Ohio, he was the eldest of the eleven children of his one-time slave parents, William and Susan Corbin. Corbin came to Arkansas in 1872 as a reporter for the Arkansas Republican newspaper. In the election for the Superintendent of Public Instruction held in November 1872, Corbin defeated Dr. Thomas Smith, the incumbent, and received a total of 40,010 votes opposed to 39,295 for Smith. He served as Superintendent of Public Instruction and President of the Board of Trustees of Arkansas Industrial University for nearly two years, until October 31, 1874.
State senator John Middleton Clayton sponsored legislative act 97 calling for the establishment of Branch Normal College, but it was not until 1875 that the state’s economic situation was secure enough to proceed with it. That year, Branch Normal was established as a branch of Arkansas Industrial University, now the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Its primary objective was educating black students to become teachers for the state’s black schools. Governor Augustus Hill Garland, Arkansas Industrial University board chairman D. E. Jones, and Professor Wood Thompson hired Joseph Carter Corbin in July 1875 to make a determination about locating Branch Normal in Pine Bluff because of the town’s large black population and its place as the major economic center in south-central Arkansas. Corbin was subsequently elected as principal at a salary of $1,000 a year. The first class consisted of seven students. During the year, seventy-five to eighty students were enrolled, but the average attendance was forty-five to fifty the last three months of the school year.
Several setbacks occurred that delayed the actual opening of the school. The first building was an old frame house in need of much repair, but repairs were delayed because of illness among the workers. Lumber and furniture were ordered for the new building, but the boat carrying them sank in the river.
Despite his long meritorious services, the Board of Trustees at its meeting in July 1902, dropped him for reasons unknown. His efforts to get reinstated having failed, he served as principal of Merrill High School until his death on January 9, 1911.
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