A rich, but disappearing legacy: remembering Black boarding schools: a tradition obscured by desegregation's impact

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 14, 2003 by Ronald Roach

There's no doubt that the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board school desegregation case next year will generate much-needed discussion about the ongoing struggle over providing quality education for American children, especially for those in the Black, Latino and American Indian communities.

While a good deal of the celebration will applaud the historic efforts of courageous scholars and lawyers, such as Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Kenneth Clark, to desegregate the public schools, there likely won't be much, if any, attention paid to another distinct tradition that sought the best education possible for Black children during the segregation era. The tradition belongs to historically Black boarding schools, of which there were more than 100 in the United States prior to the 1970s.

Currently, only four such schools are in operation.

"It was an excellent educational option, and it is the kind of option I wish we had available today," says North Carolina Central University provost Dr. Lucy Reuben, who attended a Black boarding school known as the Mather School in Beaufort, S.C., during her high school years.

Alumni of these schools, which were primarily based in the South, decry the loss of these institutions, which came about in large part from enrollment declines and financial hardship after desegregation opened up all-White public schools to Black students. These independent boarding schools had made up a significant part of the educational infrastructure for Blacks between the Civil War and the civil rights movement. When southern states and localities failed to provide schools for Black children, local Blacks, religious organizations and philanthropists took it upon themselves to build independent elementary and secondary schools.

"The schools that became boarding schools were often the only places in a particular community where Blacks could be educated," says Dr. Charles Beady Jr., the president of the Piney Woods School in Mississippi.

Among the Black boarding schools, the Mather schools in Beaufort and Camden, S.C., Palmer Memorial Institute and Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina, Snow Hill Institute in Alabama, Gilbert Academy in New Orleans, Piney Woods in Mississippi and Boggs Academy in Georgia are some of the better known institutions.

To those who attended the Black boarding schools, the tradition imbued them with a profound sense of community, religious devotion for those at the church-affiliated schools, and a commitment to academic excellence, qualities they believe are rarely replicated in the lives of contemporary Black students.

"I can say that Mather provided a truly rigorous and character-building experience," Reuben says.

Today, a number of the boarding school alumni groups have reunions on an annual basis and a few work on historic preservation projects relating to their alma maters. The four existing Black boarding schools have recently begun efforts to reach out to the alumni of the ones that have closed.

PIONEERING EFFORTS

Laurence C. Jones, Charlotte Hawkins Brown and Rachel Crane Mather may not be household names, but as founders of Black boarding schools they are held in high esteem in Black education history for establishing schools under difficult circumstances. While dozens of schools were founded during the late 1800s and early 1900s, a number of them rose to prominence based on the extraordinary perseverance and leadership of individual founders. Others flourished under the largess of religious organizations and philanthropic interests.

The founder of the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, N.C., Charlotte Hawkins Brown is said to have led her school to considerable prominence as one of the top academies for Black students in the United States. With few resources, Brown established Palmer in 1902. Prior to launching Palmer, Brown had held an American Missionary Association teaching job at the Bethany Congregational Church in Sedalia. After the school closed within a year of Brown's arrival, the young teacher stayed in the community and opened Palmer, which she would head for 50 years.

The school was named in honor of Alice Freeman Palmer, Brown's mentor and benefactor. Palmer was the second woman president of Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass.

Like many of its counterparts, Palmer was founded as an agricultural and manual training facility. Over time, it evolved into an accredited college preparatory academy that drew Black students from around the nation and from overseas. During Brown's tenure as president, more than 1,000 students graduated from the school. Palmer would eventually close in 1971.

Dr. Roselyn Payne Epps, professor emeritus of pediatrics and child health at the Howard University medical school, remembers Charlotte Hawkins Brown as a capable and determined leader.

"She was a very dynamic and strong woman," says Epps, who graduated from Palmer in 1947.

Epps went to Palmer as a 12-year-old ninth-grader along with her older brother. As the child of parents who were an administrator and faculty member at what is now Savannah State University, Epps recalls having the time of her life as a student. "It was a wonderful experience. It was culturally enriching and a great education," she says.