Jeanes Foundation

The Jeanes Foundation (also known as the Negro Rural School Fund^[1]) was founded by philanthropist Anna T. Jeanes of Philadelphia who was a Quaker. Ms. Jeanes inherited money from her father and brother's estates and was the sole owner because she was single. She wanted to assist in the African-American school system so she donated $1,000,000 and in 1907, created the Jeanes Foundation,^[2] which trained and taught teachers in the south who had very little education and experience in the education field. Among its projects, the Jeanes Foundation provided funds to employ African-American supervisors of teachers who were dedicated to upgrading vocational training programs for teachers of black students.^[3]

In 1908, Jackson T. Davis, the superintendent of Henrico County Public Schools near Richmond, Virginia named Virginia Estelle Randolph to become the United States' first "Jeanes Supervising Industrial Teacher."^[4] She created the model program for legions of Jeanes teachers who worked toward improving the communities of schools.

As the overseer of 23 elementary schools in Henrico County, Randolph developed the first in-service training program for black teachers and worked on improving the curriculum of the schools. With the freedom to design her own agenda, she shaped industrial work and community self-help programs to meet specific needs of schools. She chronicled her progress by becoming the author of the Henrico Plan, which became a reference book for southern schools receiving assistance from the Jeanes Foundation, which became known as the Negro Rural School Fund.^[5]

Randolph's teaching techniques and philosophy were later adopted in Great Britain's African colonies.

The teachers were trained in schools such as Hampton University, Tuskegee University, and many other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The teachers often had to teach students in one big schoolhouse or churches. The establishment also encouraged and raised money to fund field trips and graduation.

Jeanes teachers were mostly black women, because women of color were those who had the worst chance of obtaining a job in the south. The charity gave negroes a chance to receive a legitimate elementary education. Long term, the foundation encouraged blacks to vote. By 1952 there were over 510 Jeanes teachers in the south. The Jeanes Foundation is still known to be a success that has created a place with the NAACP as well as clubs and PTA committees in the minority community.

The Southern Education Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation, was created in 1937 from the Negro Rural School Fund, the John F. Slater Fund, the Peabody Education Fund, and the Virginia Randolph Fund.^[6]

Jeanes teachers in Georgia

The Jeanes teacher program that started in Georgia began with six individuals in 1908 and progressed to a 53-person program by 1939. In addition to the Jeanes teachers' efforts to educate African American students, the Jeanes teachers took a holistic approach in their mission: Not only did they educate black students, but they were also influential in the development of black communities in Georgia. They improved the physical buildings of schools, organized clubs, and overall wanted to enrich the life of the community.

The Jeanes teacher program ended in 1968. Their work benefited black communities by providing adequate schools and good teachers. The success of Jeanes teachers stretched beyond African American education in Georgia. The same Jeanes supervisors became prominent leaders during the Civil Rights Movement. The Jeanes teachers and their work in the 1950s are credited for laying the groundwork for the movement of the 1960s.

Jeanes teacher in Durham County, North Carolina

Durham County's first Jeanes teacher was hired in 1915, and over the following decades, in conjunction with the building of schools by the Rosenwald fund, the Jeanes teachers provided the black children of the county with a far higher grade of education than had previously been allowed them in Jim Crow era North Carolina. The city of Durham included the Hayti section, a vibrant black community, and its leaders were intimately involved in bringing and maintaining the Jeanes presence to the area.^[7]

Response to the Jeanes teachers

Professor Botsch of the Political Science department of the University of South Carolina Aiken says: "How can one sum up the contributions of the Jeanes Supervisors, these educational pioneers? One scholar likes to refer to them as "pre-cursers of the Peace Corp": Women who didn't make much money but did anything they could to help. Another sees them as early resource people, similar to today's resource teachers who try to make sure that children have what they need to learn. Another comments that these women provided African-American children with a sense of pride by teaching them black history at a time when it was not found in any textbooks. "We took straw and we made bricks and we built houses," says one retired supervisor. Perhaps as stated by Eldridge McMillan, their slogan sums it up best: The Jeanes Supervisors always did the 'next needed thing'."

Recommended literature

° Lance G. E. Jones: The Jeanes Teacher in the United States 1908-1933. An Account Of Twenty-Five Years’ Experience In The Supervision Of Negro Rural Schools. Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, 1937. ISBN 978-0-8078-6837-9 ° Mildred M. Williams, Kara Vaughn Jackson: The Jeanes story: a chapter in the history of American education, 1908-1968. Jackson State University: [distributed by the University Press of Mississippi], 1979

External links

Southern Education Foundation - The Jeanes Teachers Videos

References

1. "The Jeanes Supervisors". Retrieved 2008-05-22.
2. "Jeanes Teachers". Retrieved 2008-05-22.
3. Anna T. Jeanes and the Jeanes Fund
4. Henrico County Manager's Office
5. Legacy Museum - Struggle - Philanthropy
6. Jones-Wilson, Faustine Childress (1996). Encyclopedia of African-American Education. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 439. ISBN 0-313-28931-X.
7. http://www.durhamcountylibrary.org/ncc/jeanes/index.php