James B. Dudley
American academic (1859-1925)
James Benson Dudley (November 2, 1859 – April 4, 1925) was President of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University from 1896 until his death in 1925. James B. Dudley High School in the city of Greensboro, North Carolina, where the Agricultural and Technical University is located, was named after Dudley in recognition of his work for his community.
Early life
Dudley was born on November 2, 1859. He was born into slavery; his parents were owned by Edward B. Dudley, the governor of North Carolina from 1836 to 1841. As a slave of the former governor, Dudley was greatly influenced by the governor. One of the governor's ideals was that everyone should be educated. Dudley took these ideas to heart, and they affected his approach for the rest of his life.
Education
Because most of the schools in the area were shut down after the American Civil War due to financial strain, Dudley wasn't able to attend school until 1867, when the Freedmen's Bureau funded a missionary school in his area. Dudley was one of the first students to enroll. He later attended public schools when they opened in his area, and learned Latin.
“James B. Dudley” enters the record as american academic (1859-1925). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what James, Dudley and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“James B. Dudley” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, James, Dudley and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6129092. VIAF identifies the subject as 19058831. The Library of Congress control number is n2003074049. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1859, 1925, 1896 and 1836.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “James B. Dudley”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow James B. Dudley primary sources, James B. Dudley archive and James research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “James B. Dudley”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “James B. Dudley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.