In 1895 he wrote '' Divinity in Wedlock '' about Christian marriage . In 1899 he was a predominant delegate at the annual meeting of the National Afro-American Council in Chicago led by Alexander Walters . In the late 1890s , Pettiford and other pastors petitioned the city to form the first public high school for African Americans in Birmingham called Industrial High School . The school opened in September 1900 with Arthur H. Parker principal in the Cameron Building and held its first graduation at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1904 . In September 1902 , he led the local organization for relief of the victims of the Shiloh Baptist Church stampede that killed over 100 people during a speech given by Booker T. Washington He was again an Alabama delegate-at-large to the 1908 Republican National Convention in Chicago
1908 Republican National Convention
1908 Republican National Convention
William R. Pettiford