Tuskegee, Achimota and the Construction of Black Transcultural Identity by Pamela Newkirk Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Columbia University 2012 @ 2012 Pamela Newkirk All rights reserved ABSTRACT Tuskegee, Achimota and the Construction of Black Transcultural Identity Pamela Newkirk Over the past four decades numerous scholars from a diverse range of fields, including history and comparative education, have turned to the transfer of the Hampton- Tuskegee model from the United States South to British colonial Africa to explore issues of global educational transfer and borrowing; nation-building; character education; and British colonial education policies.1 The primary goal of my dissertation is to consider this instance of educational transfer as a means of exploring the broader issues of black transcultural identity and black agency in education policy formation and implementation in the U.S. and in the Gold Coast. The two black actors who figure prominently in this case study are Booker T. Washington, the president and founder of Tuskegee Institute, and his African counter- part, James E.K. Aggrey, a co-founder of Achimota who together became the public face of the model on two continents while they quietly nurtured a elite cadre of black professionals and activists beneath the façade of industrial education. Using education as a site of social, political and economic transformation, this dissertation will require attention to both the explicit and subtle activities of Washington and Aggrey beneath the façade of accommodation to the prevailing ideology of white elites. This dissertation builds on emerging interdisciplinary scholarship on the African Diaspora that requires a new interpretative lens to assess the agency of subjugated blacks who used myriad techniques to negotiate a dominant white ideology committed to black subordination to advance a broader black nationalist agenda. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Page ii Dedication Page vi Chapter 1: Introduction Page 1 Chapter 2: Hampton, Tuskegee and the Making of a Model Page 26 Chapter 3: Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, and Rhetoric vs. Reality Page 71 Chapter 4: From Hampton to Achimota: The Construction of Black Transcultural Identity Page 109 Chapter 5: Tuskegee and Achimota: Reconciling a Legacy Page 143 Chapter 6: Dissembling Accommodation: Mining Strategies Of Resistance Page 176 Bibliography Page 195 Appendix Page 200 i Acknowledgements This dissertation is the culmination of a series of fortuitous encounters during the course of my studies at Teachers College, Columbia University that can only be explained as providence. It was my good fortune during the first semester of my doctoral studies to be assigned an article on the global transfer of the Hampton-Tuskegee model to the Gold Coast in Africa. The article was co-authored by Dr. Gita Steiner-Khamsi, my Comparative Education professor who introduced me to the case study that laid the groundwork for my dissertation. I had long known of the legendary debate between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington over the so-called Hampton-Tuskegee model which Du Bois contended prepared blacks for continued subservience, but until that article I had not been familiar with the global transfer to Achimota in British colonial Ghana. Intrigued, I discussed my interest in the case study with Dr. Steiner-Khamsi, who enthusiastically encouraged me to pursue it, possibly as a dissertation topic. It was then my good fortune to take a History of Education class with Dr. V.P. Franklin, with whom I discussed the Tuskegee/Achimota case study. Franklin is the editor of the Journal of African American History that was founded by Carter G. Woodson, another critic of the Hampton-Tuskegee model. Dr. Franklin was equally enthusiastic and introduced me to a body of scholarship that exposed me to innovative ways of seeing and positioning Blacks in Diaspora that would later help shape the interpretative framework for my inquiry. I was then exceedingly fortunate to be a recipient of the steadfast guidance and support of Drs. George C. Bond and Manning Marable whose mutual insights, enthusiasm, and extensive knowledge of the period, players and relevant issues proved ii invaluable. I simply cannot imagine pursuing this work without their input. It was Dr. Bond, with his encyclopedic knowledge of social theories, relevant figures and movements across the African Diaspora, and Negro education, who first urged me to look beneath the façade of Tuskegee’s industrial reputation. Dr. Bond constantly counseled me to interrogate the model, and the tension between Washington’s rhetoric and what actually transpired at Tuskegee. His prodding was the engine that propelled this inquiry. I can still see Dr. Marable’s broad smile when I told him I was pursuing this topic. Little did I then know that he had similarly explored the tension between rhetoric and reality for his dissertation on John L. Dube, considered the Booker T. Washington of South Africa. Remarkably, Dr. Marable had also been a student and advisee of Louis Harlan, Booker T. Washington’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and editor of his papers. Dr. Marable had long believed that his illustrious mentor had not sufficiently captured the more progressive dimension of Washington’s life and work. He was delighted that I would look more closely at Tuskegee’s early alumni and faculty and Washington’s influence on progressive movements that he believed had not been adequately explored. Dr. Marable had himself written about Washington’s ties to Pan African actors and the inspirational role he played for South African anti-colonial leaders. During my all-too-fleeting encounters with Dr. Marable over the course of several years, I sought to capture as many of his pearls of wisdom as I could as he effortlessly shared names, events, articles and books that would prove essential for my study. As I frantically scribbled in my notebook, I could not have known that Dr. Marable had a life-threatening illness that would prematurely and so tragically claim his life. Fortunately, I never took our time together for granted and am eternally grateful for his generous spirit, prolific iii scholarship and indispensable support. I am also humbled by the extent to which my dissertation builds, however imperfectly, on his bold analysis and profound insights. Teachers College and Columbia University, as it turned out, hold a fairly prominent place in this study. In addition to providing an atmosphere where the kind of issues raised in this interdisciplinary, transnational study abound, it was also where many of the central figures in this dissertation attended or taught. James E.K. Aggrey, the co- founder of Achimota College, earned his master’s degree and completed doctoral studies at Teachers College and Thomas Jesse Jones, the author of two of the seminal reports on education for African Americans and Africans, received his Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University. Columbia and Teachers College faculty also figure prominently in the promulgation of some of the theories that were influential during the early years of the twentieth century. Again, providence. These fortuitous encounters provided a resilient springboard for my inquiry, and inspired visits to archives in Washington, D.C.; Oxford, England; and Accra, Ghana with the support of New York University’s Robert Holmes Travel Fellowship, and Dr. Yaw Nyarko, founding director of NYU’s Africa House who was also then the university’s Vice Provost of Globalization and Multicultural Affairs. I am also indebted to the Spencer Foundation for the Spencer Dissertation Fellowship that enabled me to devote quality time to write this dissertation. Finally, huge thanks to my dissertation committee: Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley advised me throughout the course of my studies and graciously remained on my committee after leaving Columbia. I am exceedingly grateful for his keen interest and support, and for his prodigious scholarship. Drs. Lambros Comitas, Erica Walker and Marc Lamont Hill generously came to the recue at the eleventh hour iv following the loss of Dr. Marable and the departure from the university of two other committee members. I appreciate their careful reading and wise counsel. v Dedication To my father Louis Harding Newkirk with gratitude vi 1 Introduction While hundreds of African American schools offering traditional liberal arts courses sprung up following the Civil War, by the second decade of the new century industrial education emerged as the principal model prescribed for black students. Leading white educators, philanthropists, and government officials enthusiastically embraced what became known as the Hampton-Tuskegee model. Booker T. Washington, the most influential black leader of the era, became the leading proponent of a model that W.E.B. Du Bois and other black intellectuals insisted insured the continued subordination of African Americans.1 Still, in the prevalent discourse of white elites, industrial education was hailed as the most pedagogically sound way to instruct African Americans. Embedded in the arguments of white elites was the prevalent assumption that African Americans were socially, morally and intellectually inferior to whites.2 Indeed, much of the scholarship by those then considered the nation’s foremost authorities on race maintained that blacks, whether in Africa or the United States, trailed whites on the evolutionary scale of civilization.3 “Negro Education: A Survey of Private and Higher Schools for Colored People in the United States,” published in 1917 by the U.S. Education Bureau and the Phelps-Stokes Fund Education Commission, would for several decades influence the course of education for American blacks who overwhelmingly lived in the South.4 Based on an exhaustive survey of seven hundred and forty-seven African American schools in the South, the two-volume “Negro Education” concluded that many of the schools offered black students courses in Latin, history and mathematics that were irrelevant to their social reality.