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“Saving Grace”: Educating African American Children

through Industrial Education in MayesvilleBy Dorothy Hines Datiri

In 1886, Emma J. Wilson founded the Mayesville Educational and Industrial Institute to educate Afri-can American children. As the daughter of a slave and a native of Mayesville, Wilson was committed to providing an intellec-tual, moral, and religious education to freed black families after the Civil War. Using Booker T. Washington’s industrial education model, the Mayesville Educational and Industrial Institute pro-vided an academic and vocational education that merged instruc-tion in reading, writing, and arithmetic with training in black-smithing, tailoring, and practical agricultural methods. Teaching African American students skilled trades and knowledge of aca-demic subjects was perceived as the solution to achieving true so-cial mobility and economic freedom in Mayesville. Yet low rates of student retention and uncertainty of how to develop a system-atic approach for educating black children hindered the institute’s long-term prospects. Examination of a 1920 advertising pamphlet from the Mayesville Institute helps shed light on the philosophy of the industrial education model, the nature of learning in this system, and the implications of school reform.

Education in MayesvilleIn 1920, the Mayesville Educational and Industrial Institute pub-lished an advertising pamphlet to help increase the percentage of

African American students enrolled in formal schooling in South Carolina. Financed by the Christian Herald, the seven-page book-let was entitled “The Gate of Opportunity.” Used as a marketing and fundraising tool, the pamphlet provided readers a descriptive view of how African American children were transformed into intellectually vibrant and economically viable young men and women. The mission of the institute was to “give Negro youth a liberal literacy and a thorough industrial education.” This new-found “liberal literacy” is portrayed through photographs of Afri-can American students, descriptions of a positive school culture, and narratives of communal benefits achieved through moral and spiritual development.

On the first page, students are pictured in formal clothes, with polished black boots, suit jackets, and collared shirts. The pam-phlet then tells the story of a group of children who eagerly walk fourteen miles to and from school to receive a formal education. From the “home of where only two lights may shine—one from the tiny neighborhood church and from the wide-open portals of the Institute,” the school is portrayed as a place of refuge from the poor socioeconomic conditions experienced in many nearby communities. The Mayesville Institute is described as providing a transformative education in a place where children are welcomed, with adequate space to meet the needs of every student.

The ideal of “liberal literacy” achieved through an indus-

Above, in the 1910 work An Era of Progress and Promise, 1863–1910: The Religious, Moral, and Educational Development of the Ameri-can Negro Since His Emancipation, the buildings of the Mayesville Institute campus are described in detail, including the trades building, a “substantial brick structure ... erected by the students in the brick-laying department.” Image courtesy of the State Library of North Carolina.

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“The Gate of Opportunity” was published in 1920 as a marketing and fundraising tool for the Mayesville Institute. Images cour-tesy of Advertising Ephemera Collection—Database #A0238, Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920 On-Line Project, John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History, Duke University David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

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Born a slave in Franklin County, Virginia, in 1856, Booker T. Washington served as the first principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and is remembered as an immensely influential educator, author, and advisor. Image courtesy of the Li-brary of Congress.

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trial education is also depicted in photographs showing a posi-tive school culture and opportunities conducive for learning. The Mayesville Institute was not only a place of intellectual advance-ment, but it also provided a foundation for the moral and spiri-tual development of children. The industrial education model in-volved daily religious services and students pledging allegiance to the American flag placed in front of the school. A photograph of students pledging allegiance reflects the patriotism of the children and also draws on the democratic equality goal of educating Afri-can Americans to be productive citizens. Moral development was an imperative to an individual’s educational progression within an industrial curriculum. The pamphlet describes the institution as “specializing in good sound education, mentally and industrially, and for that reason Mayesville is helping wonderfully to improve the moral and economic tone of a great community in which 80% of the population is colored.” The Mayesville Institute focused on the development of African American children who were mor-ally astute and contributors to a positive community culture. This portrayal was intended to invoke an emotional response from phi-lanthropists and Christian organizations, thereby prompting the donations that helped finance the school.

The depiction of the institute as providing an individually ob-tained education that contributed to a collective communal good was another key component in eliciting philanthropic donations. By portraying an active community relationship, the institute was providing evidence of the benefits of such a school in Mayesville. Classes at the institute often involved educating parents in farm-ing methods, community sanitation, and hygiene practices, for instance.

The uniqueness of providing an industrial education to Afri-can American children is evident from the pamphlet. This “Gate of Opportunity” was truly a pathway for African American youth to learn the basic skills for individual growth and sustainability within their newfound educational freedom. And an education at the Mayesville Institute was indeed depicted as the primary method of achieving social mobility and economic freedom for blacks in Mayesville.

“Little Tuskegee” and the Industrial Education ModelKnown as “Little Tuskegee,” the Mayesville Institute implemented an educational system introduced in the late nineteenth century by the influential African American leader Booker T. Washington. Washington’s industrial education model played a key role in how children at the Mayesville Institute were educated and normal-ized to formal schooling. The philosophy of industrial education involved a discipline that combined academic studies and training in manual trades. The nature of learning was significant in how knowledge was reconstructed and how teachers and students in-teracted within the classroom.

The period of Reconstruction marked a sense of collective-ness among African American communities to prepare future gen-erations for life in the post-Civil War South. In this new era, Afri-can Americans possessed a potentially significant advantage: since they formed the core of the South’s major source of income—agri-cultural production—they could use their knowledge of cultivat-

ing farmland for economic gain. Booker T. Washington’s philoso-phy of industrial education focused on this internal commodity. Washington considered African Americans the means of produc-tion, insisting that “the Negro can control labor in the South.” By controlling labor and agricultural production, blacks would receive standing in American society. This could be achieved not with force, but with patience and virtue.

The nineteenth-century movement toward industrial educa-tion for black children created a unique opportunity for schooling to be designed around the economic needs of the South. In 1877, when the first general summary of statistics of education in the southern states was made, it appeared that there were 571,506 black children and 1,827,139 white children enrolled in the pub-lic schools of the sixteen former slave states and the District of Columbia. With the growth of schooling for blacks, the incorpo-ration of Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute in 1881 re-inforced the desire for African Americans in the South to acquire literacy through a formal education. By combining training in skilled trades with an academic curriculum, the industrial educa-tion model eliminated the educational barrier between a child and work. A hands-on practical education allowed black youth to de-velop their futures while learning a manual skillset. In “Industrial Education for the Negro,” Washington argued that “the Negro in the South works and works hard; but too often his ignorance and lack of skill causes him to do his work in the most costly and shiftless manner, and this keeps him near the bottom of the ladder in the economic world.” Keeping blacks at the bottom of the lad-der would not cultivate the community, but would instead alien-ate the individual and bar sustainable social progress. Therefore, Washington’s industrial education model aimed to reconstruct the core of the South’s agricultural production.

Through depictions of students cultivating undeveloped fields, building classrooms, and engaging in “customary school-room work,” among other activities, the pamphlet illustrates three critical components of the nature of learning in Washington’s industrial education model. First, applied learning was highly valued. The Mayesville Institute sought to provide a purposeful industrial education through practical application, though this required a shift in the formal curriculum that preexisted within the majority of white schools. As William J. Reese explains, it was believed that black children “needed an agricultural or ‘industrial education’ to compete for jobs, ‘avoid chain-gangs, jails, and peni-tentiaries,’ and stay away from the vices of the ‘madding towns.’” The Mayesville Institute incorporated this idea in its curriculum. African American children would be developed to provide a social and economic benefit to South Carolina, but this required that they be taught a hands-on approach to learning.

Another characteristic of learning at the Mayesville Insti-tute as exhibited in the pamphlet was that it was exploratory and student-centered. Students selected manual training classes based on individual interest and skill level. Children were admitted at thirteen years old and followed an open-ended curriculum that required twenty-one hours per week in academic work during the first three years. Coursework consisted of classes in English lit-eracy, math, geography, psychology, philosophy, and ethics. These core subjects laid an academic foundation for teaching trade skills to students. Washington believed that “no race can be lifted until

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its mind is awakened and strengthened.” Strengthening the mind provided an opportunity for the child to discover his range of talents in manual training, and this allowed the child to select a path for individual exploration.

The third component of the nature of learning was the pro-motion of moral development and belief in the dignity of work. Though many considered the continuation of blacks working in positions of manual labor to be a byproduct of slavery, Wash-ington’s ideology focused on the reconceptualization of service-oriented jobs by viewing manual trade as a professional occu-pation. The Mayesville Institute, in turn, imparted to students that carpentry, blacksmithing, and dressmaking were honorable professions for blacks in the South. Indeed, Mayesville students are portrayed as returning to their communities and using their industrial knowledge to rebuild neighborhoods.

Parallel Arguments to the Industrial Education ModelThe Mayesville Institute was providing a proactive solution to the lack of formal schooling and literacy in the southern states. Yet the implementation of formal schooling for blacks was not overt-ly welcomed or supported. This type of school reform appeared daunting to many African Americans in the South. The type of education that black children should receive was debated, and it was questioned whether educating them would result in the pursuit of racial dominance. The incorporation of the Mayesville Institute and similar schools produced several unanticipated ef-fects that changed the scope of education for African Americans.

While seeking to serve the needs of African American youth during the period of Reconstruction, the industrial education model received both criticism and support from white south-erners. Some feared that increased literacy among black citizens would add to the demand for equality in politics, and there was great resistance due to the perception that educated Afri-can Americans would learn the political and economic system well enough to advance to the status of whites. Still, other white southerners supported industrial education, believing it prepared blacks for employment primarily in service-oriented occupations.

The industrial education model also produced dissention within the African American community. In particular, op-ponents like W. E. B. Du Bois stressed that it perpetuated the status quo of oppression and racial discrimination. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois describes Washington as supporting the ideology that “the Negro can survive only through submission.” This submissiveness asks blacks to focus on limited intellectual opportunities to seek slavery-oriented social positioning. Du Bois contended that Washington’s focus on industrial education helped further “the disfranchisement of the Negro, legal creation of distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro, and steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro.” Du Bois and others believed Washington’s perspective neglected the full capabilities of the African American mind by not focusing on their immediate progress in the South. The edu-cation of black children was believed to be a collective educa-tional experience that centered on academic development, and

this could not be achieved within the confines of an industrial education model.

The Fate of Industrial Education in the New CenturyThe industrial education model faced opposition from white southerners and black intellectuals whose beliefs differed in the type of education that an African American child should receive in the South. These challenges produced various changes in how children at Mayesville were educated and in the overall course of educating African Americans during this period.

Entering the twentieth century, the Mayesville Institute faced numerous obstacles in sustaining a formal education system. First, the institute was unable to obtain complete community buy-in to the school’s mission. Although the reported enrollment averaged approximately 425 students, there was sixty-five percent dropout rate after the first year, according to a 1920 Commission of Labor report. Thus, students were only temporarily receiving the type of education that Washington had envisioned. Compa-rable trends were evident in similar institutions regarding buy-in and resources offered through an industrial education. Moreover, trade instruction, a core component of the industrial curriculum, was often viewed as limited by students. In general, schools for African Americans were not comparable to institutions of formal education for whites.

A second consideration that influenced the momentum of a formal education system for African American children was an underestimation of the extent of racism and discrimination in the South. The Mayesville Institute stated that pupils who remained through the four-year course were prepared to enter the indus-trial field and experienced no difficulty in finding employment. However, the social and political attitudes of society were not as conducive to their progression as the institute had envisioned. As the percentage of African American children attending schools increased, opposition to the outcomes of schooling became a ma-jor focus.

If the “black child lost her hold on the imagination of many in American society in the late nineteenth century, she remained the focus of aspirations for African Americans,” as Mary Niall Mitchell has observed. The saving grace would not come in the form of correcting neglected inequalities or providing restitution for the denial of human rights, but in progressing the cause of social equality for all Americans. This is the ideal that an indus-trial education for blacks sought to realize and that the nation challenged entering into the twentieth century. ◆

Originally from New Bern, North Carolina, Dorothy Hines Datiri is a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University in the Educa-tion Policy Program. Her research interests include high school dropouts, the political history of African American education, and urban education. She thanks Dr. Michael Sedlak, Dr. Peter Youngs, Duke University Libraries, and the History of Education Society for their assistance with this article.