Booker T. Washington went to Hampton Institute, which at its beginnings was
more a high school and technical school than a college.  So, a high school
degree wasn't necessary for his matriculation.  He must have been quickly
assessed in an interview and by a writing sample and then placed in an
appropriate grade.

Requiring high school degrees of former slaves before allowing them into an
institution that would provide education above grade 12 would have been
thoroughly counterproductive.  Moreover, even W.E.B. DuBois, who graduate
high school in Massachusetts in the 1880s and was recommended by his
principal to Harvard, was told that HE (unlike white grads) had to attend a
black college and earn a BA before he would be admitted to Harvard.  DuBois
went to Fisk in Tennessee and was radicalized by his experience in the South
into the full knowledge of his ethnic identity;  entered Harvard a rather
different man than he would have been straight out of high school.  The
rest, as they say, is history.

Harold S. Forsythe, Visiting Fellow
Program in Agrarian Studies (2005-2006)
Yale University
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne Pemberton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 9:23 PM
Subject: Schooling in History


> I've been researching Booker T. Washington to edit a story written by a
> student, and noticed that Booker T. was enrolled off and on in a local
> school in WVA, but I can't find that he graduated from that school in
> order
> to go to college.
>
> How was it determined when a student was ready for college in 1872 and
> when
> did the high school become necessary for college enrollment?
>
> Thanks for any web sources and any information anyone has on this.
>
> Anne
> Anne Pemberton
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.erols.com/stevepem
> http://www.erols.com/apembert
> http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
>
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