What Might Have Been: A First-Rate Black Correspondence School, 1927-1930

ABSTRACT

Nine distinguished Black scholars created an academically rigorous correspondence school in 1927. It lasted only three years. This article explores the reasons why the school failed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ This sixteen page pamphlet described the requirements (six pages), the courses (six pages), the faculty (one page), and the Association (one page), with a cover page and table of contents. The Woodruff Library at Emory University has a copy; I bought my copy online.

² And most colleges that did award credits for work-by-mail did so only for their own home study courses. That was the case for Woodson when he took correspondence courses from the University of Chicago in 1905 and 1906. The philanthropic foundations that supported ASNLH urged Woodson to affiliate with a college or university for the sake of fiscal stability.

³ By the early 1920s Howard had approximately 250 home study students, mostly Southern ministers, with coursework including elementary school subjects (Brown, 1924).

⁴ As Goggin (1993) demonstrated in detail, Woodson repeatedly asked the Carnegie, Rockefeller, Rosenwald, Commonwealth and other foundations for grants (for historical research, collections of documents, publication of the Journal of Negro History, and unrestricted endowment). He knew how to seek funds, but there is no evidence he ever did so on behalf of home study.

⁵ In addition to the ads, I read 66 references to home study as homework, 48 announcements (including five for Woodson’s school), 32 humor items, 17 letters, 9 stories, 5 movie reviews, and 70 uses of the key words unrelated to particular schools, students, or courses.

⁶ Indianapolis Freeman, August 12, 1905; Topeka Plaindealer, August 12, 1904; New Amsterdam News, January 6, 1932; New World, February 20, 1932.