Phoenix Society (New York)


The Phoenix Society, a mutual aid society for African Americans, "an organization dedicated to 'morals, literature and the mechanical arts'",
was founded in 1833 by Samuel Cornish, Theodore Wright, Peter Williams Jr., and Christopher Rush. They had support from the philanthropist brothers Arthur and Lewis Tappan. They set up the Phoenix High School for Colored Youth, first for boys, where Henry Highland Garnet studied, followed quickly by a high school for girls.