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“Land-Grant College Legislation and Black Tennesseans: A Case Study in the Politics of Education”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Samuel H. Shannon
Samuel H. Shannon*
Affiliation:
Tennessee State University
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Extract

Of American secular faiths, perhaps none has been more resilient than the belief in higher education as a means to a more fulfilling life. The land-grant college movement, initiated by the Morrill Act of 1862, has stood historically as one very tangible article of this faith. Rightly recognized as a revolutionary influence upon American education, this public college movement gave profoundly important impetus to tendencies that were apparent within the nation. A revolt against classical schooling was already under way. Belief in the efficacy of the sciences was gaining momentum. There were simultaneous demands for more “practical” learning that would emphasize agricultural and mechanical arts instruction. And pervading each of these tendencies was the growing insistence upon the democratization of educational opportunity.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , Summer 1982 , pp. 139 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1. Morrill, James Lewis, The Ongoing State University (Minneapolis 1960), pp. 6–7; Commager, Henry Steele, Editor, Documents of American History, Volume 2, (New York, 1962), p. 412; Nevins, Allan, The State Universities and Democracy (Urbana, 1962), p. vi; Nevins, Allan, The Origins of the Land-Grant Colleges and State Universities (Washington, 1962), p. 8.Google Scholar

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7. Acts, 1868–1869 (ch. 12), p. 12.Google Scholar

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14. The University of Tennessee Catalogues, 1881–1882, 1882–1883; Folmsbee, , Tennessee Establishes a State University, p. 56. There were 163 white students enrolled at The University of Tennessee during the 1882–1883 academic year, and there were 197 white students enrolled during the 1883–1884 academic year.Google Scholar

15. Merriam, , Higher Education in Tennessee, p. 276.Google Scholar

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19. “Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the University of Tennessee,” Appendix to the House Journal, 1885, p. 15; Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial Education,” p. 64; Folmsbee, , Tennessee Establishes a State University, pp. 41–42.Google Scholar

20. Folmsbee, , Tennessee Establishes a State University, pp. 52–54.Google Scholar

21. The Hatch Act, U.S. Statutes at Large 24, 400 (1887).Google Scholar

22. Letter from Register to the Treasury, Napier, James Carroll to Howard, William President Taft, December 18, 1911, James C. Napier Collection, Box 2, Folder 2, Special Collections, Fisk University Library, Nashville, Tennessee.Google Scholar

23. Clark, , The Control of State-Supported Teacher-Training, p. 11.Google Scholar

24. The Morrill Act, Statutes at Large 26, 417 (1890).Google Scholar

25. Shannon, Samuel H., “The Black Land-Grant Colleges: Problems of Identity on the Margin of Public Higher Education,” pp. 21–22 (Paper presented to the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellows-in-Residence, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, April 1976).Google Scholar

26. Congressional Record, Senate, June 21, 1890, June 23, 1890, pp. 6333–6351; pp. 6369–6372; Congressional Record, House, August 19, 1890, pp. 8829–8839.Google Scholar

27. The Morrill Act, Statutes at Large 26, 417 (1890).Google Scholar

28. Ibid.Google Scholar

29. Montgomery, James Riley, The Volunteer State Forges Its University: The University of Tennessee, 1887–1919 (Knoxville, 1966), p. 210; Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial Education,” p. 66.Google Scholar

30. Acts, 1868–1869, p. 12.Google Scholar

31. Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the University of Tennessee to the Tennessee General Assembly, December 20. 1890, pp. 13–15; Merriam, , Higher Education in Tennessee, p. 277.Google Scholar

32. “Report of the President of the University of Tennessee,” Appendix to the House Journal of the Forty-Eighth General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, 1893, p. 231. Of the total appropriation for the state university in 1891–92, $52,640 was provided through the First and Second Morrill Acts, while $15,000 was availed the university under the Hatch Act of 1887. Of the total sum provided Knoxville College, $1,343.40 was appropriated for industrial department equipment, $1,797.80 for industrial teacher salaries, and $385.42 for state appointees' tuition. By no reasonable gauge could such an appropriation be considered “equitable,” since blacks comprised approximately 23 per cent of the state's total population and 19% of Tennessee's scholastic age population at the time the 1891–1892 disbursement was made available. See Historical Statistics of the United States (Washington, 1976), p. 34; Department of the Interior, Compendium of the Eleventh Census: 1890 (Washington, 1897), p. 272.Google Scholar

Prior to 1912, the smallest “industrial department” appropriation was for the 1893–1894 academic year, when Knoxville College was officially listed as receiving $2,228.99. The University of Tennessee received $48,960 in land-grant support at this time. The largest single appropriation (as listed by the University of Tennessee Treasurer) was for the 1910–1911 academic year, when The University of Tennessee was granted $68,960 in federal funds. The disbursement listings indicate Knoxville College received $10,350 from the state university at this time. See “Report, President of The University of Tennessee,” Appendix to the House Journal, 1895, p. 17; “Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1913,” Appendix to the Senate and House Journals, 1913, pp. 364–365.Google Scholar

33. “Annual Report of The University of Tennessee, 1894,” Appendix to the House Journal, pp. 235–242; “Biennial Report, University of Tennessee, House Journal, 1893, p. 244, Catalogue, Knoxville College, 1895–1896, pp. 21–23; Montgomery, , The Volunteer State Forges Its University, p. 209. While the President of the University of Tennessee, Dabney, Charles W. Jr. (1887–1904) emphasized agricultural and mechanical at the state university, an abbreviated and ill-fated enthusiasm for farm-related summer programs marked the limits of Dabney's direct participation in Knoxville College activities. See Dabney to Knoxville College President McGranahan, R. W., June 5, 1902; Buttrick, Wallace to Dabney, , November 21, 1902, as cited in Montgomery, , The Volunteer State Forges Its University, p. 159.Google Scholar

34. Acts, 1875 (Chap. 130), p. 216, Tennessee Code Annotated, Volume 1, p. 476; Vann Woodward, C., The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York, 1957), p. 68; Folmsbee, Stanley J., Corlew, Robert E., and Mitchell, Enoch L., Tennessee: A Short History (Knoxville, 1969), p. 384.Google Scholar

35. Claxton, Philander P. to Peabody, George Foster, January 7. 1907, Box 14H, MS 278, Philander P. Claxton Collection, Special Collections, James D. Hoskins Library, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Box 14K, MS-278, Claxton Collection.Google Scholar

36. Claxton Collection, Box 14-G, MS 278; Lewis, Charles Lee, Philander Priestley Claxton: Crusader for Public Education (Knoxville, 1948), p. 153; Horton, Allison Norman, “Origin and Development of the State College Movement in Tennessee” (Ed.D. dissertation, George Peabody College for Teachers, 1953), p. 86.Google Scholar

Recognizing that an open and ardent appeal for Negro schooling would threaten opportunities for the white population, the Southern Education Board and its campaigners relegated black education to a corner safely remote from their dominant priorities. See Harlan, Louis R., Separate and Unequal: Public School Campaigns and Racism in the Southern Seaboard States, 1901–1915 (New York, 1968), p. 92; Harlan, Louis R., “The Southern Educational Board and the Race Issue in Public Education,” The Journal of Southern History 23 (May 1957): 189–202.Google Scholar

37. Nashville, Globe, January 18, 1907; January 25, 1907; January 10, 1908; March 6, 1908; Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial Education,” pp. 93–94; Lamon, , Black Tennesseans, p. 94.Google Scholar

38. Nashville, Tennessean, February 2, 1909.Google Scholar

39. Claxton, Philander P. to Horton, Allison Norman, in Horton, , “Origin and Development of the State College Movement in Tennessee,” p. 350; Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial Education,” p. 96.Google Scholar

40. House Journal, 1909, pp. 467–468.Google Scholar

41. Acts, 1909 (Chapter 580), Section 1.Google Scholar

42. Davidson County Quarterly Court Record, April 4 and April 5, 1910; Nashville Banner, April 5, 1910; Nashville, Tennessean, April 6, 1910; Nashville Globe, April 8, 1910; Nashville, Globe and Independent, April 19, 1935 as cited in Grann Lloyd, R., Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University, 1912–1962 (Nashville, 1962), p. 6; Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial Education,” pp. 103–105; Lamon, , Black Tennesseans, p. 100.Google Scholar

43. Not all discussion about the school site was treated in a serious vein. According to the Nashville Banner, “Squire Dandridge caused a ripple of laughter when he said he would vote ‘aye’ on the condition that the school be located near Vanderbilt University.” (Nashville, Banner, April 6. 1910).Google Scholar

44. Acts 1911 (Chapter 64), Sections 1 and 2, Nashville, Globe, July 28. 1911.Google Scholar

45. Letter from Register to the Treasury, , Napier, J. C. to Taft, William Howard President, December 18. 1911, James C. Napier Collection, Box 2, Folder 2, Special Collections, Fisk University Library, Nashville, Tennessee; Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial Education,” pp. 110–112.Google Scholar

46. Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, April 1912; Lamon, , Black Tennesseans, p. 98; Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial,” pp. 113–115. The United States Commissioner of Education at this time was Claxton, Philander P. Because of his prior affiliation with The University of Tennessee, Claxton may have found the Knoxville College “arrangement” to have been an especially sensitive subject.Google Scholar

47. Acts, 1913 (Chapter 18); Horton, , “Origin and Development of the State College Movement”, pp. 137–138.Google Scholar

48. The Smith-Lever Act, Statutes at Large, 38, 372 (1914).Google Scholar

49. U.S. Congress, Senate, Jones Amendment to the Smith-Lever Bill, 63rd Cong., 2nd Session, February 5. 1914, Congressional Record 51: 2929, 2945, 2947; Grantham, Dewey W., Hoke Smith and The Politics of the New South (Baton Rouge, 1958), pp. 254–267.Google Scholar

50. Wilkerson, Doxey Alphonso, Agricultural Extension Services Among Negroes in the South (Washington, 1942, pp. 40–43).Google Scholar

51. Biennial Report of the Comptroller of the Treasury, June 30, 1920, to June 30, 1922, to the Sixty-Third General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, 1923, p. 45; Biennial Report of the Comptroller, 1920, p. 42; Annual Report 1920, Division of Extension, College of Agriculture, University of Tennessee to the Office of Extension Work, State Relations Service, United States Department of Agriculture, p. 8.Google Scholar

52. Biennial Report, State Department of Agriculture, 1915–1916, p. 12; Biennial Report, Agriculture, 1917–1918; Montgomery, , The Volunteer State Forges Its University, pp. 102–103; Biennial Report, Agriculture, 1918–1920, p. 11.Google Scholar

53. Bulletin, Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School For Negroes, Vol. 3–9 (1914–1921). Evidence gathered from student transcripts arid school catalogues reveals there was only token adherence to rules requiring that all students above the seventh grade take agriculture. Preparation of “scientific” farmers was one of the black school's stated goals, but transcripts indicate agricultural instruction absorbed only a small quantity of students' time. Of the total course work received by students between 1914 and 1922, no more than an estimated 5 percent was concentrated upon agricultural study. (The estimated 5 percent is based upon an investigation of 66 non-Normal school transcripts and the transcripts of 104 Normal School graduates.)Google Scholar

Except for the small number of students who could anticipate teaching vocational agriculture, the appeal was indeed negligible. There were only six students studying in the four-year vocational agriculture program during the 1921–1922 academic year. This year represented the largest attendance for the Smith-Hughes program. See U.S. Office of Education, Federal Board of Vocational Education, School Visitation Records of the Federal Supervision For Vocational Agriculture, Record Group 12 (Washington, 1922).Google Scholar

The trade program was similarly unattractive. After students completed the rudiments of manual training, domestic art, and domestic science, the incentives for advanced instruction virtually disappeared. The 1921–1922 school year represented the period in which the largest number of students received certificates for advanced trade work. Only six students were awarded certificates at this time, an interval when 583 students were in regular attendance. (See Bulletin, Vol. 10, 1922; Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial Education,” p. 235.).Google Scholar

54. Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial Education,” p. 244; Eddy, , Colleges For Our Land and Time, p. 112.Google Scholar

“Self-help” of this kind, long advocated by Samuel Chapman Armstrong and his disciple Washington, Booker T., was incorporated as a means for defraying institutional expenses. But “self-help” soon became “duty work,” as students transformed rocky, grassless hills into a campus. Students were not always happy with this non-academic phase, and “duty work” was soon discarded. But their labors helped to offset the accelerating costs of maintaining the institution during the Normal School years. (See “Biennial Report,” Appendix to the Senate and House Journals, 1915, p. 225; Interview with Mrs.Bond, E. P., Nashville, Tennessee, March 30, 1971; Letter from Harriett Hale to the author, April 23, 1971, Special Collections, Fisk University Library, Nashville, Tennessee, and Tennessee State University Library.Google Scholar

55. Interview with Mr.Ferguson, M. G., Nashville, Tennessee, February 17. 1971; Interview with Mr. J. Herbert White, Itta Bena, Mississippi, March 20, 1971; Interview with Dr. George W. Gore, Nashville, Tennessee, March 10, 1972; Interview with Mr.Roddy, R. J., Millington, Tennessee, March 19, 1971; Interviews with Mr. Aeolian Lockert, Nashville, Tennessee, May 21, 1970, and January 18, 1971; Interview with Mrs. Pearl Burton, Nashville, Tennessee, March 23, 1971. See Shannon, , “Agricultural and Industrial Education,” pp. 174–176.Google Scholar

56. Nashville, Tennessean, February 5, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 1922; Letter from Smith, S. L. to Shepardson, Francis W., February 17, 1922, Box 155, folder 9, Julius Rosenwald Fund, Archives, Fisk University, Special Collections Library.Google Scholar

While Hale was exonerated by the State Board, the Washington authorities determined that he would have no further control over the federally-supported veterans. On March 1, 1922, the Veterans Bureau transferred these veterans away from the A. and I. State Normal School.Google Scholar

57. Sanders v. Ellington, 288 F. Supp. 937 (Middle District, Tennessee, 1968); Egerton, John, “Tennessee's Long-Running Desegregation Drama,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 3. 1977. Research and investigative aid was provided by Clark, Kenneth, Lewis, Hylan, and Cohen, David.Google Scholar

58. Nashville, Tennessean, September 7. 1978; text of United States District Judge Frank Gray, Jr.'s ruling in Geier v. Blanton (January 31, 1977) as printed in the Nashville Tennessean, February 1, 1977, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth District upheld Judge Frank Gray, Jr.'s decision with a 2-1 vote. (See New York Times, April 14. 1979).Google Scholar

The United States Supreme Court refused to review the case on October 1, 1979 (See Nashville, Banner, October 1, 1979).Google Scholar