Talking to Books: Education during Reconstruction

INTRO

Hey everyone. Welcome back. 

Navigating their new reality as emancipated individuals, Black Americans were working through their ideas of what it meant to be a citizen of the United States. How could they positively contribute to their individual communities and what was needed for them to do so? The answer was both simple and complex: education. 

In the simplest terms, education meant access to greater opportunities; a safeguard against being taken advantage of and a chance to teach the next generation. But achieving education - building the infrastructure and finding qualified teachers willing and able to teach - was another question entirely. Yet during the first few months and years after Reconstruction, anything seemed possible. 

So this week I am diving into the history of education during Reconstruction. What prompted it? How successful was it? And how does its influence still permeate today? 

Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let’s do this. 

In antebellum America, enslaved Black people were not to be educated. Viewed and treated as property, their primary function was to perform the duties assigned by an overseer or head of the home. Thus, in the opinions of much of the slave owning class, enslaved men women and children had no need for education, unless it was a skill they could earn money from. Laws were passed throughout the south banning teaching enslaved individuals how to read and even in areas where no rules existed, it was not embraced nor thought of as a right. Regardless of its illegality, many Black Americans broke the rules and learned to read - sharing this gift in secret with those they could trust and using their newfound skill to their advantage - including taking their freedom through self-emancipation. 

Frederick Douglass was taught the alphabet by the mistress of the house when he was 12 and used this small bit of knowledge to teach himself how to read and write, eventually securing his freedom and becoming one of the most well known voices of the abolitionist cause. Even those who could not read heard the story of Frederick Douglass and it became clear to those living in the oppressive regime called slavery that education meant freedom. 

As the country engulfed itself in conflict, Black Americans fled toward that freedom - risking their lives to get to the safety of the Union line. There, they became “contraband” and assisted the army in exchange for a safe place to sleep. It was here, while waiting and hoping that the Union army would be victorious, that self-emancipated men and women worked to achieve the one thing they had long been denied: an education. To accomplish their goal, many residents of these camps gathered together and attended contraband schools at night. Once the war was over, Black Americans knew instinctively that education was their gateway - their path toward building a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities. As I discussed when I covered the Freedmen’s Bureau in September of 2024, one of the largest and most significant achievements of the bureau was the creation of schools for Black Americans. Local bureau agents helped facilitate schoolhouse construction, collaborating with benevolent associations in the north to secure teachers and additional funds. But it wasn’t just bureau agents who enabled widespread education throughout the south. 

Finally having a small piece of political power, newly elected Black Americans led the charge for establishing public schools for children, arguing that it was the state’s responsibility to provide a basic level of education to its citizens. Making education a public responsibility was a novel approach, as most students either attended private schools or were tutored. And Black Americans knew they would not be able to achieve their goal alone. They needed the support - both morally and financially - of white people sympathetic to their cause. Communities understood they had little choice but to rely on the benevolence of white strangers and organizations who were capable of funneling resources and teachers to southern neighborhoods in support of establishing public education. One such successful partnership also led to one of the nation’s first colleges intended for black people. In 1871, Radical Republicans in Mississippi authorized the purchase of abandoned land that later became Alcorn University. This institution, sitting on what was once a white college campus, was named in honor of James Alcorn - the Mississippi Governor who was a major supporter of segregated education for black and white residents. As historian Leigh Soares observes, Alcorn University quote “underscores the significance of Reconstruction interracial coalitions in promoting state-wide education reform,” end quote.

One of the biggest non-governmental areas of support came from the American Missionary Association - or AMA. Founded in 1848 as an abolitionist organization focused on racial equality, the AMA also believed that education for Black Americans was pivotal to their success and worked to establish more than 500 schools for Black Americans both during the Civil War and Reconstruction. They also recruited teachers to head south and educate freedmen and women and their children during and after the Civil War. 

While Radical Republicans and Black community members pushed for public education for everyone - not just black residents - the idea landed poorly with whites. This was - in their eyes - another way that newly emancipated Black Americans were reaching above their station. And, as I mentioned in last week’s episode covering the Southern Economy during Reconstruction, white planters needed a labor force that was uneducated. In Tuskegee, Alabama nearly every black school was destroyed and teachers were terrorized until they left town. One professor even lost his life - being lynched for having the audacity to teach black people. One historian argues that between 1866 and 1872 roughly 20,000 people - both black and white - were killed in response to the ongoing efforts to educate African Americans and what it could mean for the southern way of life. 

Early attempts to build schools were sometimes met with extreme violence and more than one schoolhouse was lost thanks to arson. Using Mobile, Alabama as a case study, historian Hilary Green shares how Emerson Institute was burned shortly after graduating its first class in 1876. The culprits responsible for setting the blaze likely hoped that by destroying the school they’d also kill any chance at black education in their community. They would be sorely disappointed as plans for rebuilding the institute developed quickly. Emerson Institute would suffer another attack and yet again made plans for rebuilding. Once the school came back for a third time local residents got the message and no further attacks were recorded. Emerson is just one example of hundreds - potentially thousands - of local communities who risked their safety and resources to secure an education for everyone who wanted one. In Louisiana, Republican State Senator Marshall Twitchell believed strongly in educating both black and white residents. A former teacher, Twitchell helped establish segregated schools throughout the state. The state’s constitution required one school per parish, but Twitchell went beyond this requirement and in one parish successfully set up 10 schools - 5 for white students and 5 for black students. When rumors spread that the black schools might be targets of arson, Twitchell put the word out that he’d cut off funding for white school educators should anything happen to the black schools - as it turned out, the black schools remained intact. 

Starting an educational system from scratch was no easy feat. Throughout the majority of the southern states, the earliest teachers weren’t classically trained as educators. Instead, they were often people who had learned to read and write and who were willing to teach others what they knew. Benevolent associations worked to get teachers into schools throughout the south, but the demand simply outpaced the supply and many schools struggled to find permanent teachers. It is estimated that roughly 1,000 northern teachers went south - yet most children never saw a northern teacher and instead received their education from a local resident who happened to have some knowledge or training they could bestow upon their pupils. By 1869, black teachers outnumbered whites, with nearly 3,000 spread throughout the southern states. Another challenge was figuring out how to pay teachers. Lacking funding and still trying to create a public system, many communities struggled to pay their educators and again relied on benevolent associations like the AMA to help raise funds. Teachers who did commit to working in the south usually received free room and board with a local family to help offset costs. Although whites were initially among the first educators in these newly established black schools, their participation was often temporary - lasting only one or two school terms - and diminished as time went on, reaffirming the growing sense in the black community that if they wanted education it would have to be built and supported from within their own community. 

Thus, black neighborhoods often pooled their resources to build schoolhouses - or buy old buildings when they could convince the white property owner to sell. These efforts usually originated with the local church and the African Methodist Episcopal - or the AME - was one of the largest and loudest forces in establishing schools. The AME wanted to establish institutions that were free from the racism and paternalism experienced in the spaces dominated by white people. The AME preached that to be successful, the community needed to be elevated from within. As Bishop Benjamin Tanner stated, quote: “allow the negro to educate himself,” end quote. The AME also wanted more than just the basics - they sought avenues of higher learning for the community. They pushed for establishing colleges and universities to train more black teachers and ensure children received a quality education. By the late 1800s there were over 86 black colleges - many of them started by the AME, members of the AMA, or the federal government.

In 1882, Virginia legislator Alfred Harris pushed for legislation to establish a college for and run by African Americans. Harris argued that Black Americans should be given the opportunity to prove themselves - and demonstrate that they were capable of running something as large as a university. Harris’ vision included an all-black faculty and a black majority on the Board of Directors. After some politicking, Harris got his bill through and with it the approval to establish the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute - known today as Virginia State University. 

Early in their tenure, many black colleges functioned more like trade schools - where students learned about industrial arts or received adequate training to become teachers. Teaching a trade was considered a less threatening endeavor than teaching the law. Educators at these institutions were simply providing enough of a foundation for African Americans to become self-sufficient through engaging in a trade that could support themselves and their families. They were not - for example - laying the groundwork for anyone to become a future politician or lawyer. Thus, most African Americans would remain in their quote unquote place. At least, that was the thinking of some early black educators who believed that the safest way to secure education for African Americans was through a trades-centered education. 

One of the biggest champions of the trades movement was none other than Booker T. Washington. Washington, who was born into slavery in 1856, walked across the state of Virginia so he could attend Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School - known today as Hampton University. While attending, Washington became a star student and caught the attention of Samuel Armstrong, the school’s principal, who then offered Washington the opportunity to head the Tuskegee Institute. Like Hampton, Tuskegee focused on training students for the trades and Washington was known as someone who promoted the idea that Black Americans should accept the status quo and learn how to earn a living for themselves before pushing for things like equality. They had to, in Washington’s estimation, start from the bottom and work their way up. While this opinion was celebrated and widely supported by the white establishment, Booker T. Washington faced significant criticisms from other members of the black community, most notably W.E.B. DuBois. 

One of if not the most educated American during his lifetime, DuBois was the first African American to earn a doctorate and believed education was everything. It was a way for Black Americans to be free and to finally achieve the uplift they yearned for since emancipation. DuBois was vocal in his call for Black Americans to seek higher education and push for greater equality – and was publicly critical of what he believed was Washington’s submission to white leaders. 

Whatever differences existed between the two men, when it came to education, DuBois was right. Support for trades-based schools began to dip in the late nineteenth century and institutions shifted away from a focus on the trades to offering a fuller, more well rounded education. As their institutions grew stronger, University enrollments grew larger, graduating sizable classes of highly educated Black Americans. These graduates went on to become doctors and lawyers who worked to ensure the next generation was more successful than the last. These historic black colleges turned into safe spaces for young African Americans. Within the safety of the campus, students were treated equally. They were supported and pushed to achieve the unachievable. Students attending these universities could enjoy a bit of respite from the growing hostility brought on by Jim Crow.  

As of this recording, there are 107 historically black colleges and universities - or HBCUs - in the United States, representing 3% of all colleges and universities in the country. Despite representing less than 5% of the country’s schools, HBCU’s graduate 20% of all Black Americans who earn an undergraduate degree. They have taught some of the most influential voices in history including Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., and Langston Hughes and they represent one of the best legacies of Reconstruction. 

Thanks, peeps. I’ll see you next week.

OUTRO