The Development of Black Schools in Athens, Georgia
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SEEKING EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF BLACK SCHOOLS IN ATHENS, GEORGIA FROM EMANCIPATION THROUGH DESEGREGATION by MONICA DELLENBERGER KNIGHT (Under the Direction of Judith Preissle) ABSTRACT Long before emancipation, black Americans recognized the paramount role that education would play in ameliorating their subjugation. From the beginning of U.S. history, black communities including the city of Athens, Georgia, banded together in the face of murder, torture, and relentless social oppression to create and maintain schools that were communal hubs and a highly valued source of education as a means of social reformation. This dissertation examines the development of the black schools of Athens from emancipation through school desegregation and depicts the roles that its private and public schools played in the social and economic progress of black Athenians. It uses historical ethnography to study the efforts of students, administrators, and educators such as Samuel F. Harris who have contributed to the landscape of Athens’s black schools. The interviews of alumni of Athens’s black schools, ranging from 1938 (Athens High and Industrial) to 1974 (Athens’s integrated schools) indicate a significant decline in the role of schools as centers of the community, which lessens schools’ impact on students’ overall educational achievement. Finally, these contributors suggest how black communities built effective community schools despite the overwhelming adversity of reconstruction and the Jim Crowe era. Their testimony shows how citizens and educators can work together to recreate the powerful and positive attributes of those black schools while avoiding the pitfalls that developed in many segregated schools. INDEX WORDS: African American Education; African American Teachers; Segregation; African American Community; Athens, Georgia; Georgia History SEEKING EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF BLACK SCHOOLS IN ATHENS, GEORGIA FROM EMANCIPATION THROUGH DESEGREGATION by MONICA DELLENBERGER KNIGHT B.S., North Georgia College and State University, 1995 M.Ed., University of Georgia, 1998 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2007 © Monica Dellenberger Knight, 2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SEEKING EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF BLACK SCHOOLS IN ATHENS, GEORGIA FROM EMANCIPATION THROUGH DESEGREGATION by MONICA DELLENBERGER KNIGHT Major Professor: Judith Preissle Committee: Derrick Alridge Jo Blase Tom Hebert George Stanic Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2007 v DEDICATION One of the many “dissertation for dummies” books advises that a writer should never open her dissertation with a quote. However, when I read the quotation below, it touched me so deeply that I had to include it as a way to express the sincere gratitude that I have to all of the community members who spent endless hours passing on their memories to me so that I could pass them on to the children of our community. Every man [woman] in this life has a part to play, and, leaves a footprint, seen and followed by--some other. How well that part is played depends very largely on the man [woman]. It may be played loosely--carelessly--without a thought of anything but the NOW, the present; without any thought of its scope in reaching, touching, or influencing another's life. It is a footprint, nevertheless, and some one follows in it and is stunted in life, perhaps for life. On the other hand that part may be played with great care as to every detail, with much toil in preparation, with the thought ever in view that "no man lives to himself alone," but that we are building character and making men [and women], how careful, then must one be in the CHOICE and USE of the material that tends to the "making" men [and women]. He, therefore, solves the problem of real living, learns the lesson of true success, and thus plants such footprints on "the sands of time" that observing ones are impressed thereby, and encouraged to follow them, seeing they lead to service and to honor. It is highly fitting, then, that we should have before our youth in particular, and ourselves in general, the histories and biographies of men [and women] who have risen from the depths of ordinary life, beset with hardship, prejudice and ostracism, and in spite of all this, with perseverance and strong determination, have risen to the heights in the various positions in the affairs of this life; and that we may note the HOW they have risen, and the WHY they have attained these goals. These incentives can only be had in the spoken or written narration of this progression (Cooper, 1928, pp. 10-11). With these thoughts in mind, I write this work for my son, Noble Jedediah Dellenberger Knight, and all of the other children in our community who with our support can rise from the depths of ordinary life to have his/herstories written about how they collaboratively fought against the oppression and disenfranchisement of the “other” and for the betterment of the “all.” vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the following individuals for their support throughout my graduate work. Without them, I would have never survived working full time, taking care of a baby, now toddler, and completing this work. Thank you loved ones. John Knight, JD, LLM – I would like to acknowledge my wonderful husband who spent days reading over my work and giving me quality feedback and who spent countless nights and weekends cleaning the house, doing laundry and dishes, and taking our son to special places so that I could keep on working. Linda and Jeff Dellenberger – I would like to acknowledge my adoring parents who never doubted that I would be a success in my career, in my academics, or in my family life. Sue Hatley and Magnolia Yates – I would like to acknowledge my grandmother and great grandmother whose words of wisdom made me the woman I am today. Judith Preissle – I would like to acknowledge my major professor whose kind words kept me focused and on track. Farris Johnson, Sr. – I would like to acknowledge my friend, who made me write all of his stories down by hand so that I would not only hear what he was saying, but also feel it. Angie Moon de Avila – I would like to acknowledge my colleague and transcriber who worked diligently to capture each word from my interview tapes so that I could tell the whole story. My Participants – Each one of the men and women who took time out of their own lives to bring this work to light, telling me your stories of success and sorrow, I thank you. I have learned so much from each of you and now our community can learn from you also. I have included what I am calling a Cast of Participants in Table I, pp. xiv-xvi. This table of information on those interviewed for this study will help guide readers through the text. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. vi LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER 1 Studying Black Education in Athens, Georgia .............................................................1 The History ...............................................................................................................3 The Problem .............................................................................................................7 The Purpose ..............................................................................................................8 2 African American Education in the United States ......................................................11 Control, Content, and Focus of Black Education ...................................................11 Historical Foundations of Black Education: 1890s-1920 .......................................14 Black Teachers, Black Schools, and the Black Freedom Movement: 1920s-1950s 21 The Impact of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ........................................24 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ................................................................................26 The Role of the Black Teacher in the Success of the Black Schools .....................31 Black Education and the Black Freedom Struggle .................................................32 3 Private Endeavors in Athens’s Black Education ........................................................34 The Economic and Educational Development of Black Athenians, 1800-1885 ....34 Athens’s Black Private Schools 1868-1956 ...........................................................40 viii The Success of Athens’s Black Private Schools ....................................................62 4 Developing Black Public Education in Athens ...........................................................64 Public County Schools ...........................................................................................64 Public City Schools ................................................................................................77 5 Samuel Harris and the Classical-Industrial Debate in Athens ....................................83 Harris’s Industrial Education Plan