Avery Normal Institute

It has been found necessary for the preservation of community where Negroes outnumber the whites to teach the Negroes from the very beginning that they are inferior to whites. If we should turn the teaching of Negroes over to alike educated Negroes, nobody could predict the results.

-- White member of Charleston County delegation

Avery Normal Institute came into existence in Charleston, SC, with the aid of the American Missionary Association. In addition to offering "common" courses (farming, sewing, cooking, millinery, laundry, housekeeping, etc.), Avery offered its students a classical education based on the missionaries' beliefs in the importance of such an education. Students took course in history, government, economics, languages and literature, methods of teaching, natural philosophy, and physiology.

In the early 1880's, Avery served as the only educational institution in Charleston which prepared "promising" blacks for college, playing a role in the development of the professional class of blacks. Avery students managed to become doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and teachers, participating in a movement of upward mobility not only of the black elite, but also of former slaves and working class blacks. The developing aspirations of blacks during this time period experienced the heavy influence of the ideals set forth by the northern missionaries, placing a good deal of importance on the notion of progress.

This idea of "progress" shaped the new Charlestonian black elite, and both exacerbated and ameliorated racial tensions of the day. Charlestonians like Mamie Garvin Fields avoided Avery, feeling that the school helped maintain intrasegregation, or segregation within blacks between light-skinned and dark-skinned individuals. Others believed, however, that the work done at Avery by its students served to lessen such divisions, adopting the missionary ideals of guiding the race to a better future.

Avery graduates, trained for Christian citizenship and usefulness, went to these areas of 'ignorance and superstition' to serve as 'helpers of their race,' teaching 'habits of thrift and cleanliness' as well as reading and writing. -- Edmund Drago

Those so-called "areas of ignorance and superstition" existed in the rural South, where many of those trained at Avery taught. These rural areas experienced the hardships of overcrowding, lack of funds, low teacher salary, lack of teaching materials, decrepit schoolhouses, and poor attendance due to the fact that the children's labor was needed at home. Often the teachers were placed in these schools with no further supervision or aid from the public school system, forcing them to make do with what little materials they could find; they had to be creative.

Something had to be done about it. I knew a lot about building things because both my dad and my husband were carpenters. When I say I built this school, I mean I built it -- from helping them cut down trees with my saw, to hammering boards in place -- Geneva Ladsen

Being sent to rural areas with limited funds and equipment frustrated many of the teachers from Avery. Some handled it, but others desired "better" teaching positions. The social uplift ideology stressed at Avery played an important role in the lives of the teachers it produced, for many of them felt it their duty to bring education to the rural areas. Others, however, felt that the rural South did not allow them to effectively teach. Hearing of the promise of job opportunities in the North, many Avery-ites desired a move North in search of job fulfillment as teachers.

As Avery progressed in producing teachers, so did the educational philosophies in the social realm in general. Penn Normal, Industrial, and Agricultural School, located in the Sea Islands, focused its education on that of the vocational variety, while Avery stressed a philosophy of "training the mind," focusing on the classical education deemed appropriate by the missionaries.

Curriculum at Avery combined industrial and manual training with classical training, developing the "Self-Help--Social Uplift" philosophy. Industrial education at Avery based itself on the notion of maintaining the long-established traditions and values cherished by the local black community.

Numbers of the young people who come to us either have stock of their own or will work in rural districts where agriculture and stock raising are the cheif industries; and the direction of their thought toward right care and proper treatment of animals and the encouragement of any of their ideals in this direction will greatly increase their usefulness in much of their future work. -- Francis Cordozo

The aspects of classical education stressed by Avery added to the emphasis on culture so cherished by Charleston's black elite. This curriculum centered on literature, history, music, and manners, all which were believed to improve oneself in becoming more "refined, respectable, and useful." History courses, while focusing on the traditional courses deemed important by the missionaries, also included an emphasis on African history, and Afro-American history, further developing cultural awareness among its students. In addition to history courses, a great deal of importance surrounded music, claiming Daniel J. Jenkins, founder of the Jenkins Orphanage Band, as one of its graduates.

In addition to such cultural aspects, it should be noted that the last white teachers to teach at Avery did so in 1914, ending the long-standing tradition of instruction by missionaries. This symbolized an important move toward greater influence of black culture on the lives of the students at Avery, thus strengthening the ties to their roots and traditions. Avery thus exhibited the changing and evolving awareness of the importance of maintaining the black culture in future generations. Through clinging to the past and looking ahead to the future, Avery served as a sort of transition in the migration of blacks from the South to the North, strengthening the cultural awareness to be brought to the northern cities.

Let's learn about the American Missionary Association

Let's visit Penn Normal, Industrial, and Agricultural School

Let's go back to Charleston