Essay About Establishment Of Ballard High Schools And African-American Students

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After reading Faithful, Firm and true showed me how to look at the formal and organized education was created in the South free blacks. This book was written by Titus Brown, a History professor at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. This books help obtain knowledge how black struggle to get an education. While reading this book I saw how Dr.Brown highlighted the education system in Macon, Georgia and the establishment of Ballard High Schools for African-American students. Ballard High School was founded in 1865. Raymond G. von Tobel Connecticut native spent most of this career as a principle at Ballard High School. Although Ballard high school was only for blacks the faculty was biracial until it became public in 1942. The America Missionary Association (AMA) was the known for providing the best education to black youth in Macon. The AMA and the black community came together and help the African Americans students that were in unheated schoolrooms to a primary secondary institution in Central Georgia, Ballard Normal School. They overcame poverty, diseases, white hostility, and paucity of qualified teachers and funds. The AMAs educational program at Macon had emphasized “religion, patriotism, morality, and industrious black citizenry. Also in 1868 to increase the number of black teachers the AMAs instituted a normal curriculum at the Lewis High that later became a model teacher training school. In 1888 the AMAs had built a large facility that was renamed Ballard Normal School. It was built because back in 1872 Georgia had assumed responsibility for public school education. The AMA then briefly issued the Macon School Board to designate Lewis High school for blacks. Later the school board over segregation and standard of education had offered the AMA to resume control in 1875 that how they ended up with Ballard Normal School. Now Im going to depth in details to why the transitions from Lewis High School to Ballard Normal School. Lewis High School had ended the turbulent reconstruction era by going up in flames. The AMA had used the 5,000 the fire insurance money to be rebuilt. After being closed down 1877, Lewis High school had reopens March 24, 1978. The new high school has enrolled ninety-three students. Then in the 1880s, the AMA had accepted that they lost the fight with white Georgians on the notions of social equality for blacks to continue its customary course like it was during the Reconstruction. Being that they failed the first time the AMA had pursued again with the white southerners. In 1879 Lewis School has then broke the gender barrier when they named Christine H. Gilbert the president over the high school. The following school year 1880- 1881 had 109 students enrolled to Lewis high. Although Lewis high school was built after the fire, it was rebuild smaller than the normal first high school. The facilities were inadequate for the present need, and the classrooms were crowed. Even though there many other schools, in Central Georgia for black students beyond sixth grade so many traveled thirty to fifty miles just to attend Lewis High. The AMA had cooperated with state and city officials to develop plans to train teachers. Lewis High was the one of only a few secondary schools in existence for African-American youth in Georgia. In the 1860s the AMAs had introduced industrial education in some of the school. By 1885 the industrial education had become an essential element of Lewis Normal Institute. Beard had announced that “”with the hearty concurrence of General Lewis that.. . this school should hence forth be known as Ballard Normal School. With improved facilities and large number of enrollment, Ballard Normal emerged in 1890s as a premier educational institution for African-American teachers training in Georgia and the South. Students had then found it hard to pay the meager amount for the tuitions; a small emerging black middle class had continued sending their child to Ballad. But on the other hand the students who families who could not afford AMA tuition had to settle for an elementary education. Although Ballad was very expensive and there had become competition from public school, they still average 500 students per year. One reason they stated in the book for Ballard success was the industrial training that was introduced and fostered by the Slater Foundation, which created “more friends among Southern white men than all the speeches and writing put together”. Ballad has taken advantage of the racial climate and had provided even greater numbers of professionals for Macon and became the primary provider of teachers for Central Georgia. In 1894, AMA secretary Augustus F. Beard appointed George C. Burrage of Worcester, Massachusetts, to succeed Francis T. Waters as principle of Ballard Normal School. At this time Ballard has 568 students enrolled, which made it one of the largest of all the associations secondary schools. During the next fifteen years Burrage had made a number of improvements to Ballard Normal School. He standardized the general curriculum, strengthened the academic programs, and continued to emphasize the normal and industrial education. I believed that Burrage was a great principal. Yes, every principal purpose of being one is to improve their school, but not always they mastered that. The activities he had the school participate in were very good and creative. Some of the activities that he had the school part take in were the “Junior Exhibition”. The Junior Exhibition was held to entertain and impress parents and the students. It was held a month before school ended, all the students performed exercise that consist of dialogues, recitations, and music both being vocally and instrumental. Also had one a week before the term ended members of the graduating class and their guests were received at the teachers. It was called “Home” the purpose of this reception was to encourage a final discourse among the teachers