The American South of the 1930’s was a different place than it is today. The economy was in shambles due to the Great Depression, and the South was permeated with the Jim Crow ideology. This system had its roots in the backlash against Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. The South used Jim Crow to subjugate Blacks and to make them seem inferior by forced conduct and language. This all-encompassing system found it’s way into almost every aspect of Black life, such as schools, restaurants, parks, buses, and all public areas. But through this seemingly insurmountable opposition the Black people of the Athens, and across the South, were able to pull themselves together to form a unique culture and educate themselves to better the prospect of a brighter future for their children.1
The ideas and laws that came out of Reconstruction seemed a bright light in the future of Blacks, but the equality declared by these would not see fruition in the South until much later. Before emancipation, it was illegal to teach a black person to read or write. The sentiment for equality in education, and equality in general, by Blacks was strong in the South after the Civil War. Soon after the slaves were freed a mob of black men took control of the University of Georgia, which had just been reopened. This group was eventually broken up, but not before a group of armed University of Georgia students, many Civil War veterans, opened fire on the Blacks.2
This startling event goes to show the fervor felt by black Athenians for educational equality, and can be seen as an example of a movement felt across the country. Another interesting aspect of the event is the action taken by the white students. This violent reaction symbolizes the future aggression that would be felt towards the newly freed Blacks in educational and social inequality. This sentiment would stretch from school inequalities on one side of the spectrum to outright physical abuse and murder on the other.
Schoolteachers that were natives of the North taught many of the schools that were started in the South. They went to the schools that were set up by the Freedman’s Bureau after the Civil War. The Freedman’s Bureau was a government agency that had the task of instituting the programs of Reconstruction. They felt a calling to take the morality and teachings of the Bible along with other educational material to the South, and were not dissimilar in their approach to education than those who taught the Whites throughout the country. This calling was seen in the utmost necessity by the teachers for a race that was perceived as uneducated and backward by most of the country.3
These first teachers that came down from the North must be respected. One can imagine a single white woman, perhaps born in Vermont or some other New England state, which arose one day, packed up her things, and moved to the war ravaged South. The courage that they had is obvious to an observer looking back in today’s time. These teachers can be seen as a light in the dark and bleak existence of the southern Blacks of the time.
In 1929 the stock market crashed and threw America into the Great Depression. Vast unemployment across the country plagued the nation from shore to shore. The Gross National Product fell to $55.6 billion in 1933 from $104 billion in 1929. The economy was in chaos, and unemployment was at 25% in 1933. The South of course was not exempt from the troubles of the rest of the nation. One might think that these hard times most likely put a strain on the race relations in the South, because it was not above white Southerners of the time to take their aggression out on Blacks. Times were difficult before for some people and their situation surely only got worse as the Depression hit.4
Life was defiantly hard in general for the Blacks of Athens well before the Depression, with segregation in full swing and discrimination rampant. The Blacks lived in separate neighborhoods from the Whites, with the biggest communities in the West Hancock area still in the 1930’s. These mostly one-room shacks lacked sewer lines and running water. The more prosperous blacks built frame cottages, but the majority of the Blacks were very poor and did not enjoy as nice of living arrangements. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps of 1926 show two hundred and eighty-five such houses in and around the West Hancock area.5
Some statistics for the state of Georgia in the 1930’s can give a valuable insight into how things were in the city of Athens and also in the surrounding Clarke County. The Negro population in the state was mostly rural, and in general Blacks made up 36.8% of the total population of Georgia. It was perfectly understandable then that 54.9% were involved in agriculture. The Black population was much poorer than the White, and also suffered from much lower attendance of schools. The compulsory attendance law that was passed in 1916 made it mandatory for all children to attend school. It was only after this point that we see the Black population’s widespread use of schools.6
So it is reasonable to expect the steady rise in Black attendance to public schools after the passage of the law. Attendance by Blacks saw a rise from 43.3% in 1910 to 50.7% in 1930, but only 50.7% of those who entered the first grade ever even made it to the second. Of this total 50.7% only 14.7% ever reached the seventh grade and an astonishingly small 2.3% ever even graduated from high school. One will find black students made up 39.3% of the entire school population and a scant 2.7% of the high school student population. In 1930 there were 526,032 white students and 341,963 black students in Georgia schools. The white schools were in attendance 361,565 days of the year compared to the 182,072 days the black students were in attendance. In general, the difference in the public schools for whites and public schools for blacks was huge.7
The funds were drastically different for the white and black schools also. For example, the average annual salary for a male teacher at the high school level at a white school was $1,307.18, On the other hand, the average annual salary for a black high school teacher was $821.32. The state funding for schools was set up in a way that made it easy for the black schools to be discriminated against. The money that was given to the school systems was by total school population at that time. So, the white schools received the vast majority of the funds, because at the local level the school boards chose not to give the black schools nearly as much money. Superintendents of school boards obviously were not doing their job in controlling the education of the population for their benefit. These men were blinded by racism and neglected a large portion of the students merely based on the color of their skin.8
This gave rise to the fact that the white schools of the time were able to leave the black schools behind in the progress they enjoyed. More money meant higher salaries for teachers and better school buildings, materials, and other assets. Also, because of the misappropriation of funds, the white students in the school districts with the highest black student population were able to receive more funds than white students with a lower black student population. In 1930, counties that were home to a number of black students double the number of white students spent a least $100 per white student in salaries for teachers. In contrast, counties that possessed 40% or fewer black students received much less money.9
In 1930, Georgia spent five times the amount of money on white public schools as it did black public schools, and this can be seen as evidence of a much larger situation. This was true all over Georgia, and included Athens and Clarke County public schools. The racist ideals of those in power hurt the prospects of the black students. With under-funded schools the black students had to make due with substandard conditions. This misappropriation of funds was just another way for the Whites in power to keep the Blacks in a state that would hinder their advancement. The Whites had a total disregard for the well being of the black students that they exerted control over. This control and subversion of black education is a mirror to the race relations of the time. It was directly in line with the Jim Crow ideology that Whites of the era exerted on the seemingly powerless black people of the city.10
The Clarke County Schools and Athens City Schools were separated as two distinct districts in 1885, but were later merged in 1956. For the most part the county black public schools were not unlike the black schools in the rest of the state. They were deprived of funds, had mostly one teacher, were rundown in appearance, and had only a single room. The city schools were somewhat better off in funds because of the larger possible revenue from taxes collected by the more affluent city. It was not until The Rivers Bill of 1937 that schools across the color line had a more even distribution of funds. This bill made distribution of funds to schools based on attendance and not on the ratio of school to total student population as before. The bill also called for school term of at least seven months. This was helpful in that it was a step, although small, in the right direction for the benefit of the black school children of Athens.11
Athens also had several private schools for Blacks that tried to rise above the disparity in the public schools. Many were founded after the Civil War and Athens came to be very respected in undergraduate education for long after the end of the Civil War. This seemed fitting for a city that was home to one of the major universities in the South. These schools were greatly helped by the contributions of northern philanthropist, such as Andrew Carnegie, The Anna Jeans Foundation, and The Peabody Fund. The Peabody Fund gave scholarships to black schools. Carnegie funds went to buildings, and the Jeans Foundation contributed to the salaries and training of teachers for black children.12
The first school for Blacks in Athens was the Knox Institute, and was founded in 1868. The school was located at the intersection of Reese and Pope Streets. The school was named Knox in respect of a Freedman’s Bureau agent named John J. Knox, and was later changed to Knox Institute and Industrial School. The school started off with a range of subjects including sewing, printing, typesetting and carpentry. In 1913, Knox Institute was home new a newly expanded curriculum and a full twelve grades. In 1921 Knox had the prestige of becoming accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the University of Georgia. This was a special event because Knox Institute was the first black school in the state to do so.13
Eventually the school grew to be the most distinguished and biggest private educational institution in Athens. By 1925 Knox Institute had 339 students from all over the United States and the globe, and with money from Andrew Carnegie constructed a building appropriately enough called Carnegie Hall. Knox was fully set up with dorms, heat, running water and all of what we would think necessary in a modern school. Sadly, the school had to close its doors in 1928 when its major contributor, American Missionary Association, cut funds. After that the school came under the Athens Board of Education and became Athens High and Industrial School for black students. This school was very instrumental in expanding the idea of black education in Athens, and its legacy lived through the 1930’s and on to today.14
Another important private black school in Athens was Jeruel Academy, which was founded in 1881, and was in operation until 1956. Jeruel Academy was at its location at the intersection of Baxter and Pope streets where Bumby Hall now stands on the University of Georgia campus for the vast majority of its existence. By the 1930’s Jeruel Academy had eventually changed its name to Union Institute. In all of Clarke County there was no black high school, so the county assigned under contract teachers to the Jeruel Academy. The curriculum of the school covered every thing from college preparatory classes, kindergarten, elementary English, theology, music, and many industrial courses. The school advertised reasonable prices and a good education. The Union Institute was the longest in operation of any of the black private schools in Athens.The school only closed when the Clarke County and Athens school districts merged in 1956.15
While the county schools were for the most part small and very limited in their curriculum, with only rudimentary writing and reading instruction, one deviation from this norm was the Judia C. Jackson Harris School. It was first named the Model and Training School, and was opened by Judia C. Jackson Harris in 1903. The curriculum of the school was a range from math and grammar classes to music, drama, and art. The school was known to hold pageants in the Morton Opera House in downtown Athens.16
The original building burnt to the ground in 1926, but Harris rallied both the black community and some whites to raise money for a new building. With help from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, a new brick structure was built. The school was clean, neat, and very much in the tradition of the private schools in Athens. Harris took great care in her education of her students and also contributed to the community in such things as raising groups of black farmers to pool their money to buy land. The school was closed in 1950, but was later reopened in 1956 with the merger of the Clarke County and Athens school districts.17
The Knox Institute, Union Institute, along the Judia C. Jackson Harris School were all very influential in the education of Blacks in and around the 1930’s. These respectable schools were one tool available to Blacks in Athens as an option to attain a quality education. With segregation and under-funding plaguing the public schools, they were able to fight the oppression out to an extent, and work for the betterment of the black people of Athens. One can imagine a struggling black family making sacrifices for the education of a loved one so they might have a better life than the child’s parents had. With times hard for everyone in the Great Depression, the Union Institute and Judia C. Harris School stayed open. This fact alone can be seen as proof of the resolve of those in a quest for knowledge.18
Around this time there were several schools in Athens for the white children which were of course in much better condition than their black counterparts. They included Athens High which held grades nine through eleven and was located in the old Court House located on Prince Avenue. There was also one junior high that was attended by all children of junior high age in the city and was located on Childs Street. Four elementary schools rounded out the city school district.19
The Clarke County school district had a modest high school at Winterville, along with five elementary schools for white students. The elementary schools were Princeton, Minton Brown, Gaines, and Hodgson. One interesting fact about the Clarke County school district is that in 1932 the Board of Reagents merged the Demonstration School, operated by the University College of Education along with the Normal School, with the University of Georgia. These schools were legally in the Clarke County School district under contract even though they were within the city limits.20
With the passing of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, black schools were proven to be inferior to their white counterparts. This was a great day in the history of the black American. School desegregation seemed close, and finally the goal of separate but equal was proven impossible. But this would not take affect in the Athens-Clarke County school district until 1967. The people of Athens were quite apprehensive of the integration and feared violence, and this fear stayed on until the early 1970’s. In the end however, no violence erupted and the school year went on as planned. This event of desegregation no doubt was a celebrated day in Athens history. This event certainly had a greater effect than just equality in education. It was a step in the equality for Blacks that they so justly deserved, and an official acceptance of the fact that all students, regardless of race, are entitled a good education.21
Education in Athens has had a long legacy, both for Blacks and for Whites. The black people of Athens were a strong people that were up for any challenge, whether it was in education, or any other aspect of their lives. The black schools of Athens can be seen as proof that when it came down to it they could make due with very few resources. Such private schools as the Union Institute and others played a major role in education of black children of Athens in the 1930’s. One can imagine those in the city or county public schools being maybe a bit jealous of their counterparts in the private schools of the day. These differences in the black private and public schools are very small when one thinks of the obvious disparities between black and white students of the era.
What it all boils down to is that it was quite difficult, or impossible, for a black child of Athens of the 1930’s to get the one hundred percent equality in education they deserved. The iron fist of Jim Crow had the black people of Athens under its horrible control, and inequality and subjugation seemed to be the Whites in power’s goal. The only way it seemed that a black person could get a quality education was for all the black people of Athens to pull together. The fruits of the labor of these men and women of the past can be seen today in our schools of Athens. Both black and white children sit side by side learning the knowledge that Whites of the past worked so hard to deprive from what they saw as an inferior race. If the black educators of Athens’ past could see the schools today one would think them to be proud of how far we have come, and be pleased that the fruits of their labor are being enjoyed by many deserving children.
1. Ronald L.F. Davis, “Racial Etiquette: The Racial Customs and Rules of Racial Behavior in Jim Crow America”; available from http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_etiquette.htm; Internet; accessed 3 February 2004. Raymond Gavins, “Literature of Jim Crow,” OAH Magazine of History, January 2004, 13.
2. Barbara Jean Fields, "Ideology and Race in American History" in J. Morgan Kousser & James M. McPherson (eds), Region, Race and Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of C. Vann Woodward, 163. Michael L. Thurmand, A story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History ed. Dorothy Sparer (Athens: Clarke County School District, 1978) 61.
3. Adam Fairclough, Teaching Equality: Black Schools in the Age of Jim Crow (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001), 2. Thurmond, 62.
4. William McDonald Wallace, “The Great Depression reconsidered: Implications for Today,” Contemporary Economic Policy 13, no. 2 (April 1995) 1-15 [database on-line], UMI-Proquest, GALILEO; accessed 1 March, 2004.
5. “New Black Historic Districts help make Heritage Complete,” The Athens Observer, 7 July, 1988.
6. Dorothy Orr, History of Education in Georgia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1950) , 332. Oscar H. Joiner, James C. Bonner, H.S. Shearhouse, T.E. Smith, ed. , A History of Public Education in Georgia: 1734-1976 (Columbia: The R. L. Bryan Company, 1979), 201
7. Orr, 332-333.
8. Orr, 333. John J. Donohue III, James J. Heckman, and Peter E. Todd, “Social Action , Private Choice, and Philanthropy: Understanding the Sources of Improvements in Black Schooling in Georgia: 1911-1960” (Working Paper, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1998), 7
9. Donohue, Heckman, and Todd, 8.
10. Clarence Lusane, The Struggle for Equal Action (New York: The African-American Experience Franklin Watts, 1992), 21.
11. “Metamorphosis of the Clark County School System,” Athens Banner-Herald, 28 October, 2001. Thurmond, 75-77, 84-86.
12. Thurmond, 63. Joiner, Bonner, Shearhouse, and Smith, 253.
13. Thurmond, 64-65.
14. Thurmond, 65-66. “Knox Institute,” Classic Scene, 20 August, 1972. “Metamorphosis of Clarke County School.”
15. Thurmond, 67-74. “Jeruel Baptist Institute,” The Athens Herald, 1914. “Metamorphosis of Clarke County Schools.”
16. Thurmond, 79.
17. Thurmond, 82-84.
18. Thurmond, 67.
19. “Metamorphosis of Clarke County School.”
20. “Metamorphosis of Clarke County School.”
21. “Metamorphosis of Clarke County School.” “Clarke Officials Apprehnsive About School Opening,” Banner Herald, 25 August, 1970.