Of Faith, Abolitionism, and Black Melioration: The Origins of the African American Boarding School Model

• In Event: Historical Contexts of Educator Activism and Educational Development

Abstract

When speaking about educational models built specifically for Black students, certain models usually dominate the conversation—Historically Black Colleges and Universities, freedom schools, the Rosenwald Schools, and the somewhat less popular Bray Schools. One model, however, is often left out of the conversation and subsequently occupies only a small subset of the applicable literature. African American Boarding Schools, or Historically Black Boarding Schools, once proliferated the southern and eastern coasts. Over time, the push for integration, the rise in school choice, and other sociopolitical events have resulted in their steep decline. This paper will examine the driving forces behind the model, the events and people that resulted in the expansion of the model, and the implications the model holds.

Author

• Jasmine Porter-Rallins, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign