c. 1855 – November 29, 1897
Rev. Henry Clay Crosby, Ph.D., was a Black educator, minister, school superintendent, and benefactor in North Carolina during the post-Reconstruction era. He was an important activist and educator for Black learners and students in North Carolina. He was a principal of the Plymouth Normal School in Plymouth, N.C.; the East Garfield School in Raleigh, N.C.; and the inaugural president of the North Carolina Teachers Association, the first organization for Black and African American teachers in the state. Crosby was also one of the first graduates from Shaw University in 1878. The Crosby-Garfield School in Raleigh was renamed partially in his honor.
Dr. Crosby was born enslaved in Longtown, Fairfield County, South Carolina. An exact birth date is unknown, but 1855 is recorded as his birth year on his grave’s headstone. Slave schedules of the 1860 Fairfield County census also place his birth year between 1852 and 1855.
Shaw University president Charles Francis Meserve published an article in June 1898 giving a detailed account of Crosby’s early life. Meserve created the article with the help of Crosby’s older brother, Rev. Dr. John Oliver Crosby Sr., (1850-1929). The brothers were separated after the death of their father and enslaver, Thomas Crosby, in November 1860. Henry was sold to T. E. Boulware. Boulware’s wife became Crosby’s primary enslaver upon her husband’s death around 1862. Meserve's biography of Crosby described his new enslaver as the very worst type of slave mistresses.
Crosby fled his enslavement around April 1865 after Boulware’s wife threatened that she would kill Henry before he should leave her.
Crosby traveled twelve miles and found his brother, John, enslaved by James Stanton. John hid Henry to prevent his recapture until Union soldiers emancipated both Crosbys. Upon their emancipation, the Crosbys traveled with the soldiers as they passed through the area.
The Crosbys' mother, Sylvia, moved to Chester County, S.C., after the war and the brothers joined her there. Despite their new stepfather’s disapproval of their desire for education the Crosby brothers left home for Winnsboro, S.C. to attend the newly formed Fairfield Normal School. John found work as a census taker, and Henry as an enrolling officer. Crosby used his savings to enroll in the Shirley’s Institute in Fairfield County, a preparatory school for white men operated by John R. Shirley (Shurley, Sherley). Herringshaw’s Encyclopedia of American Biography and Meserve’s biography detail Crosby’s attendance at Shirley’s Institute. Crosby also attended the Brainard Institute in Chester, S.C. While in Chester, he began teaching in a local school.
Crosby enrolled at Shaw University in 1872 and graduated in 1878. He also earned a doctoral degree from Shaw in 1891. Crosby converted to the Baptist denomination around 1873 and became an ordained minister in 1892.
During his enrollment at Shaw, Crosby worked as a teacher at schools in Granville, Hertford, and Wake Counties. He also worked with Henderson High School (not to be confused with the Henderson Institute), in Granville County (now Vance County, N.C.), during this time. Some accounts credit Crosby as the founder of Henderson High School. Crosby was elected as Justice of the Peace in Granville County in 1875 and served for four years. In October 1876, Crosby was one of four poll inspectors appointed by the Board of Commissioners of Henderson.
Crosby was also a charter member of the North Carolina Teachers Association (originally named the North Carolina State Teachers Educational Association), an organized body of Black and African American educators and professionals. Though accounts vary as to when the association was founded, historical records indicate the NCTA began holding its annual meetings in 1882. Crosby may have been the Association’s original organizer, though some accounts cite Simon Green Atkins as the founder. A constitution was officially adopted on November 23, 1882. Under the constitution, Crosby served as their first president and presided over the first annual convention in 1883, where he was re-elected president.
In 1881, Crosby resigned from the Henderson school to become the new principal of the Garfield Graded School in Raleigh. He then worked as the principal of the State Normal School at Plymouth in 1885. He worked as a school principal for the remainder of his life, except for approximately one year beginning in 1886 when he was enrolled at Shaw University’s Leonard Medical School. The enrollment of the Plymouth school nearly doubled under Crosby’s leadership from 1887 to 1892.
As a principal and minister, Crosby was a trusted friend and advisor to many religious and education leaders. He served with Simon Green Atkins, Ezekiel Ezra Smith, Rev. Nicholas Franklin Roberts, E. H. Lipscombe, Charles Henry Moore, and many other pioneers on committees to improve education and Christian teaching for Black North Carolinians. According to more than one account, it was Crosby who recommended to the state superintendent of public instruction that Peter W. Moore serve as the first president of what is now Elizabeth City State University. Crosby knew Moore from their time working together at the Plymouth Normal School.
Crosby served as the treasurer, corresponding secretary, and member of the communications committee for the Colored Baptist State Convention. Around 1883, he was an associate of the Baptist Standard, a publication of the Baptist State Convention published by Rev. N. F. Roberts.
According to the 1880 U.S. Census, Henry was married to a woman named Roberta Crosby. A Roberta Crosby from Henderson is listed as a Shaw student in an early 1880s catalog. The 1880 census also reveals that they had a son named John B. Crosby who was born around April 1879. A John Bunyan Crosby, who was born that month and year, and died in 1894 at the age of fifteen, is buried in Blacknall Cemetery in Henderson. Crosby’s will also left items to his niece which formerly belonged to is deceased son, John.
Crosby’s health declined in the 1890s. He remained the principal of the Plymouth school until May 1897. His health declined further until he died on November 19, 1897, due to complications related to tuberculosis, referred to as consumption at the time. His funeral was held in the Shaw University chapel with full Masonic rites on December 1, with a eulogy by Rev. N. F. Roberts and George Washington Perry. Crosby was buried in Raleigh's historic Mt. Olive Cemetery. A monument requested in his will was dedicated in May 1898 as part of Shaw’s annual commencement exercises.
Much of his estate, worth over $6,500 – roughly equivalent to $250,000 in 2025 –was gifted to Shaw University to create the Henry Clay Crosby Scholarship for young men. This gift was widely reported as the largest financial gift by a Black person to a Historically Black College and University up to that time.
In his will, Crosby also bequeathed money and property to family members. He left his home on Blount Street to Lillie Wright, the daughter of his beloved late sister Belle. To his siblings, John Crosby and Hannah DeGraffenreid, Crosby left $1.00, about $40 in 2025. He left his library and collection of maps and charts to John’s oldest son, William Seward Crosby.
In honor of Crosby, the former Watson mansion in Raleigh was renamed and restructured in 1897 as the Crosby Graded School. The former Garfield School on Swain Street was sold in 1910 so that a new building could be built next to the Crosby School. After construction was completed in 1920, the two schools were joined together as the Crosby-Garfield School. The school was later rebuilt and redesigned by William Henley Deitrick in 1939. It still operates as the Crosby-Garfield Center, a part of Wake County’s Health and Human Services division.