In late 1870’s, the Tennessee Typical Assembly made a decision to aid different public faculties for black and white learners.
By the late 1880’s, the Coloured General public School, which turned College Hill University, experienced moved from a non permanent locale, the Coloured Orphan Constructing, to a new building on Bridge Street. In the 1890s, the colleges set up by the Freedmen’s Bureau and properties erected for church and faculty needs in the course of and just after reconstruction time period, were nonetheless staying made use of.
Even so, the more mature buildings were being badly in have to have of repair and more universities and lecturers were being desperately essential to teach the learners in the rural communities.
As the leaders in the rural communities labored to mend and replace the dilapidated schools and construct new educational institutions to manage the enhance in the numbers of pupils, Colored Teachers’ Institutes had been organized in lots of counties in the Southern states, like Maury County, to train and certify instructors.
The very first session of the Maury County Coloured Teachers’ Institute was held at the Higher education Hill School in 1896. The main goal of these annual 10-day classes was to present methods in the art of training to those people with much less experience. Usually, additional than 100 main and secondary academics attended the institute and have been candidates for certification to instruct in Maury County Faculties.
Special interest was provided to most important teachers in the areas of English Grammar, arithmetic, orthography, main physiology, Tennessee heritage, and U.S. Background. Secondary instructors concentrated on algebra, geometry, physics, civil govt, geology of Tennessee, rhetoric, features of agriculture and physiology.
The Conductor of the Institute was frequently the principal of Higher education Hill assisted by experienced educators and other matter matter gurus.
Integrated were being the president of the Point out Regular College in Alabama president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Nashville J. W. Johnson, the professor of mathematics, Roger Williams College R. G. Johnson, Principal of the New Decatur, AL General public College and Drs. C. F. Crews and A. T. Braxton, Physician and Pharmacist, respectively, of Columbia.
The County Superintendent of Educational institutions carried out the examinations. All those pupils who passed the evaluation were being assigned to train in one of the universities in the rural communities.
It ought to be famous that several of the instructors who received certifications from the Maury County Colored Teachers’ Institute ongoing their education, acquiring at least a Bachelor’s degree.
Founder Mrs. Florence Armatage Thomas Turner established the Maury County Turner Ordinary and Industrial University in 1893, exactly where she served as president and principal. By February 13, 1896, the school claimed a daily normal of 55 students in the classes. The most popular courses had been carpentry for males, needlepoint, cooking and home function for women of all ages.
In September 1896, the administrators of Maury County Turner Normal and Industrial School re-chartered the university under the identify of the Tennessee Condition Typical and Industrial Faculty. The board of directors bought house on Significant road, in close proximity to White Spring. Academics have been hired and the university started out running as the Tennessee Point out Regular and Industrial School in September 1896. The constitution users had been as follows: M.C. Church, Chairman of Board of Administrators H. Morgan, P. F. Fleming, J. H. Kinzer, F. J. Webster, S. H. Howell, F. A. Turner, President and Principal, and James H. Turner, Secretary.
Mrs. Turner, the daughter of Henry and Ellen Hayes, was born in Tennessee in 1868. She attended Mrs. Julia Thomas’ Private Faculty, Fisk, and Walden Universities in Nashville, and the Healthcare facility College or university of Medicine in Chicago, specializing in Chiropody. She married Rev. James Henry Turner, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, who served on the school’s board of administrators.
Rev. James Henry Turner was born on a plantation in Virginia. He enlisted in the U. S. Military in 1864 in the 144th NY Regiment and two months later transferred by his request to the served with the 43rd United States Coloured Troops, Firm D. He attended Howard College in Washington, D.C. Schofield’s Professional University in Providence, Rhode Island Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, New Jersey Central Tennessee College in Nashville and Countrywide Clinical College of Chattanooga.
He pastored various churches, like the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Columbia.
Jo Ann McClellan is Maury County historian and president of the African American Heritage Modern society of Maury County.
This write-up originally appeared on The Each day Herald: Black Background Thirty day period: How education and learning developed a group in Maury County