BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — He was a businessman, a model citizen and Bakersfield High School’s first African American valedictorian. And how do we remember Henry Edward Simpson today? The answer: Not very well.
It was 1900 and, admittedly, the competition was not overwhelming — the Drillers’ graduating class had just five students. But the best student is the best student, period.
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Simpson, born in South Carolina in 1881, came to Bakersfield with his parents as a young child after his father, John, born into slavery, was recruited by Haggin & Carr to pick cotton at the Kern Island colony.
In school Henry was a talented debater. That and excellent grades earned him the gold sash, according to historian Katherine Jordan-Morris…