Americus Institute

Last updated

Americus Institute
Main Building, Americus Institute.jpg
Main building for the school, c.1910
Location
, ,
United States
Information
School type Secondary school
OpenedOctober 2, 1897
Closed1932
Gender Coeducational
LanguageEnglish

Americus Institute was a secondary school in Americus, Georgia, United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The school was established in 1897 by the Southwestern Georgia Baptist Association in order to educate African American youth in the area. By the 1920s, the school was enrolling about 200 students annually and was considered one of the premier secondary schools for African Americans in the state. The school closed in 1932.

Contents

Establishment and early years

Major W. Reddick served as the first principal for the school Major W Reddick.jpg
Major W. Reddick served as the first principal for the school

The idea for a secondary school in Americus, Georgia designed to educate the African American youth of the area began in 1878 amongst the members of the Southwestern Colored Baptist Association. [1] [note 1] Americus was located in Georgia's Black Belt, [3] with about 1 million African Americans living within 100 miles (160 km) of the city. [4] Despite the large population, the area lacked adequate educational facilities for African Americans. [3] Within a few years, the organization had raised roughly $1,300 in cash and had acquired about 17 acres (6.9 ha) of land to serve as the school's campus. [1] However, by the 1890s, the money raised for the school had been mishandled and the size of the campus had shrunk significantly. [1] [note 2] Additionally, the initial enthusiasm for the school had subsided within the group. [1] Despite this, the school, known as Americus Institute, was officially founded in 1897. [2] [4] According to an article in the Southern Workman , the school's founders had three goals for the school: [4]

  1. To provide a thorough high-school education for Negro youth.
  2. To develop a spirit of self-support in Negro education.
  3. To stimulate friendly relationship between the races.

Major W. Reddick, a graduate from Atlanta Baptist College's first graduating class, [5] [6] served as the initial principal, [1] with a total faculty of two. [4] [note 3] The school held its first class on October 2, 1897, [1] with nine students in a small two-room cottage. [4] In its first year of existence, the owners of the school donated roughly $400 for the school's maintenance. [7]

In the years following its establishment, the school grew steadily. [1] The two-room cottage was expanded with additional rooms and a second floor, and a dining hall and dormitories for boys and girls were also built on the campus. [1] By 1907, the faculty had grown to eight, of whom seven had had professional training in education and six had graduated from Spelman Seminary. [8] Additionally, the number of students had increased to 175 students from Southwest Georgia and Florida. [3] That same year, on April 11, one of the dormitories was destroyed in a fire, with Reddick requesting $10,000 in donations to help improve the school. [9] By 1908, the school had 193 students, [10] and in May of that year, noted African American leader Booker T. Washington spoke at the school. [11] By 1909, the school was one of 26 that received financial support from the American Baptist Home Mission Society. [12] The school's annual expenses at this time were about $8,500, while the value of the school's property was about $21,000. [13] In a report from Atlanta Baptist College President George Sale, he spoke highly of the school during this time, stating, "No institution I know of bids so fair to become a great academy for Negro pupils as Americus". [6]

Office of Education report

Students at the school, c. 1910 Students at Americus.jpg
Students at the school, c.1910

In 1917, the school was covered in a report published by the United States Office of Education, which had visited the school in both November 1913 and February 1916. [14] In their report, the office stated that the school "serves as a central institution in which pupils may supplement the training received in the rural schools". [15] Additionally, they noted that the school's "good management is seriously handicapped by lack of funds". [16] The school at this time had 14 teachers and 98 students, though the enrollment for the entire year was 200. [16] As part of the office's conclusions for the school, they recommended that more emphasis be placed on industrial education and that the school needed additional financial support. [16]

Later years

Historical marker for Americus Institute Americus Institute historical marker.jpg
Historical marker for Americus Institute

By 1921, the school, with an enrollment of 229 students, [17] was receiving funding from the General Education Board. [18] Additional funding from this time came from the school's 153 acres (62 ha) farm, which generated a net profit of $1,387 in 1922. [4] While the school continued to promote a curriculum of practice over theory, many students from Americus matriculated to some of the best historically black colleges and universities in the country. [4] By 1929, the school became one of five secondary schools to become affiliated with Morehouse College (the new name of Atlanta Baptist College). [19] The school filed for bankruptcy in 1930 [20] and permanently closed in 1932. [2] The city purchased the property in 1934 to build a new African American high school. [21]

A historical marker now stands on the former grounds of the school. [2] In February 2020, as part of Black History Month celebrations, the Americus Welcome Center held a tour of the city that highlighted locations of importance to the city's African American history, with Americus Institute being included on the tour. [22]


Notes

  1. Also referred to as the "Southwestern Georgia Baptist Association". [2]
  2. Sources vary on the size of the school at this time, with one source stating a size of roughly 3 acres (1.2 ha) [1] and another stating a size of less than 2 acres (0.81 ha). [4]
  3. This included both Reddick and an assistant of his. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Americus, Georgia</span> City in Georgia, United States

Americus is the county seat of Sumter County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,230. It is the principal city of the Americus Micropolitan Statistical Area, a micropolitan area that covers Schley and Sumter counties and had a combined population of 36,966 at the 2000 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interdenominational Theological Center</span>

The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) is a consortium of five predominantly African-American denominational Christian seminaries in Atlanta, Georgia, operating together as a professional graduate school of theology. It is the largest free-standing African-American theological school in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Griffith Brawley</span> American academic (1882–1939)

Benjamin Griffith Brawley was an American author and educator. Several of his books were considered standard college texts, including The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States (1918) and New Survey of English Literature (1925).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion L. Brittain</span> Georgia Institute of Technology University president

Marion Luther Brittain Sr. was an American academic administrator and longest serving president of the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1922 to 1944. Brittain was born in Georgia and, aside from a brief stint at the University of Chicago for graduate school, spent most of his life serving the educational community there. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory College in 1886, Brittain worked his way up the ranks from principal of an Atlanta high school to superintendent of education for the entire state of Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beach High School</span> Public secondary school in Savannah, Georgia, United States

Alfred Ely Beach High School, known as Beach High School, is a public high school in Savannah, Georgia, United States.

Lawrence Dunbar Reddick was an African-American historian and professor who wrote the first biography of Martin Luther King Jr., strengthened major archives of African-American history resources at Atlanta University Center and the New York Public Library, and was fired by Alabama's state board of education for his support for student sit-ins at Alabama State College—an event that earned him honor for his courage and brought Alabama State College censure by the American Association of University Professors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Towns Hamilton</span> American politician

Grace Towns Hamilton was an American politician who was the first African-American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly. As executive director of the Atlanta Urban League from 1943 to 1960, Hamilton was involved in issues of housing, health care, schools and voter registration within the black community. She was 1964 co-founder of the bi-racial Partners for Progress to help government and the private sector effect compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1973, Hamilton became a principal architect for the revision of the Atlanta City Charter. She was advisor to the United States Civil Rights Commission from 1985 to 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William E. Holmes</span>

William E. Holmes was a Baptist minister and educator and president of Central City College in Macon, Georgia, for 25 years. Before his term at Central City, he was a professor at the Atlanta Baptist Institute. He was also secretary of the board at Spelman College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste</span> American journalist and teacher (1867–1957)

Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste was an African-American journalist, teacher and social worker from Chicago. After completing her education, she taught at various notable black schools before becoming the first woman of African descent to be employed at the Chicago Post Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bazoline Estelle Usher</span> 20th-century American educator

Bazoline Estelle Usher was an American educator known for her work in the Atlanta Public Schools. As director of education for African-American children in the district prior to integration, she was the first African American to have an office at Atlanta City Hall. She founded the first Girl Scout troop for African-American girls in Atlanta in 1943. Her career as an educator lasted over 50 years, over 40 of which were in the Atlanta schools. A school in Atlanta is named for her, and in 2014 she was posthumously named a Georgia Woman of Achievement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Warren Davis (college president)</span> American educator and civil rights leader and 5th president of West Virginia State College

John Warren Davis was an American educator, college administrator, and civil rights leader. He was the fifth and longest-serving president of West Virginia State University in Institute, West Virginia, a position he held from 1919 to 1953. Born in Milledgeville, Georgia, Davis relocated to Atlanta in 1903 to attend high school at Atlanta Baptist College. He worked his way through high school and college at Morehouse and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1911. At Morehouse, Davis formed associations with John Hope, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Samuel Archer, Benjamin Griffith Brawley, Booker T. Washington, and W. E. B. Du Bois. He completed graduate studies in chemistry and physics at the University of Chicago from 1911 to 1913 and served on the faculty of Morehouse as the registrar and as a professor in chemistry and physics. While in Atlanta, Davis helped to found one of the city's first chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Helena B. Cobb was an American educator and missionary from Georgia. Born in Monroe County, Georgia, she attended Atlanta University and served as an educator and principal at many schools for African Americans in the state. She was also active in organizing and pushing for greater missionary opportunities for women within the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hampton Negro Conference</span>

The Hampton Negro Conference was a series of conferences held between 1897 and 1912 hosted by the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. It brought together Black leaders from across the Southern United States, as well as some white participants, to promote, analyze, and advertise the progress of Black Americans. According to a description in the Institute's catalog, through the conferences "a general summary of the material and intellectual progress of the Negro race [was] obtained."

William Newton Hartshorn was a Baptist leader from the United States who travelled the world and became a millionaire advocating Sunday school and leading the "Sabbath army". He was born in Greenville, New Hampshire. He lived in Boston. He led a large tour and convention through Palestine and published an account of the journey with Louis Klopsch. He was an executive officer at the Priscilla Publishing Company in Boston.

Georgia Baptist College was a private grade school and college in Macon, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1899 as Central City College and was renamed in 1938. It closed due to financial difficulties in 1956.

Luther College was a private black school in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It was established by the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America in 1903 as part of the conference's missionary work among African Americans in the Southern United States following the American Civil War. The school was founded the same year as Immanuel Lutheran College in Concord, North Carolina, and both schools had the same three departments: a secondary school, a normal school, and a seminary.

Haygood Seminary, also known as Haygood Academy, was a seminary near Washington, Arkansas, United States. It was established by the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church to train African Americans in Arkansas for a career in the clergy. It was one of the first such institutions established by the CME Church. In 1927, the school relocated to Jefferson County, Arkansas, where it operated as Arkansas-Haygood Industrial College before closing during World War II.

The Clifton Conference was a gathering of religious leaders held by William N. Hartshorn at his summer home in Clifton, Massachusetts. Five conferences are known to have been held, between 1901 and 1908.

Central Mississippi College was a segregated school for African American students established in 1893 by Baptist associations in Kosciusko, Mississippi, U.S. The school served in many capacities, including in its early history as a grammar school, a high school, and a normal school; and in later history it was a junior college.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miller's Ferry Normal and Industrial School</span> School in Wilcox County, Alabama, U.S. (1884–?)

Miller's Ferry Normal and Industrial School was a private segregated boarding school for African American students established in 1884 in Miller's Ferry, Alabama, U.S. The school was founded by the Northern Presbyterian Church, and had an on-campus training hospital for student nurses.

References

Sources