Bradby, Sanford Pearl

Teacher, Principal, School Superintendent, Civil Rights Leader. Dr. Sanford Pearl Bradby was born on May 6, 1899, in Roxbury, Charles City County, Virginia, the eighth of ten children, to Miles Gentry Bradby, a farmer and landowner, and his wife Nancy Cotman. His great-grandfather John Cotman was a Revolutionary War Patriot who fought in the Southern Campaign. Bradby, a World War I veteran, moved to Aiken, South Carolina in 1930 to become the first African American principal and superintendent of  the Schofield Normal and Industrial School. Founded in 1871 as a school for the children of ex-slaves by Martha Schofield, a Quaker from Pennsylvania, Schofield also offered a “Normal” curriculum to prepare to future graduates to teach in rural areas in South Carolina and an “Industrial” curriculum to teach trades such as carpentry, blacksmithing, brickmasonry and domestic skills.

Bradby attended his early schooling at Waterloo, Public School #5 in the Harrison District in  Charles City County, Virginia. He then enrolled at Hampton Institute where earned A.B. degree and M.S. degree. While at Hampton, he met his future wife Dr. Lelia May Anderson, a native of Zanesville, Ohio. The two married on June 27, 1931,  in Williamsburg, Virginia,shortly after Lelia completed her Masters degree in French and English Renaissance Studies from Cornell University. Lelia then joined her husband in Aiken where she taught French and English at Schofield. The two lived on the grounds of the Schofield School in Oak Wald, the former home of Schofield’s Founder. Over the years the home also served as residence for teachers, and a place for lodging for dignitaries and special guests who visited the campus. The home appears on the National Historic Register. In 1948, when Aiken County Schools assumed responsibility for Schofield and transitioned it into Schofield Middle School, the Bradbys purchased Oak Wald and moved it away from its original Barnwell Avenue location.

Bradby and his wife had one biological son, Sanford P. Bradby, Jr. (born in 1933). They also raised two nephews, George Anderson and Louis Anderson Jr., and their niece, Patricia Anderson. Sanford Jr. attended Schofield from prekindergarten until he graduated from high school at age sixteen. He was awarded the prestigious Pepsi Cola Scholarship to attend Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The prize awarded him a full tuition scholarship, a monthly allowance, and transportation costs to and from campus. After graduating from Cornell, he enrolled at Meharry Medical College, one of two historically black medical schools in the United States, where he later graduated. In 1968, just three days after his 35th birthday, Sanford Jr. was tragically killed in an automobile accident while driving from home to Fort Gordon (now Fort Eisenhower) where he worked at head of obstetrics and gynecology in nearby Augusta, Georgia. Sanford  Jr. left behind a widow and two young children who all lived with Bradby and his wife at the time of this tragedy. Bradby’s nephew George was the first African American to practice law in Aiken.

During this time period, schools for African Americans were often headed by their white benefactors, thus creating limited opportunities for African Americans to hold leadership positions in educational institutions. Bradby, who had experience as a farm agent and principal in rural Virginia, was recruited by Schofield to come lead the school. Bradby’s wife Lelia had family roots in western South Carolina; her parents, who had migrated to Ohio in search of better education and work opportunities than those available in segregated South Carolina, were originally from the area. At the time of Bradby’s appointment, Schofield was one of few schools in the region that offered a high school education for African Americans. Under his leadership, he was responsible for expanding the curriculum to  include college-level work and helped the school to achieve university status.

In 1965, Sanford Bradby retired as principal of Schofield, having served in that capacity for 35 years. Dr. Lelia Bradby, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and former President of the American Teachers Association, the Palmetto Education Association (the state-wide teachers association for Negroes), and the Aiken County Teachers Association, was appointed Assistant Principal of Aiken High School,  becoming the integrated high school’s first black administrator.  Schofield was not integrated until 1970, after many acts of resistance from the local community including the practice of “token” integration. Throughout their lives, the Bradbys remained very active in the civic, political and social circles of Aiken and were instrumental in advancing Civil Rights in the community.

Bradby was the recipient of many honors. He was awarded The Distinguished Alumni from Class of 1935 Award from Hampton Institute. In 1967, he was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Laws, from Monrovia College in Liberia, West Africa. Bradby served on various boards and commissions dedicated to the well-being of Aiken’s residents including the United Way, Commission of Higher Education, and the American Red Cross. He was also a trustee of Cumberland A.M.E. Church, past President of the Aiken County Teachers’ Association, and Commissioner of the Aiken Housing Authority, which named one of its housing developments, Bradby Homes, in his honor. He died on July 22, 1978, in an Augusta area hospital following a fall in his home. He is buried in  Jessamine Memorial Gardens.

Sources

Accident Kills Maj. S Bradby, Page 21, The State, November 14, 1961

Aiken Woman Heads National Teachers Group, Page 7, The State,  August 6, 1960

Aiken School Principal to be Honored, Page 26, The State,  May 25, 1972

History of Schofield Normal and Industrial Institute in Aiken, Page 7,  Aiken Standard, February 16, 1938

Sanford P. Bradby Rites Held Today,  Page 2 Aiken Standard, July 25, 1978