John Gibbs St. Clair Drake was born in
Suffolk, Virginia, on January 2, 1911. Later in life, including professionally, he went by his last name only, St. Clair Drake. His father immigrated to the United States from
Barbados in the British West Indies, becoming a Baptist minister and an international organizer for
Marcus Garvey's
Universal Negro Improvement Association. His father's devout religious faith did not allow for activities like dancing, going to the movies, or using playing cards, all of which were forbidden to Drake in his childhood. Drake's mother, Bessie Lee, was a native of
Staunton, Virginia. When Drake was two years old, the family moved to
Harrisburg, Virginia, when his father decided it would be best for the family to join the many African Americans who were then moving northward. During his childhood, St. Clair lived in a multi-ethnic neighborhood. He recalled that his understanding of race and prejudice was vague, but at least one of his fights occurred when he was insulted about the color of his skin. Drake attended elementary school in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he remained through the 7th grade. He then returned to Virginia to attend high school. He inevitably learned "the facts of Southern life", and in his first contact with the Negro press, he remarked: "It was rather exciting, this learning that one is a Negro and what it means – also rather frustrating." At this time, with the encouragement of his teachers, he began to write poetry, generally about nature. That same year, he also edited the school yearbook. He completed high school in three years. In 1927, Drake left Staunton, Virginia, to attend Hampton Institute (now
Hampton University). Hampton's appeal, according to Drake, was its offer to allow students to work their way through college. Drake met the cost of his education by working as a waiter and then as a front desk clerk at the Holly Tree Guesthouse. Both of these forms of employment were segregated jobs, intended only for black workers. Drake was almost immediately dissatisfied with the faculty's "civilizing mission" attitude, which he attributed to the intellectual legacy of
Booker T. Washington, and he complained that the institute's faculty did not include any African Americans among its full professors. Drake and other Hampton students engaged in a strike beginning on October 9, 1927, only a few weeks after Drake arrived on campus. While the list of student demands exceeded sixty specific points, many of them dealt with the need for more black teachers, higher academic standards, the dismissal of racist and unqualified faculty, an end to various strict disciplinary policies, and amnesty for those involved in the strike. Due to the intervention of administrators and parents, the strike ended in defeat. But as scholar Andrew Rosa concluded, the "administration lost the war." Many reforms eventually became implemented, and Drake flourished at the college over the next three years there. In the course of his studies at Hampton, Drake served as the president of the student body, led the college chapter of the
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, became the editor of the
Hampton Script, and even played on the college's soccer team. He graduated from Hampton in 1931 with a B.S. degree in biology and a minor in English. ==Career as an academic==