Thanks, Ted, for initiating this thread. I'm still struggling to understand
the relationship between high school, normal school, and college education
for African Americans in the late 19th/early 20th century.
In 1916, according to James D. Anderson's The Education of Blacks in the
South, 1860-1935, Virginia had just six black public high schools.
Charlottesville did not provide a public high school program to African
Americans till 1926; students who wished to pursue secondary or
postsecondary education before then had to attend private or quasi-public
schools (including those you listed) and pay their own way. In her memoirs,
Charlottesville's Rebecca Fuller McGinness, who graduated from Hampton with
a Normal Teaching Certificate sometime around 1913, describes her high
school/normal school/college education this way:
“After finishing Jefferson Grade School [7th grade], I went to Hampton
Normal and Agricultural Institute to start working for my Normal Teaching
Certificate. Hampton accepted students who had completed the eighth grade,
but we had to complete a high school curriculum before beginning the *college
curriculum* [emphasis added]. I was sixteen years old, the minimum age for
entering, when I entered. The first year at Hampton was the work year. The
students worked during the day and attended classes at night. It usually
took five years to earn a Normal Teaching Certificate."
Here's my question: Was a five-year high school/normal school teacher
training program considered equivalent to a college curriculum in that day?
Did it make a difference if the high school/normal school program was
offered by an HBCU? What if the program was offered by an institution not
recognized as an HBCU but more commonly recognized as a private or
parochial high school? Here are two such programs to consider:
Christiansburg Institute, Christiansburg, Va. (founded 1866, added a Normal
Institute in the 1870s)
http://www.christiansburginstitute.org/history.html
St. Emma's Industrial and Agricultural Institute, Powhatan, Va. (for boys,
founded 1895)
http://www.aaheritageva.org/search/sites.php?site_id=137
Scot French
University of Central Florida
On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 12:10 AM, Ted Delaney <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Has a list of the first black colleges in Virginia ever been compiled?
> After many hours of research, this is my best attempt. Please let me
know
> if you see any errors or omissions.
>
> 1865 Richmond Theological Institute (now Virginia Union University)
>
> 1868 Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University)
>
> 1882 Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State
> University)
>
> 1883 Hartshorn Memorial College (now Virginia Union University)
>
> 1886 Lynchburg Baptist Seminary (now Virginia University of Lynchburg)
>
> 1888 St. Paul’s Normal and Industrial School (now St. Paul’s College)
>
> 1892 Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute (defunct)
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ted
>
>
> ***********************************
> Ted Delaney
> Assistant Director
> Southern Memorial Association
> Old City Cemetery Museums & Arboretum
> Lynchburg, Virginia
> www.gravegarden.org
> (434) 847-1465
> [log in to unmask]
>
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Scot A. French
Associate Professor, Department of History
Core Faculty, Texts & Technology Program
University of Central Florida
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