African American Education In The South example essay topic

In Faithful, Firm, and True: African American Education in the South, Titus Brown traces the dual roles of the northern American Missionary Association (AMA) and the African American community of Macon, GA in their joint effort to provide education to blacks in central Georgia. These education pioneers faced many obstacles including poverty, disease, white hostility, low funds, and a scarcity of qualified teachers. Brown places this history of African-American education in Macon in the context of the national debate over what kind of education best served the black community, and what role blacks should play in the nation's social, political, and economic life. In doing so, Brown addresses the heated conflict between Booker T Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. What or manner of education the former slaves should receive became a matter of controversy by the end of the nineteenth century. Many white people, especially Southerners thinking of their need for an agricultural labor force, thought that a basic knowledge of "reading, writing, and 'arithmetic" was sufficient and that former slaves should be taught useful, practical skills in farming and the industrial arts.

They believed that so-called "vocational schools" could best serve the interests of both whites and blacks in the South. Booker T. Washington- an important black leader of the post-Civil War period-agreed in general with this approach. He founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a black vocational school, and cooperated with Northern Philanthropists in securing funds for similar schools throughout the South. Washington pleased the white Southern community by assuring them that African-Americans had no desire for social equality with whites, but simply for economic security. He was initially regarded as a significant race leader by a young, Harvard- educated teacher at Atlanta University, but within a few short years this younger man-W.E.B. DuBois- was in public disagreement with Washington's educational philosophy.

His Souls of Black Folk 1903 was the first medium in which he attacked Washington's vocational school philosophy as short-sighted and capitulating to white racism. He argued that black people should aspire to a liberal arts education which would enable them to work for their civil rights in the here-and-now, not some theoretical future when whites would be more willing to accommodate them. Washington's Tuskegee Institute continued to flourish, even after his death in 1915, but DuBois and several like minded whites and African-Americans spearheaded the movement for a vehicle more conductive to black advancement, founding the N.A.A.C.P. in the first decade of the twentieth century. Upon emancipation, many former slaves were anxious to put themselves beyond the control of their former white masters. They moved away from "home" plantations to seek work elsewhere; moved out of the white Christian churches to congregate in all-black institutions, and often felt that their children would be best educated in all-black schools taught by African-American teachers. The sad irony of this latter situation is that when white southerners were again in control of local political institutions at the end of Reconstruction, they enshrined this practice of separate schools in law, but did not fund the black schools to anywhere near the extent of the white schools.

Black educational opportunities thus suffered, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the local community. The American Missionary Association (AMA) was the organization for combating such problems. This was a nondenominational society that worked to develop educational opportunities for blacks and other minorities in the United States. The society originally grew out of a committee organized in 1839 to defend a group of African slaves who had mutinied against their Spanish owners and had brought their slave ship (Amistad) into the U.S. waters to seek protection there. The AMA itself was incorporated in 1846 by the merger of three missionary anti-slavery societies whose goal was to establish missions for freed slaves oversees. After 1850 the AMA turned primarily to abolitionist activities.

When the Union armies began freeing slaves during the American Civil War, the AMA opened schools for them. The AMA founded more than 500 schools for freed slaves in the South in the decades following the Civil War. These schools were actually open to all students and often operated as integrated institutions during the reconstruction period. As the South recovered from the effects of the war and developed public school systems, the AMA gave its elementary and secondary schools to the public systems and instead concentrated on improving and expanding colleges for blacks in the South. Never-the-less, the African-American community of Macon, GA was able to establish the Ballard Normal School, which served the community for almost 100 years, emphasizing such moral virtues as religion, patriotism, morality, and industriousness. These qualities mirrored those advocated by Booker T. Washington in his campaign for industrial education for blacks, but Ballard did not follow Washington's overall plan.

The Ballard Normal School owes its accommodations and buildings largely to the liberality of the gentleman whose name it bears-Steven A. Ballard. In the early days from 1865-1868, when this school was in its infancy-known then as Lewis High School- and was taught in various barns, dwelling houses and churches, Brown talks about its' loss by fire of three buildings in 1876. He also talks about the subsequent use of the church and carpenter shop for school rooms, in which the students d welled with gratitude upon the improvements and enlargements that were made. When the present imposing and spacious school building was being erected, the school house, which had become too straight for the student's accommodation, was converted into a shop. It was spacious, well-fitted up with the best tools for carpentry, and with benches for industrial drawing. In this shop the students made excellent cabinet work, and many more-than-creditable articles of furniture.

Several students worked and earned their entire board and tuition. Others earned half of their board by working for the institution and paying the remainder, four dollars per month, often times with money earned from previous summers. Shortly after the close of the Civil War, the AMA brings its Northern-based religion and educational values to a small town named Macon in Georgia. Founded in 1839, the AMA concentrated on freedmen education (the newly freed blacks of Macon, GA).

In Macon, GA, the AMA is where the basis of the education system- as it is now known- originated. Being the founding organization of the school system, the AMA stayed continuously involved through the years concerning the structuring and implementation of education there. There were improvements constantly being made, sometimes through drastic measures. Most of the teachers in these newly founded schools came from the north along with the AMA. A couple were white, and mostly women whom they called "Laborers". The AMA's policies imply "the dexterous hand of a woman" was best for interacting with the freedmen.

Northern white teachers were not popular with the white Southerners. Most of the whites in Macon were not in favor of the blacks being educated in the first place, so they definitely looked upon the whites from the North as "switch-outs", so-to-speak. To much surprise, the AMA and its efforts in Macon settled well with the white community there in comparison to other towns in Georgia. During this time, it was not unheard of for churches and schools of blacks to be burned to the ground. Lewis High School opened in the fall of 1868.

This school set the standard for black education for the next seventy-four years. The curriculum of this school was a very interesting one. It consisted of Reading, Advanced Arithmetic, Elementary Algebra, Physiology, Physics, and higher level geography and Latin. However, the majority of the students were enrolled in the teacher's training program in the normal department. The teachers of this school were from the North and a few from the south. Now, the people of the South favored the teachers from the North.

They showed gratitude and "looked-up" to the teachers from the North. If the students were being educated by people from the North, then the education must have been adequate. Now the teachers from the South-which were black-the Southerners didn't hold such a high regard for. In my opinion, they felt a Northern education was better. It's almost like they felt as if the blacks couldn't do as good of a job as the whites.

Despite issues such as these as well as the shaky administration, the Lewis school continued to prosper. However, on December 13, a fire broke out at the school which totally destroyed it, and once again, the administrator resigns. In 1888, Stephen Ballard visited the poorly reconstructed Lewis Normal Institute (formerly Lewis High School). Being a wealthy philanthropist, and donating money to various AMA institutions, he decided the physical plant of the Lewis Normal Institute too needed a change. After getting approval from the AMA executive officers, he donated $12,000 to construct a new brick building large enough to house 600 hundred students. His sister then donated another $7,500 for a girl's dormitory to be called Andover Hall.

Since the Lewis School had been burned down, a number of white's in-turn offered their support for the school there-after. By Mr. Ballard donating this money in an effort to revitalize this community, he marked a place in time for Macon, GA that the educators for a time to come will respect. He also placed interest in the school to others (i.e. his sister). By him funding this school, he turned an otherwise frail institution into one of the strongest for blacks in the South. With the onset of a new Administrator (George C. Burr age 1894-1909) for Ballard Normal School came a strengthening of the current academic programs, standardization of that curriculum, and a continued emphasis on industrial and normal education. Ballard school was exceptional.

Students from kindergarten through the senior classes were responsible for presentations showing their progression. These ranged from reciting books of the bible to naming and spelling all of the books therein. Attracting most of the attention was the classes in domestic science. Some of the presentations included exhibits of patching, buttonholes, piecing, and a variety of garments. In the woodwork class, one could expect to see exhibits of window frame slashes, step ladders, boxes with lids, and other ornamental pieces. This school soon after received its accreditation which sparked a new hope among the administrators, students, alumni, and community.

This accreditation presented an opportunity for an inter school athletic program shortly after. Raymond Von To bel (president 1911-1935) encouraged sports because they were a means of physical training and taught fair play and true conduct among the students of Ballard Normal School. In 1925, Ballard won its' first high school basketball championship, and as you can imagine, there was an enormous feeling of pride amongst everyone. To us, these classes and the education system may come off as being rather trivial, but during these times, this education was by far the best at hand. There were a great number of achievements by people that can be attributed to Ballard Normal School. For one, the most distinguished twentieth-century graduate of Ballard was John Oliver Killens.

He became a writer, teacher, and one of the founders of the Harlem Writers Guild. In addition to the three black colleges he attended (Edward Waters, Morris Brown, and Howard); he also studied at Terrell Law School, Columbia and New York Universities. As a teacher, Killens taught creative writing at various colleges and universities. Although he taught as a profession, Killens spent most of his time as a mentor to young hopeful writers, one of these hopefuls being Maya Angelou. Mattie Jewel was another accomplished graduate of Ballard. In 1930, she earned honors for her civil rights and community work.

Following her graduation from Ballard, she became an apprentice cashier / clerk for a life insurance company. In 1942 she entered the civil service were she remained for the next 18 years. In 1977 she was nominated for one of the ten most outstanding black women for her exceptional work in civil rights and community development. Another alumnus of Ballard was Colonel Daniel M. Walker. A very obvious accomplishment of this gentleman was that of his military ranking.

In addition to being a distinguished colonel, this Ballard ite also received a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from Talladega (another AMA institution). With the military as his profession, Colonel Walker served 30 years as an U.S. Armed Forces veteran. Some of his numerous assignments included England, France, Holland and Germany. A few of his citations include: the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and many campaign medals from different countries. Although there were many successful Ballard graduates, the last I will discuss is Samuel Milton Nabrit.

This gentleman went from Ballard to Morehouse College in Atlanta where he received his Bachelor of Science degree. He then went on to complete his Master's and PH. D degrees in biology. In 1932, he was the first professor hired by Atlanta University for its new biology department. Under Nabrit's leadership the department became on of the strongest in the University, and in 1947 he was named the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Looking at the number of successful graduates of Ballard Normal School-and this didn't illustrate even a percentage-one could infer that the education received therein was among the exceptional.

Graduates of this school went on to be some of the most powerful and influential people in their respective places. The education received today in America doesn't compare to the all around education received then. In my opinion, the teachers were much more involved because they had so much to gain. Teachers these days often are only interested in the pay and show little attention to detail when it comes to educating.

In my opinion, the problems we face in education today stem right down from the government, but that's another report. So, all in all, I think education then was great and a set a major standard for education that followed.