Cultural capital: Revisiting the legacy of black educators in America

By Andrea Gibson

If it weren't for the pioneering efforts of some black teachers and principals, black children in some parts of Ohio wouldn't have received an education in the 19th century -- even after the passage of the public school desegregation law in 1887. The law existed only on paper until the mid-1950s in some areas of the state, including the city of Gallipolis in rural southeastern Ohio.

So black educators opened their own private and public schools to ensure that young blacks could study and prepare for professional careers. Not only was this a remarkable feat during an era when the odds were stacked against them, but these teachers and principals also serve as role models today, said Assistant Professor of Educational Studies Adah Ward Randolph. Her research is part of a larger study on the work and impact of black principals in America.

The Albany Enterprise Academy, a private school run by Thomas Jefferson Ferguson and The Lincoln School in Gallipolis, initially led by Yale University graduate Edward Bouchet, taught hundreds of black students from the 1860s until 1951, according to Randolph, whose research on this topic was published this summer in the Journal of African American History and as a chapter in the 2002 book "Blacks, Education and Cultural Capital." Both cities were stops on the Underground Railroad, and a number of blacks educated at the private academy in Albany later taught students at the public school in Gallipolis.

Despite some battles, including a struggle with the Board of Education in Gallipolis to provide equal resources to black students, the schools offered a thorough curriculum of courses ranging from philosophy and anatomy to Greek and civil law, said Randolph, who based her research on interviews and archival materials. A number of principals, including Ferguson of the Albany Enterprise Academy, also believed that hiring black teachers to teach young blacks was key to the success of these schools. Black teachers were good role models for the students, these educators argued, they were leaders in the black community and understood their pupils' culture and customs.

That concept is still relevant today, Randolph said. Despite desegregation, black students are in the majority at a number of schools in America, and in some places, they account for 90 percent of the student body. And while many teachers today place the blame on students for poor scholastic outcomes, Randolph said her research suggests that proactive work by teachers and principals can make a difference in black schools.

"Teachers, regardless of race, must have a vested interest in seeing these children do well," she said.

The efforts of black educators extended beyond the schoolhouse, she added. Randolph, who also is involved in a larger study of black principals in America from 1919 to 1969, has found that these men and women not only built schools, but participated in regional and national think tanks, developed community libraries and rallied other blacks to vote. The educators were not only leaders in the school system, but in the community at large, said Randolph, whose findings on the first black female principal in Richmond, Virginia, Ethel Thompson Overby, will be published as part of the upcoming book "Black Principals" by the University of North Carolina Press.

Andrea Gibson is the assistant director for the Office of Research Communications.