Charles Cansler: Knoxville's First African American Author to Receive National Attention for a Book Exploring His African American Roots
May 2021 marked the sesquicentennial birthday of a Knoxville African American educator and author named Charles Cansler.
Cansler was born on May 15, 1871 (a day prior to what would one day become National Biographer’s Day). He would be memorable just as a teacher. He was the longtime principal of old Austin High, Knoxville's high school for Black students. He led the establishment of Knoxville's Carnegie Library, the city's only library for African Americans, in 1917.
And he has a footnote in art history.
One of his students at Austin High, about the same time he was working on the public-library project, was an especially talented teenager named Beauford Delaney, who within 20 years was drawing national praise for his colorfully imaginative works on canvas, in a career that would take him from New York to Paris. One of Delaney's first known works was a becoming portrait of his principal, Charles Cansler. Its whereabouts are unknown.
Read More at VisitKnoxville.com
Charles Cansler Family Reunion
Below is a photo from a Charles Cansler family reunion. Photo is located at the Beck Cultural Center. Learn more at BeckCenter.net.
