cation then
secured the services of J. E. Campbell as principal. Under him the
school moved into a five-story brick structure vacated by a white
school when better quarters for the latter had been provided. The
Negro school was then named the Langston Academy in honor of John
Mercer Langston, a Negro congressman and public official of wide
reputation. Miss Iva Wilson of Gallipolis succeeded Mr. Campbell as
principal, with Miss Jordan as assistant. Later there came as
principal Mr. F. C. Smith, A. W. Puller, and Ralph W. White, and
finally the efficient and scholarly Isaiah L. Scott, a promising youth
cut off before he had a chance to manifest his worth to the
world.[29]

Somewhat later than this, another group of Negro schools developed in
Cabell County, the first and most important being in Guyandotte and
Barboursville. These schools followed as a result of employment of
Negroes on the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, terminating in the
seventies at the Ohio River, where it gave rise to the city of
Huntington, West Virginia, laid out in 1870. Most of these Negroes,
prominent among whom were James Woodson, Nelson Barnett, and W. O.
James, came from Virginia. The first school established near
Huntington was opened in the log house on Cemetery Hill, one and a
half miles east of the town and a little west of Guyandotte. The Negro
school enumeration was so small that the two towns had to cooperate in
maintaining one school.

The teacher first employed was Mrs. Julia Jones, a lady who had most
of the rudiments of education. Some old citizens refer to James
Liggins as the first teacher in this community. In this precarious
status of stinted support the school did not undergo any striking
development during the first years. Not until 1882, some years after
the school had been removed to Huntington itself, was there any
notable change. The first impetus which marked an epoch in the
development of this school came with the employment of Mr. and Mrs. W.
F. James, products of the Ohio school system. They were for their time
well-prepared teachers of foresight, who had the ability to arouse
interest and inspire the people. Mr. James at once entered upon the
task of the thorough reorganization of the school and by 1886 brought
the institution to the rank of that of the grammar school, beginning
at the same time some advanced classes commonly taught in the high
schools. He was an earnest worker, willing to sacrifice everything for
t