'Racial Uplift'

Jump down to section: Education and HBCUs        The Classical Tradition          Pseudo-Scientific Theories of Racial Inferiority

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Topics: Challenges of designing a future under newly gained freedom; Principles vs. prejudice

Black Reconstruction, Essay XVI: Back Toward Slavery, W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, Harcourt, Brace, NY 1935.  Du Bois subtitles the essay: This is an essay towards a history of the part which Black Folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America 1860-1880.  This pdf copy contains the essay and reference notes compiled by Du Bois while he was Professor of Sociology at The Atlanta University. PDF archive (40 pages) 

On pages 33-37 of his Autobiography (Ronnick, ed., Wayne State, 2006), WS Scarborough shares his own very interesting first hand account of observing the end of the Civil War in his own local town of Macon, Georgia as Confederate and Union troops marched through in March - April, 1865. They had their own "Juneteenth" moment (like happened later in Galveston, TX, on June 19, 1865) when General Wilson headquartered in Macon and made a speech on April 20 declaring to all residents the new relationship beginning between emancipated Blacks and White society authorized earlier by the Emancipation Proclamation of January, 1863. He witnessed Jefferson Davies being led through town as a captive on May 10, 1865. Page previews may be available here. This is a really good reading for Grades7-16, or read it to them.  C-RM 

The Collected Works of William Sanders Scarborough, Ronnick, ed., Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI 2006. This collection has much to offer students and teachers: See ‘Politics, Policy and Prejudice’, p.446, The Emancipation of the Negro (1905) summarizes the history from emancipation in 1863; ‘The Moral of Race Conflict’ p. 433, offers other lessons from human history.  In The Collected Works, we also see topics: In ‘English Principle vs. American Prejudice,’ p.463, he watches as Whites spread vitriol to other countries; On p. 467, ‘A Subsidized North,’ he sees the North as caving in to demands of the Southern states and laws, breaking down the goals of emancipation and reconstruction; On p. 473, in his essay on ‘Race Integrity,’ (1907), he postulates that there is no such thing as race integrity and it is only a tool of oppression.  C-RM  Grades13-16 (as assigned readings) 

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Topics: Controversies about the best type of education to establish; Industrial vs. classical liberal arts curricula; The founding of HBCUs; Segregation and inclusion

Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee and Johnston’s Photos. Here is an ancillary page with classroom discussion questions that is sourced from the National Humanities Center and expanded (by NCLG) with additional information. It touches on the life, educational philosophy and career of Booker T. Washington. C-RM Grades7-12

Here you can read the text of Up From Slavery; An Autobiography, by Booker T. Washington, especially Chapter 8, which touches on Tuskegee and his request for photos of Tuskegee classrooms by famous, pioneering woman photographer, Frances Johnston.

The Collected Works of William Sanders Scarborough - Black Classicist and Race Leader, Ronnick, ed., Wayne State University Press, MI 2006 in The Collected Black Writings Series. This collection includes ‘Education of Blacks: Our Schools and Their Needs, (1882-1917).’ On p.190, Scarborough stresses the breadth of education and quality of teaching needed;  on p. 207 of  ‘Booker T. Washington’ he describes his contributions; on p. 213  of ‘Higher Learning,’ Scarborough calls for education to the highest levels; and on p. 219 of ‘His Mission,’ he speaks on ‘how to learn a living’ that will uplift the race.

Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough, (Ronnick, ed., 2006): On pages 156-7, Scarborough reflects on Booker T. Washington’s approach to Industrial Education, which, he says .... was a good education for some, but the whole race should not run to it as the sole sort of education the race should have. 'The race has been growing in wealth, refinement, and learning. All these have worked to produce another class where....leaders dwell....' 

Butchart, Ronald, Schooling the Freed People: Teaching, Learning, and the Struggle for Black Freedom, 1861-1876. The University of North Carolina Press, 2010.  'Conventional wisdom holds that freedmen's education was largely the work of privileged, single white northern women motivated by evangelical beliefs and abolitionism. Backed by path breaking research, Ronald E. Butchart's Schooling the Freed People shatters this notion...The most comprehensive quantitative study of the origins of black education in freedom ever undertaken, this definitive book on freedmen's teachers in the South is an outstanding contribution to social history and our understanding of African American education.' Please see a longer Review, posted on muse.jhu.edu/pub/181/article/502679  by Christian McWhirter; excerpt, Alabama Review.

“Training the Apostles of Liberal Culture, Black Higher Education, 1900-1935” James Anderson, from his book The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1988). Book digital access via epdf.pub. NCLG Summary page of Chapter 7 content offered here. C-RM Grades9-16

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Biography of a Race, 1868-1919; David Levering Lewis, Holt, 1993, 2001 (eventually in 2 volumes).  After publishing Volume 1, David Levering Lewis speaks about the life and work of W.E.B. Du Bois, especially his middle years. He offers a great introduction to Du Bois in a C-SPAN 50 minute interview by host Brian Lamb. Lewis, a Black scholar, who has been holding the Martin Luther King History Chair at Rutgers since 1985, met Du Bois as a child. Lewis was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes, one for each of the volumes on Du Bois. The informative  interview video is here (1993) and a full transcript is here. C-RVP  Grades9-16

A good source of information on the life and contributions of Du Bois by Britannica is also listed below in the next section. One can toggle to read on different levels: kids (Grades1-5), students (Grades 6-8), or scholars (Grade9 up).

An NCLG slide lesson, The Legacy and Life of W.E.B. Du Bois, is available. Also in PDF format. This lesson covers his 93 year life, including his strong voice for liberal arts college curricula and benefits of classical education for racial uplift of African Americans in contrast with Booker T. Washington's focus on vocational training.  He also made significant contributions as a civil rights leader of NAACP, a key proponent in international movements for racial equality, a sociology researcher studying the lives of African Americans and causes for economic conditions, and a gifted and prolific writer and editor. C-RM Grades7-16

Segregation: NCLG resource page for ten of W.E.B. Du Bois many relevant books and essays: Click here for this resource page  to access information on tmany works of W.E.B. Du Bois with overviews on each book and methods of free, digital or library links, including the following two titles:

     The Training of Negroes for Social Power, W.E.B. Du Bois, Atlanta University, 1903; https://www.loc.gov/resource/lcrbmrp.t8086/?sp=5 and a site of resources from LOC: https://guides.loc.gov/web-dubois  The first Black American to earn a PhD from Harvard University, he wrote The Souls of Black Folk, 1903, while teaching at Atlanta. He spoke of  the social and psychological contours of the Black experience living in a White America, a “double-consciouness” as Americans and as Africans and that they should not lose touch with their heritage. This is a phenomenon that will resonate with many first and second generation American students. A copy is also here. 

      The Education of Black People; Ten Critiques, 1906 – 1960, W. E. B. DuBois, Monthly Review Press, 2001 edition, Herbert Aptheker. “Undoubtedly the most influential black intellectual of the twentieth century and one of America's finest historians, W.E.B. DuBois knew that the liberation of the African American people required liberal education and not vocational training. He saw education as a process of teaching certain timeless values: moderation, an avoidance of luxury, a concern for courtesy, a capacity to endure, a nurturing love for beauty. At the same time, DuBois saw education as fundamentally subversive. This was as much a function of the well-established role of education  from Plato forward as the realities of the social order under which he lived. He insistently calls for great energy and initiative; for African Americans controlling their own lives and for continued experimentation and innovation, while keeping education's fundamentally radical nature in view. Though containing speeches written nearly one-hundred years ago, and on a subject that has seen more stormy debate and demagoguery than almost any other in recent history, The Education of Black People approaches education with a timelessness and timeliness, at once rooted in classical thought that reflects a remarkably fresh and contemporary relevance.” -publisher (224 pages)  Borrow on Internet Archive; Read introduction for students by Howard University's Center for African Studies; Read or download through login or library access to JSTOR also.

Hanses M, “Cicero Crosses the Color Line: Pro Archia Poeta and W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk,” in The International Journal of the Classical Tradition 26: p. 10–26, Penn State, 2019. Above link goes to a shared pdf. Otherwise you can use institutional library access here: https://link.springer.com/journal/12138/volumes-and-issues/26-1.   Hanses describes how Du Bois used Ciceronian references and style to show that he had mastered the ancient text, arguing for such liberal arts education for African Americans as a tool for racial uplift. Classical education had relevance across time, geography and races to the formation of man's highest capabilities. This was a reaction to the argument of Washington for industrial education presented in his Up from Slavery. - NCLG  C-RM  Grades13-16

Withun, David, Ch. 1 The Classical Education of W.E.B. Du Bois  in Co-workers in the Kingdom of Culture: Classics and Cosmopolitanism in the Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois, Oxford University Press, New York, 2022. "W. E. B. Du Bois’ education was steeped in classical languages and literature. The philosophy of Plato and Cicero, classical mythology, and classical rhetorical forms first encountered in his student years marked Du Bois’s work, thought, and style throughout his life. Du Bois’s classical education, however, also presented him with the challenge that would later form the basis of much of his treatment of classical literature in his later writing, namely, that he found a passion for the tradition of received canonical texts and thought, but simultaneously found himself excluded from full participation in it because of the racist ideas of his contemporaries. The central role of classics in Du Bois’s education also provides the background for a more complete understanding of Du Bois’s later conflict with Booker T. Washington....." - publisher

Withun, David, Ch.2  'American Archias: Cicero, Epic Poetry, and The Souls of Black Folk' in Co-workers in the Kingdom of Culture: Classics and Cosmopolitanism in the Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois, Oxford University Press, New York, 2022; online edn, Oxford Academic 2022 access:  https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197579589.003.0003. "The influence of Cicero’s Pro Archia Poeta on The Souls of Black Folk is one of the most important. This chapter examines the influence of Cicero’s ancient defense of the poet Archias on the structure of Du Bois’s argument in defense of full civil rights and access to liberal education for African Americans...." - publisher

The Image of the Slave in Cicero's Catilinarians, Hannah Čulík-Baird, Rhetorica, Volume 41, Number 4, Fall 2023, pp. 385-411 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/rht.2023.a915453. Though often African Americans found the tools of classical rhetoric advantageous to their cause, the author takes a detailed look at the place and role of enslaved workers in the production of the Catalinarians, as well as examining the content. Cicero’s views on policies relating to foreign powers, the conspiracy, rights, and general attitudes of patria and potestas in that time are discussed, and the section Communis Patria would be helpful to teachers in drawing comparisons to America. Many aspects of the deeply embedded Roman attitudes towards slavery can be easily seen as corollaries to modern racial supremacy. -NCLG

W.E.B. Du Bois on African American Literature. Here is an excerpt from an article of Du Bois’ published in Britannica, where he comments on contributions of several writers, some listed below. “Although Du Bois’s political involvements have largely defined his legacy, in his time he was a respected author and historian of literature as well….The linked “excerpt—taken from a much longer article on American literature, published in 1926 in the 13th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica—is guided by his interest in those authors who took ownership of that experience, thereby giving rise to a unique and powerful literary tradition.”  C-RM  (a short reference article) Grades9-12

Dr. Harriett Fertik from Ohio State University presents “Rethinking Classical Education: W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk”  in a recorded 2023 NCLG panel at ACL Institute. (Begins at min 17:00)  She helps us see him confront the powers and limitations of classical education through her reinterpretation of his work. 

Goings, K.M. and E.M. O’Connor, “Lessons Learned: The Role of the Classics at Black Colleges and Universities,” in The Journal of Negro Education, 79.4: pages 521–31, 2010. Above link goes to a shared pdf. The authors describe the role of classical education in offering Black students tools and agency in social and racial uplift. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were one of the only ways for Black Americans to get a college degree before the Civil Rights movement. These institutions provided an inclusive environment for Black Americans to pursue professional careers, earn graduate degrees, and advance their education. HBCUs also offered a supportive environment for African American students to explore their personal and collective identity as well as their cultural heritage.  C-RM  Grades13-16

Morse, H. 2022. “Beyond Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic: Black Elocutionary Education in Post-Emancipation America,” in the American Journal of Philology 143.2: pages 279–304. On Barnard College Classics and Ancient Studies resource site page, an editor contributed this review: "Tracing the educational programs started and led by Black classicists in the south of the 19th century –among them William Sanders Scarborough, Anna Julia Cooper, Phillis Wheatley, and Mary Church Terrell– Morse’s piece unpacks the development of rhetoric as a toolkit for engagement in democracy and citizenship in post-Jim Crow, pre-Civil Rights Movement America. Cataloging the various textbooks written for this method of elocution and their pedagogical entanglements,..... thinking about the resonances of educational patterns over time, regional, and racial contexts, Morse is sure to expose readers with this to an archive of Black educators, their methods, and the import of their teaching for the development of a student body which, though excluded from equal participation, was oriented towards civic engagement. (AR, 2022)  C-RM Grades13-16

Kelly Miller, in his The Primary Needs of the Negro Race; An Address (dated 1898), describes Aryan efforts to project inferiority on non-white cultures and effects of that. Library of Congress12003483. Miller also proposed that liberal arts and Industrial arts are both needed for racial uplift and success in modern times. For the premise that there is no hierarchy in education, see p.8- 12.  See other entries on this page and HERE.

Fanny Jackson Coppin  was  'born to teach my people.'  Famously, she told Frederick Douglass that she had a deep 'desire to see my race lifted out of the mire of ignorance, weakness and degradation; .... I want to see him crowned with strength and dignity; adorned with the enduring grace of intellectual attainments.' She was an innovative educator and effective leader in the mission field of racial uplift through Black education. She was born in Washington, DC in 1837 and died in Philadelphia, PA in 1913. Rising from enslavement to become an Oberlin College graduate, Fanny Jackson devoted herself first to teaching Latin, Greek, and Math at ICY in Philadelphia (later Cheyney University), then became Women's Principal, then Head Principal of the Institute, a first for an African American woman. She developed a new teacher training program, or Normal School. After marrying Rev. Coppin, she also became a missionary to South Africa, counseling women. NCLG offers a bio page HERE. C-RM  Grades7-16

Nannie Helen Burroughs: Educational Innovator: NCLG offers this slideshow lesson on her life and contributions.  BlackPast.org has an entry stating that she was born in VA, May 2, 1879 and lived in Louisville, KY and Washington, D.C. until May 20, 1961. (Jackson, E., 2007, March 27, BlackPast.org)  More information on “Nannie Helen Burroughs and her “most creditable work”  is found in the Library of Congress, which offers a short but well-illustrated biographical blog with many links to good resources for teachers and students. She attended Eckstein-Norton University and eventually received an honorary M.A. degree in 1907. She always said that she felt vocational and classical training were 'compatible.' Well-educated and a friend of Terrell, Bethune, and Cooper, she worked with many Black women activists, especially in the area of labor and civil rights. She also opened National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC in 1909 which she ran until her death in 1961.  Slides and sites: C-RM   Grades7-16

Daniel Alexander Payne was born in Charleston, SC, on Feb. 24, 1811 of English, Africa, and Catawban ancestry (per BlackPast.org). A short biography is written by Scarborough and can be found in his Collected Works (Ronnick, citation above, pp. 125-129). Bishop Payne helped found and then served as President at a Methodist Episcopal Church school for African Americans at Tawawa Springs in Ohio, which was called Wilberforce University after the famous abolitionist. NCLG offers summary information HERE.  C-RM  Grades7-16

Ronnick, M.V., “Racial Ideology and the Classics in the African-American University Experience,” in Classical Bulletin 76.2: pages169–80, 2000.. This link goes to a shared pdf. Ronnick provides great detail about four prominent African American men with opposing views on the correct path for education and the rise of "the race." She discusses Martin Robison Delany and Booker T. Washington on the one side and William Sanders Scarborough and W.E.B. Du Bois on the other. An excellent read. The PDF is shared with her permission.

Ronnick, M.V., “‘A Pick Instead of Greek and Latin’: The Afro-American Quest for Useful Knowledge, 1880–1920,” in Negro Educational Review 47: pages 60–72; 1996. Here you will find a detailed account of the various justifications for industrial and classical education and the persons who either proposed and critiqued these two curricula.

Black South Carolinians and Classical Education: A look at the Lives of Eight of the State’s Sons and Daughters; biographical essay by Michele Valerie Ronnick; booklet form produced by the NCLG and the College of Charleston to accompany an NCLG panel "Facing the Erasure of Black Classicists in America; Highlighting their Role in Classics and Educational Equity." Access her essay here and share with students and colleagues good summaries of the lives and contributions of eight accomplished classicists born in South Carolina. Here is a separate source list for the essay for the lives of Daniel Payne, Frazelia Campbell, Francis Cardozo, Cornelius Scott, William Bulkley, Kelly Miller, R.S. Lovinggood, and Edward Davis.  C-RM  Grades7-16

ICY and Cheyney University: The first HBCU college for African-Americans in the United States, The African Institute, or The Institute for Colored Youth, was founded in 1837 in Philadelphia, PA. It became the first college for African-Americans in the United States, although there were schools that admitted African Americans preceding it.  Frazelia Campbell attended here (see her below in this section). At the time, public policy and certain statutory provisions prohibited the education of blacks in various parts of the nation….  It was followed by two other black institutions— Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (1854), and Wilberforce University in Ohio (1856)….. After moving to Cheyney, Pennsylvania, its name was changed to Cheyney University.

   The Institute was founded by Richard Humphreys, a Quaker philanthropist. Born on a plantation in the West Indies, wealthy trader and silversmith, Richard Humphreys came to Philadelphia in 1764, where he became concerned about the struggles of free African Americans to make a living. News of the Cincinnati riots of 1829 prompted Humphreys to write his will, in which he charged thirteen fellow Quakers to design an institution "to instruct the descendants of the African Race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic Arts, trades and Agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers.... Although operated by the Quaker Board, the staff and faculty of the Institute for Colored Youth were entirely African-American men and women. The Institute contained both Boys' and Girls' High Schools, as well as a Preparatory School(college). The school provided a classical education to young African Americans, including advanced mathematics, sciences, English, philosophy, various social sciences, and classical languages. Richard T. Greener, the first African-American graduate of Harvard University, joined the faculty. Five years later, Edward A. Bouchet, Yale's first black doctoral graduate, accepted appointment. This early generation of outstanding black faculty instilled a measure of racial pride that added a sense of social purpose to the academic regime. Without a doubt, Fanny Jackson Coppin, the Institute's Principal from 1869 to 1902, set the tone for high achievement and cultural distinction in the school's early history.

Black Classicists in Texas is a free public exhibition celebrating African American teachers of Latin and Greek in Central Texas. This project also includes a wealth of information, illustrations and a timeline under the title This is My Native Land: Tracking the "Classical" Legacy Across Texan Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Here is a detailed and illustrated story map of information on HBCUs. This is a Humanities Texas and UT Austin Classics Department collaborative project which went live in 2023. Also available is an NPR broadcast by Texas Standard on 5/1/23 ‘Teaching Greek and Roman texts in the Jim Crow era' about the project.  C-RM suitable for student research  C-RVP  Grades7-16

Myrtilla Miner was a leader in teacher training for free African American women, as she viewed knowledge and education as essential to the abolition of  slavery.  Miner was a White woman born in Brookfield, New York, on March 4, 1815. After various teaching positions, she taught in Mississippi, where she realized the importance of African American education to the abolition of slavery. She was forbidden to teach Black students, she moved to New York and then Washington DC. Frederick Douglas thought her plans for a school to be very dangerous  for her personally.  In 1851 in Washington, D.C., Myrtilla Miner founded the School for Colored Girls. Later it was renamed Miner Normal School (in 1929 Miner Teaching College and in 1955 D.C. Teachers College). Its main building, constructed in 1913 with Congressional approval, still stands on the campus of Howard University.  It would be an adjunct to today’s Black educational institutions in D.C., such as University of the District of Columbia, Howard University. It has been training Black female teachers since its inception! Until desegregation in the 1950s, it supplied almost all the teachers for the Black public schools in D.C. and its teachers were in high demand across the Southern States. Please see: https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/items/show/386  and https://www.nps.gov/places/miner-normal-school.htm and https://www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org/myrtilla-miner.html

Katie Robinson of the NCLG created for students and teachers more in this series of Spotlights on Black Classicists Slideshow Magazines. All these Spotlights and other resources are available as individual articles on NCLG website. Here is an excellent way to begin to learn or teach about some important Black Classicists in American scholarship! NCLG Spotlights on Black Classicists are in PDF or slide format and tell students and teachers about important Black classicists, such as Reuben Shannon Lovinggood. 

     The Spotlight on Black Classicist RS Lovinggood, by Katie Robinson of the NCLG, describes his life and accomplishments, includes interview remarks and reflections from living family members, and offers a list of additional resources provided by the family. Lovinggood lived May 2, 1864 (SC) - December 17, 1916 (TX). Lovinggood rose from extreme poverty, degreed at Clark College, studied at the University of Chicago, taught at Wiley College and was President of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, TX.  He was an excellent classicist in all respects, as well as a strong community leader and innovative educator. His son Penman Lovingood wrote a biography of his father: A Negro Seer; The Life and Work of Dr. R.S. Lovinggood, Educator - Churchman - Race Leader (1963). You can borrow it at college libraries.   Spotlight slideshow C-RM  Grades7-16

Dr. R.S. Lovinggood; archived copy of The Fun of It; A Brief History of Samuel Huston College and First President of the School, 1914, from The Dr. Reuben S. Lovinggood Papers, Downs-Jones Library Archive and Special Collections, Huston-Tillotson University, Austin, Texas. Lovinggood describes the history of these colleges, their struggles, and his personal experiences, eventually becoming a Texas college president. This archive folder holds numerous very interesting documents, including his autobiographical letter, biographic essays, and this (above) description of his early life and the history of Huston-Tillotson University, all reveal the austere conditions of surviving as well as paths for African Americans to achieve a liberal arts education.  C-RM  Grades 7-16

Lee, John W I, The First Black Archeologist - A Life of John Wesley Gilbert, Oxford University Press, 2022. Lee explores the life story of the research and scholarship in Classics and archeology of the first Black archaeologist on a dig in Greece. Born into slavery in Georgia in 1863, Gilbert was educated in Augusta at  Augusta Institute[Morehouse] then Paine Institute[College], then degreed at Brown University in Providence RI, with a BA and MA Classical Studies. He returned to teach several languages at Paine Institute as its first Black professor. He distinguished himself in Greek, Latin, German, French and Hebrew. He studied ay Brown under Professor Albert Harkness who helped establish the APA and as a member of the AIA, he worked to found the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, which Gilbert later attended as its first and only Black resident until 1901. Widely travelled in Europe as well as the Belgian Congo, Gilbert's role is notable as an early archaeologist and as a Black APA member. NCLG offers a  Black Classicists Spotlight on John Wesley Gilbert  in slideshow or PDF format created by Katie Robinson and based on an interview with John W.I. Lee.  Spotlight slides C-RM  Grades7-16

Scroll through an article on Dr. Michele Valerie Ronnick's well known  Black Classicists: A Mural Mosaic traveling portrait exhibit (several quality posters are available to self-print) describing the lives of 18 Black classicists.  Spotlight slides C-RM  Grades7-16.

NCLG Spotlight article on  William Sanders Scarborough and the Work of Michele Valerie Ronnick.(and PDF). Scarborough was an amazing example of the intellectual capabilities and outstanding scholarship of Black classicists and their enduring impact on the education od all African Americans and the movements to bring uplift and equality, academically and socially.  Spotlight slides C-RM  Grades7-16

NCLG Spotlight article on Helen Maria Chesnutt, a Cleveland, Ohio educator and Latin textbook co-author and author of a biography of her father: Charles Waddell Chesnutt, Pioneer of the Color Line. She was born on Dec. 6, 1880 in North Carolina  and died on August 7, 1969 in Cleveland, OH. She degreed at Smith and Columbia and studied at Western Reserve. She was also an APA member. Spotlight slides C-RM  Grades7-16

NCLG Spotlight article on Helen and Dorothy Chesnutt exhibit at Case Western Reserve University (free poster available) organized by Dr. Paul Hay.  Spotlight slides C-RM  Grades7-16

NCLG Spotlight on Peggy W. Norris' new book on William L. Bulkley William L. Bulkley 1861-1933 African American Educator and Reformer (2022). He devoted himself to his own education and then brought innovative approaches to education and community relations in the boroughs of New York City.   Spotlight slides C-RM  Grades7-16

Return me to Intersections Table of Contents

Topics: Honoring the history of the Black intellectualism; Black classical tradition; the role of grammar, logic, and rhetoric and value for writing, speaking, socio-political activism, admission to universities, theological seminaries

Education and Identity in Classica Africana, presented by Dr. Eric Ashley Hairston. He speaks on a number of Black intellectuals with significant impact through their literary contributions and social activism, from Wheatley to Hurston. 2022 Baylor University Provost Conference Series (48 min)  C-RVP  Grades13-16

Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough, (Ronnick, ed. 2006) pages 94-7. Here Scarborough describes his own recognition by the APA and MLA regarding his membership and papers he presented at their meetings, as well as the recognition of a colleague in Texas. Dr. Reuben Shannon Lovinggood.

R.S. Lovinggood,  Why Hic, Haec, Hoc for the Negro? Or - Did Our Northern Friends Make a Mistake? 1900. In his essay, Lovinggood thoroughly covers the defense of a classical education for Black Americans in their drive for equality and representation in social, political, and professional circles and of those who supported it financially.  He wrote this pamphlet to counter each one the popular arguments against this kind of education.  Digital copy housed within The Dr. Reuben S. Lovinggood Papers; Huston-Tillotson Archives, Austin, TX. This is available in digital archive, 54 page essay, quite readable.  https://cdm17014.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/rslovinggood/id/189/rec/11 

Reclaiming Our Canon. Hear the thoughts of Dr. Anika Prather on the Black Classical Tradition. Describing her own journey from skepticism to enthusiasm, Dr. Anika Prather explains why it makes sense for students of color to embrace the reality of the deep connection between Black education and the classical tradition, especially in America. She explains how that study helped liberate and empower African Americans (who were torn from their own cultures and linguistic traditions) by giving them access to language study and the tools of logic and rhetoric and why it  is still relevant today. This podcast summarizes her presentation for our NCLG DEI panel and her keynote address at ACL Institute 2022. True North Episode 5.  C-RVP  Grades9-16

Cook, W. and J. Tatum (eds.) African American Writers and Classical Tradition, University of Chicago, IL , 2010. The Baylor University Libraries review of contents says 'The authors argue that African American literature did not develop apart from the canonical Western literary traditions but instead grew out of those literatures, even as it adapted and transformed the cultural traditions and religions of Africa and the African diaspora along the way. They trace the interaction between African American writers and the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome, from the time of slavery and its aftermath to the civil rights era through the present. Content themes: The leisure moments of Phillis Wheatley -- Frederick Douglass and the Columbian orator -- The making of the talented tenth -- Genteel classicism -- Invisible odyssey -- The Pindar of Harlem -- It is impossible not to write satire -- Rita Dove and the Greeks.' (Search your own institution's library for access to borrowing.)

Withun, D. 2022. Co-Workers in the Kingdom of Culture: Classics and Cosmopolitanism in the Thought of W.E.B. Du Bois. Oxford.

Here is a biography of W.E.B.Du Bois for Grades 7-12 students by Britannica. His life and work are essential to understanding the development and dynamics of the curriculum for Black higher education. The begin with this introduction: "William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His parents, Alfred and Mary Burghardt Du Bois, were of African and European ancestry. An excellent student, Du Bois graduated from Fisk University in 1888 and from Harvard College in 1890. He traveled in Europe and studied at the University of Berlin. In 1895 he received a Ph.D. from Harvard. His dissertation, The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638–1870, was published in 1896 as the first volume of the Harvard Historical Studies. After teaching Greek and Latin at Wilberforce University from 1894 to 1896, Du Bois studied Philadelphia’s slums. In The Philadelphia Negro, published in 1899, a pioneering sociological study, he hoped to dispel the ignorance of Whites about Blacks, which he believed was a cause of racial prejudice. Du Bois taught at Atlanta University from 1897 to 1910 and from 1897 until 1914 directed its annual studies of Black Life." (He died in Ghana on August 27, 1963)  Grades K-12 up.  One can adjust the content of this site for Kids - Students - Scholars.

An NCLG slide lesson, The Legacy and Life of W.E.B. Du Bois, is available. Also in PDF format. This lesson covers his 93 year life, including his strong voice for liberal arts college curricula and benefits of classical education for racial uplift of African Americans in contrast with Booker T. Washington's focus on vocational training.  He also made significant contributions as a civil rights leader of NAACP, a key proponent in international movements for racial equality, a sociology researcher studying the lives of African Americans and causes for economic conditions, and a gifted and prolific writer and editor. C-RM Grades7-16

Classical Influences on Du Bois are discussed in The Souls of Black Folk; One hundred Years Later, edited by Dolan Hubbard, University of Missouri Press(2003), in The Wings of Atalanta: Classical Influences in The Souls of Black Folk; Cowherd, Carrie, p.284-97. Above link goes to a shared pdf.

Access to The Souls of Black Folk is elsewhere in this resource and on an NCLG resource page listing ten of W.E.B. Du Bois many relevant books and essays: Click here for our NCLG resource page  to access information on these works of W.E.B. Du Bois with overviews on each book and methods of free, digital or library links. It includes these:

​​The Talented Tenth, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Pott, 1903. Amazon digital, 2020: “The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races. Now the training of men is a difficult and intricate task. Its technique is a matter for educational experts, but its object is for the vision of seers. If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men; if we make technical skill the object of education, we may possess artisans but not, in nature, men. Men we shall have only as we make manhood the object of the work of the schools-intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and of the relation of men to it-this is the curriculum of that Higher Education which must underlie true life. On this foundation we may build bread winning, skill of hand and quickness of brain, with never a fear lest the child and man mistake the means of living for the object of life.” -author (36 pages)

The Training of Negroes for Social Power, W.E.B. Du Bois, Atlanta University leaflet No 17 article, 1903; (24 pages) Library of Congress digital access: https://www.loc.gov/resource/lcrbmrp.t8086/?sp=5 . Du Bois discusses his vision for higher education and the goal of African Americans reaching equality in representation in politics, society and the professional fields.

W.E.B. Du Bois was a founding member of NAACP, already well known as a Black intellectual of his era. Du Bois published widely before becoming NAACP's director of publicity and research and starting the organization's official journal, The Crisis, in 1910.  W.E.B. Du Bois on African American literature, African American Literature, Race & Identity   https://www.britannica.com/topic/W-E-B-Du-Bois-on-African-American-literature-2003650

Carter Godwin Woodson  (Dec. 19, 1875 in VA- April 3, 1950). The following information sourced from BlackPast. Also see Berea College's biography.  Called The Father of Black History, Woodson inaugurated Black History Week (Feb. 12-14, now BHM), and founded the Associated Press, the current Journal of African American History and the ASALH (ASNLH), first of its kind. Woodson attended segregated Douglass High School in WV, "one of its highest achieving students. By 1901, Carter G. Woodson had already earned a West Virginia teaching certificate where he scored well above average in drawing, music, science, educational methods and history. However, the best scores of his state teaching exam were those gained in the area of Latin, arithmetic, and algebra! In the early 1900s, he taught black youth in West Virginia. He attended college at Berea College, Kentucky—from which he earned a B.Lit. degree in 1903, part completed in Chicago after Plessy vs. Ferguson.  From late 1903 until early 1907, Woodson worked in the Philippines under the auspices of the US War Department.  Woodson then traveled to Africa, Asia, and Europe and briefly attended the Sorbonne in Paris, France.  In 1908, he received an M.A. degree in History, Romance languages, and Literature from the University of Chicago in Illinois. In 1912, while teaching in Washington, D.C., he earned his doctorate in history from Harvard University,” their second Black Ph.D. graduate. He authored or collaborated on over 20 books and wrote several hundred essays for newspapers. He is best known for his book The Mis-Education of the Negro, originally published in 1933. (Now available as an e-book from $1.99 or borrow it from libraries.) He writes on effects of slavery on the Black psyche, raising questions about the U.S. education system, what and whom African Americans are educated for, the difference between education and training, and which of these they are (actually) getting. He published hundreds of newsletters for students and teachers on Black History for 2 decades and promoted and attended many events across the country. The ASALH became aligned with civil rights movements in 1960s-1970s and experienced new growth and influence.  C-RM Grades7-16

Jonathan Gibbs: Black Pioneer Shaping Education for All Floridians, by Florida Policy Institute writer Holly Bullard, 2/28/20.  Gibbs' career and influence is the focus of this article. Gibbs’ Dartmouth degree which required classical education curriculum is described here by two attendees. (Allen F. Davis) https://www.dartmouth.edu/library/Library_Bulletin/Apr1991/LB-A91-Davis.html

Rankine, P. 2006. Ulysses in Black: Ralph Ellison, Classicism, and African American Literature,  Madison, WI, explores “how the classical tradition can be part of a self-conscious, prideful approach to African American culture, esthetics, and identity, as seen in the works of such African American writers as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Countee Cullen. Rankine finds that the merging of a black esthetic with the classics - contrary to expectations throughout American culture - has often been a radical addressing of concerns including violence against blacks, racism, and oppression.”- Researchgate abstract

Morse, Heidi. "Beyond Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic: Black Elocutionary Education in Post-Emancipation America." American Journal of Philology 143, no. 2, 279–304, 2022. (JHU MUSE paywall for non-subscribers) This describes educational programs initiated by Black classicists in the south of the 19th century, such as Phillis Wheatley, Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, and William Sanders Scarborough. The importance of rhetoric as an essential skill for engaging in democracy and political activism echoes Frederick Douglass, and was vital in Jim Crow, pre-Civil Rights Movement America. Various textbooks on elocution are discussed and spotlight many Black educators who empowered future generations for political engagement and social uplift.

Fikes, R. 2002. “It was Never Greek to Them: Black Affinity for Ancient Greek and Roman Culture,” in The Negro Educational Review 53: p. 3–12. Above link goes to a shared pdf of the selection.

Ronnick, M.V., “Racial Ideology and the Classics in the African-American University Experience,” in Classical Bulletin 76.2: pages169–80, 2000. This link goes to a shared pdf. Ronnick provides great detail about four prominent African American men with opposing views on the correct path for education and the rise of "the race." She discusses Martin Robison Delany and Booker T. Washington on the one side and William Sanders Scarborough and W.E.B. Du Bois on the other. An excellent read. The PDF is shared with her permission.  C-RM  Grades13-16

Margaret Malamud, African Americans And The Classics: Antiquity, Abolition And Activism. London: I. B. Tauris, 2016. This book is well designed for classroom use and for this topic we suggest focusing on Chapter 2 Figuring the Resistance (see link below). Among other topics, it covers the Weapon of Oratory, touching on hypocrisies of American Independence, Frederick Douglass, and ties to Cicero. In all, Malamud presents a good summary of time periods, movements, and major figures useful to start one’s teaching or research in this area. We offer Quotes and Reflections: Study Guides 1-5 with reflection questions for students to answer on each quoted selection. Direct links to all 5 discussion guides are listed at the top of each NCLG Study Guide: Introduction   Fighting for Classics   Refiguring Classical Resistance   Ancient and Modern Slavery  Constructing History / Afterword    C-RM (study guides)  Grades9-16

Paul Laurence Dunbar: Though possibly not tightly connected to classical education, we add here a writer of consummate skills, who helped form and lift the identity of African Americans from within to a world-wide stage. In The Collected Works of William Sanders Scarborough (Ronnick, Ed. 2006) Scarborough lavishly describes the high accomplishments of Paul Laurence Dunbar, ’The Poet Laureate of the Negro Race’ (1914), and of others who crossed the Color Line, proving that ‘“Souls of Black Folks” do not differ…in high impulses and inspirations and even genius.’ (Dunbar 1872-1906, Dayton, Ohio) Son of emancipated slaves who had moved to Dayton, Ohio, Dunbar began a very successful writing career in his childhood and lived to be very well-connected socially and politically. He became the lyric voice of Black life and penned the first Black musical on Broadway, published several books of poetry, novels and short stories and was widely recognized nationally and internationally; a stunning example of racial uplift, the Black intellectual identity, and victory over the Color Line. He supported the formation of American Negro Academy in DC in 1897 which encouraged study of classical academic subjects and liberal arts. Though he was president of his Dayton Central High School Literary Society, wrote a newspaper (published by the Wright brothers!), published a few poems in the Dayton Herald, was in debate club, and desired to study Law, Dunbar could not afford college. When a supporter offered to pay tuition he refused, so he could have time to write. Much later, in Washington, he attended Howard University, but his actual coursework in high school and college is not known.

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Topics: Racial inferiority argument fueling segregation and efforts to control rising Black scholars, leaders, businessmen

Margaret Malamud, African Americans And The Classics: Antiquity, Abolition And Activism. London: I. B. Tauris, 2016.  Racial Inferiority theories is covered in Chapter 5: Constructing History    - especially These Caucasian Heads (see link below). Among other topics, it covers the Weapon of Oratory, touching on hypocrisies of American Independence, Frederick Douglass, and ties to Cicero. In all, Malamud presents a good summary of time periods, movements, and major figures useful to start one’s research in this area. Her book is well-designed for classroom use and NCLG offers Quotes and Reflections: Study Guides 1-5  with reflection questions for students to answer on each quoted selection. Direct links to all 5 discussion guides are listed at the top of each NCLG Study Guide: Introduction   Fighting for Classics   Refiguring Classical Resistance   Ancient and Modern Slavery  Constructing History / Afterword     C-RM  NCLG study guides:  Grades9-16

Kelly Miller’s The Primary Needs of the Negro Race; An Address (1899): covers Aryan efforts to project inferiority on non-white cultures and effects of that. Library of Congress12003483  Kelly Miller: Summary of quotes, facts, degrees, works https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/kelly-miller.   Here is Kelly Miller’s Address to the graduating class of the College Department, Howard University | Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/91898266/

Dusk of Dawn; An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept,  W.E.B. Du Bois, 1940. Irene Diggs, ed., Transaction Books, 1984. “In her perceptive introduction to this Transaction edition, Irene Diggs sets this classic autobiography against its broad historical context and critically analyzes its theoretical and methodological significance. She explains the changes that occurred in DuBois' own attitudes and writings, tracing the development of his lifelong concern with the problem of race: how non-Whites might be openly and effectively admitted into the freedom of democracy.” – publisher (334 pages) Click this link in Google Books to find ways to gain free access, find digital editions and/or institutions where you might borrow copies. From any page, click the More by the Author tab to access information on all works.

Frank Snowden researched and wrote extensively on racial identity theories. Some aspects of his conclusions have been debated but are still very significant.  Blacks in Antiquity and  Before Color Prejudice  explain his views. (Internet Archive per hour digital borrowing with sign-in) (see Google preview)

The Autobiography of W. E. B. DuBois, W. E. B. Du Bois, Diasporic Africa Press, 2013. “The present volume is quite different from the other two autobiographies by Du Bois not only because of its additional two-decade span, and the significantly altered outlook of its author, but also because in it—unlike the others—he seeks, as he writes, "to review my life as frankly and fully as I can." Of course, with the directness and honesty which so decisively characterized him, he reminds the reader of this book of the intense subjectivity that inevitably permeates autobiography; hence, he writes, he offers this account of his life as he understood it and as he—would like others to believe—it to have been. Certainly, while Dr. Du Bois was deep in his ninth decade when he died, longevity was the least remarkable feature of his life. As editor, author, lecturer, scholar, organizer, inspirer, and fighter, he was among the most consequential figures of the twentieth century. Necessarily, therefore, the full and final accounting of that life and his times becomes an indispensable volume.” – publisher (450 pages) Click here for our NCLG resource page  to access information on these works of W.E.B. Du Bois with overviews on each book and methods of free, digital or library links.

Frank Snowden, Jr., (July 17, 1911- February 18, 2007) Distinguished historian, scholar and professor. This BlackPast.com biographic post edited by Dr. David Withun describes the life, scholarship, and activism of Snowden as he worked to reveal the place of African civilization within the context of ancient world history to restore the full accounting of history. In Massachusetts, he studied at Boston Latin and earned his BA, MA and Ph.D from Harvard. He taught at Virginia State and Spelman before a long tenure at Howard as Professor and Dean until 1968 when he resigned and began focusing on research and writing. Blacks in Antiquity is his most significant scholarship and he’s known for Before Color Prejudice (Google preview). He also filled diplomatic posts and was presented the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush. Autobiographical essay, A Lifetime of Inquiry, can be read in Against the Odds: Scholars Who Challenged Racism in the Twentieth Century, Bowser and Lushnick editors,UMP (2002) p. 41-63. Temporary preview with free account in Internet Archive. 

Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: He comments more on claims of racial inferiority: (p.156, 191) Scarborough here describes Booker T. Washington's life (after Washington's book Story of My Life and Work was published) He acknowledges the need for such education as Washington's schools supplied, but strongly denies that this is all that is needed. He calls for an expansive view of the capabilities of African Americans, or any race.  Many have been rising, prospering, becoming refined culturally and intellectually, forming a class "where leaders dwell."  He also speaks enviously of France, where he saw "no distinction and no trouble."  He mentions a request from the Southwestern editor to dispute a claim in the Catholic paper The Morning Star that Blacks had no "creative faculty, that [they] never discovered or invented anything of consequence, never wrote anything extraordinary." One can imagine Scarborough's response!

Norris, P., William L. Bulkley 1861-1933 African American Educator and Reformer. (2022)  This biographical work describes Bulkley's role as educational innovator and reformer in NYC public schools and the opposition and prejudice he faced despite accomplishments and parental support.  More information and resources on Bulkley can also be found in our NCLG Spotlight here.  Spotlight slides C-RM  Grades7-16

Black South Carolinians and Classical Education: A Look at the Lives of Eight of the State’s Sons and Daughters. (Also listed above) The NCLG proudly shares this booklet prepared from research by Dr. Michele Valerie Ronnick which they collaborated with the College of Charleston to provide it free during the American Classical League Institute 2022 in Charleston, SC. It outlines the lives of 8 important African Americans born in South Carolina who made a significant impact on American life and Black Americans’ life in particular, despite facing numerous disadvantages and obstacles.  Featured are: 

Daniel Alexander Payne, Frazelia Campbell, Francis Cardozo, Cornelius Chapman Scott, William Bulkley, Kelly Miller, Reuben Shannon Lovinggood, Edward Porter Davis.  C-RM  Grades9-16