By:
Olivia Brubaker, B.A. in History, Christopher Newport University (Class of 2024)
Sheri Shuck-Hall, Ph.D., Professor of History, Christopher Newport University
Housed in Virginia’s Gloucester Museum of History, there is a special collection of Black educators’ applications for teaching positions at the Gloucester Training School. Local Black leader, T.C. Walker, and fellow community members founded the Rosenwald school in 1921 to improve the lives of Black children for generations. It was the first public secondary school to provide free education for Blacks in Gloucester County in a time when access to schools was not guaranteed. Featuring these teacher applications, this exhibit reveals a story of persistence—a history of Black educators in Virginia who fought for equal access to education.
T.C. Walker and the Gloucester Training School
Thomas Calhoun Walker was born into slavery on June 16, 1862, in Gloucester County, Virginia. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed him and his family, but they remained in Gloucester. Walker assumed many roles over the course of his lifetime; he was a teacher, principal, lawyer, and government official. While these are significant accomplishments on their own, their weight is elevated with the knowledge that Walker received a very minimal education during his childhood. Yet, despite the barriers, Walker persisted in securing his education. Although he failed the entrance exam, Walker worked out a deal with Samuel Chapman Armstrong, founder of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (1868), to take classes at night in exchange for working on the campus farm during the day. Following his graduation from the Hampton Institute, Walker returned to Gloucester County and taught at Old Poplar School for six years.[1]
Even after leaving the classroom, Walker remained committed to improving Black education. Prior to the founding of the Gloucester Training School, very few Blacks in the county received an education past the 5th grade. Walker sought to build a new school that would teach students through the 7th grade. However, Walker was met with some resistance from the county’s school board, emphasizing that Blacks did not require an education beyond basic literacy, let alone exposure to more advanced material. The school board consequently denied Walker monetary assistance. Walker had to find funding on his own.[2]
In 1917, Julius Rosenwald, a Progressive Jewish American businessman, philanthropist, and the president and CEO of Sears, Roebuck, established the Rosenwald Fund that provided matching funds for the construction of Black schools in Southern communities that needed it the most. The Rosenwald school building program initially began in Alabama with the help of Rosenwald’s trusted friend and colleague, Booker T. Washington, who had been T.C. Walker’s mentor at Hampton Institute. After Washington’s death, the program developed into a fund that continued to help Black communities build schools despite continuing discrimination in the South. Walker convinced Rosenwald that Blacks in Gloucester County would benefit immensely with advanced education and secured the grant.[3]
The Rosenwald Fund required community buy-in and local government support. To receive the money, the white school board had to manage it once built and work with the local Black community to raise matching funds. Blacks also had to contribute their own money or provide labor towards the building’s construction. Rosenwald’s challenge grants motivated Black and white cooperation, as well as aid from local governments and school boards. T.C. Walker took the lead and obtained large private donations and fundraised within the Black community to help secure the matching funds necessary to open the school. Fundraising was significant in that it acutely depicts the extent to which Black schools relied upon financial support from benefactors and the local community.[4]
With the support of the Rosenwald Fund, it was the first time that Black children in the county could receive free education at the secondary level. A quote from Walker best summarizes the significance that this school had on Gloucester’s Black community:
“The Training School was the only place in Gloucester where our boys and girls could go beyond the seventh grade…. But so eager were our people to take advantage of what the school offered that many pupils came from twenty or twenty-five miles in motor trucks or automobiles. Others drove from twelve to fifteen miles a day in buggies.”[5]
This willingness to travel such distances to the Gloucester Training School displays not only the need for the school in the area, but also the widespread desire for advanced education.[6]
Struggle in the Pursuit of Expanding Education
The barriers in establishing the Gloucester Training School were deeply imbedded in a separate but unequal system of education that had roots in the early 1800s. The topic of Black education was highly convoluted and opinions on the matter varied greatly. The 19th century witnessed many policies and beliefs that produced varying results including, but not limited to, state laws prohibiting the education of enslaved people, the establishment of public and private schools for Black children, and white campaigns in support of and in opposition to Black access to education. The mixed messages expressed by white reformers reveals their opposing beliefs that education would foster the transformation of freed people into responsible citizens and their fear of creating a system in which Blacks would lack self-reliance and depend upon whites. Yet even with their emancipation secured with the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, Blacks were denied the same educational opportunities as their white counterparts moving forward.[7]
The federal government during the Reconstruction era (1865-1877) reserved some funds towards the education of newly emancipated Blacks. However, providing a proper education proved to be an uphill battle because of the lack of school buildings, educational materials, and available teachers, let alone animosity from many white communities throughout the rest of the 19th century. In the Supreme Court ruling, Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson in 1896, the “separate but equal” clause legitimized separating Blacks and whites if accommodations were comparable, which they were not. School segregation along with Jim Crow laws continued to deepen the disparity. Blacks also had little to no voice in the oversight of their own schools. The naming of the Gloucester Training School demonstrates this imbalance. Many schools specializing in the higher education of Blacks used terms such as “training school” or “institute” in their names rather than high school or secondary school to distinguish them from white high schools, which received substantially more funding and support.[8]
Once built, institutional and financial barriers created many obstacles for Black schools, and the educators experienced these difficulties first-hand. Black educators lacked sufficient supplies, taught in dilapidated and overcrowded classrooms, and received substantially less pay than their white counterparts. Although the wage gap differed from district to district, there was a connection between teachers’ salaries and their level of training. Educational backgrounds and prior experience were often significant factors in the hiring process. In the case of the Gloucester Training School, applications asked candidates for their education, including high school, university, and summer schools attended, as well as their prior teaching experience in terms of grade levels and subjects. In the American South, white teachers often had more years of education compared to Black teachers based on access, providing school authorities with justification for the discrepancy in pay among teachers. However, these disparities were not proportional to the differences in years of training received, meaning that Black teachers were still comparatively underpaid in their positions.[9]
White school authorities were not ignorant of their control over the Black education system. This much is evident in a statement from Jackson Davis, the white supervisor of rural elementary schools in Virginia, when he declared in 1913: “The school is almost the only point where conscious effort is made by the white people to influence and develop the Negro race, and here is a great opportunity for constructive work.”[10] Though these words seemed to demonstrate white commitment to Black education, they contained pejorative and condescending assumptions. Such leaders used control over the school system to their advantage, particularly in the hiring process of Black teachers. Common instances of misconduct included hiring candidates for personal reasons, or purposefully rejecting educators with more training experience to justify the discriminatory wage gap present between white and Black teachers. The immense emphasis that was placed on teacher salary is evident in the Gloucester Training School applications that asked candidates to provide information such as their present, expected, and lowest salaries that they would accept. In the American South, these corrupt hiring practices and low wages drove many qualified teachers from the profession, adding to the overall poor impressions of Black educators and the distrust of their qualifications.[11]
In addition to tackling underfunding and discriminatory salaries, Black teachers also served their community beyond the classroom. They had the responsibility of not only advocating for improvements to the school, but also convincing Black families to send their children there. Black activists and politicians, including T.C. Walker, placed these expectations on educators. Grounded in the principle of self-help, a popular philosophy during the early 20th century, it promoted the idea that the best way for Blacks to advance in society was to advocate for themselves. Many Black teachers therefore sought to uphold these principles through education, showing positive outcomes of Blacks working to transform their communities. Walker also stressed that Black educators should act as ambassadors for their race, seeking affluent whites for support. Yet these educators were not always successful in transforming the ideals into reality as many of their efforts fell on deaf ears.[12]
Education Politics
Black educators often found themselves caught in a Catch-22, between the competing sides of expanding opportunities for Blacks and keeping the status quo. Black educators’ positions promoted change towards an equal education system, but the fate of their jobs still rested in the hands of white school authorities who often resisted. These authorities discouraged progressive changes and sometimes would call upon teachers to act as informers in the Black community. As a result, there was no consensus among schoolteachers. Rather, some attempted to exert influence and promote progress, producing little change, while others begrudgingly accepted the status quo and abandoned—at least temporarily—the movement for equality. In addition to this difficult situation, some Black teachers also faced criticism in their own Black communities. Key reasons included the general fear of white backlash, or the lack of education compared to Black teachers. Reports described how some Blacks viewed teachers as pretentious, especially when they adopted a manner of speech that was too much like that of whites. As a result, some teachers felt alienated and encountered resistance when trying to convince parents to send their children to school. No matter what road teachers took, it was full of obstacles and a long way towards equality.[13]
By the end of World War II, separate but unequal remained the norm. Yet in 1948, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) supported three legal cases in Virginia, claiming that school systems fostered racial inequality and violated the Fourteenth Amendment. In the Supreme Court case, Alice Lorraine Ashley v. School Board of Gloucester County, Virginia, and J. Walter Kenny, Division Superintendent, the plaintiff sued over the lack of equitable facilities at the Gloucester Training School compared to nearby white schools. Compelling pictures submitted in the case included the lack of indoor plumbing and a clean water source, and an outhouse instead of indoor stalls. The ruling acknowledged that discrimination against Blacks had occurred but failed to offer solutions or enforce any changes.[14]
It would take more trials in the latter half of the 20th century to begin to uproot the deeply embedded system of discrimination and inequality in Black education—eventually moving towards social progress. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Oliver Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al. that the segregation of schools was unconstitutional because of its inherent inequality. The slow integration of schools began shortly after, with Blacks facing a new set of challenges, eventually leading to greater, positive changes with the Civil Rights Movement. Yet educational inequalities in the U.S. remain. According to a study in 2019, many schools are not yet fully integrated; over half of K-12 students nationwide live in racially based school districts, many of which continue to struggle with funding disparities.[15]
Many of the experiences told here mirror those around the country, yet we do not know the full history due to a general lack of records. The educators’ accounts and their applications serve as important documents, working to tell the stories of individuals who faced many hardships, yet persevered in the effort to improve Black education and the lives of so many children and future generations. To learn more about the history of this school or to view one of the applications in person, please visit the Gloucester Museum of History located at 6539 Main Street in Gloucester, Virginia.
Acknowledgements
We would like to give special thanks to Robert Kelly, Director of the Gloucester Museum of History, for inspiring this exhibit. He graciously allowed Olivia to search through the museum’s special collections to research this service-learning project. We would also like to thank Dr. Beth Wood, Instructor of History at Christopher Newport University, who kindly offered her expertise and peer-reviewed this exhibit.
About the Author
Olivia Brubaker will earn her B.A. in History with minors in Literature, Leadership, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in Spring 2024. She completed this exhibit as a service-learning project in partnership with the Gloucester Museum of History and CNU’s Public History Center. While earning her degree, Olivia interned at Ivy Creek Natural Area and Historic River View Farm in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she gave tours and researched the Carr-Greer family and the farm’s history. She plans to pursue a career in public history.
Notes
[1] T.C. Walker, “Thomas Calhoun Walker Autobiography.” Manuscript. Special Collections Research Center, College of William and Mary Libraries, 22-3, 36, 72.
[2] Walker, “Thomas Calhoun Walker Autobiography,” 171-2.
[3] Peter M. Ascoli, Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced the Cause of Black Education in the American South (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 149-151, 297-299; Walker, “Thomas Calhoun Walker Autobiography,” 171-2.
[4] Ascoli, Julius Rosenwald, 151-152.
[5] Walker, “Thomas Calhoun Walker Autobiography,” 172.
[6] Walker, “Thomas Calhoun Walker Autobiography,” 170-172.
[7] James D. Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 2; See Evelyn Brooks Higgenbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003).
[8] Lester C. Lamon, “Black Public Education in the South, 1861-1920: By Whom, For Whom and Under Whose Control?” Journal of Thought 18, no. 3 (Fall 1983): 76-90, 84-5; Walker, “Thomas Calhoun Walker Autobiography,” 172; Michael Fultz, “Teacher Training and African American Education in the South, 1900-1940.” The Journal of Negro Education 64, no. 2 (Spring 1995): 196-210, 203; Case File for Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson, in National Archives NextGen Catalog. Accessed 19 February 2024.
[9] Michael Fultz, “African American Teachers in the South, 1890-1940: Powerlessness and the Ironies of Expectations and Protest.” History of Education Quarterly 35, no. 4 (Winter 1995): 401-422, 403-404; Fultz, “Teacher Training and African American Education in the South,” 200-201.
[10] Jackson Davis, “Practical Training in Rural Negro Schools,” The Hampton Bulletin 9, no. 6 (1913).
[11] Fultz, “African American Teachers in the South,” 414-416.
[12] Fultz, “African American Teachers in the South,” 409-411; Eric Anderson, Alfred A. Moss, and Alfred A. Moss Jr., Dangerous Donations: Northern Philanthropy and Southern Black Education, 1902-1930 (Columbia: University of Missouri, 1999), 38.
[13] Fultz, “African American Teachers in the South, 417-418; Adam Fairclough, A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), 15-17.
[14] Case File for Alice Lorraine Ashley, et al. v. School Board of Gloucester Co. and J. Walter Kenny, Division Superintendent in National Archives NextGen Catalog. Accessed 20 February 2024.
[15] Case File for Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al., in National Archives NextGen Catalog. Accessed 20 February 2024; Grace Schultz, “Equalization and its Role in Dismantling Racial Segregation in Virginia Public Schools,” in Equalization and its Role in Dismantling Racial Segregation in Virginia Public Schools – Rediscovering Black History (archives.gov), 4 May 2022. Accessed 19 February 2024; “$23 Billion,” EdBuild, (February 2019), edbuild.org/content/23-billion. Accessed 20 February 2024.