Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850–1954: An Intellectual History

1. “A Plea for the Oppressed”: Educational Strivings, Pre-1865

1 “A Plea for the Oppressed” Educational Strivings, Pre-1865 Before the Civil War, over 250 institutions offered college-level work; only a select few were open to black or women students. The most notable were Oberlin (founded in 1833), Antioch (1853), and Wilberforce (1856), all in Ohio; Hillsdale (1844) in Michigan; Cheyney (1837) and Lincoln (1854) in Pennsylvania; and Berea (1855) in Kentucky.1 Generally, efforts to educate black girls brought violent reprisals, even in liberal New England, as exemplified by mob violence that destroyed Prudence Crandall’s school for black girls in 1833 Connecticut. If the climate in New England was hostile to the idea of educating African Americans, the rest of the country was downright murderous. Yet, in the cold, hard environment of colonial and antebellum America, seeds found fertile ground, and buds of hope began to bloom; black women earned their first college degrees in Ohio. Oberlin was the only college to graduate a significant number of black women before the Civil War.2 First Wave of Black Women’s College Attainment As has been widely recorded, Oberlin College was a beacon of light for antebellum black scholars, but in a geographically limited sense: the majority of students came from the North or Midwest. Migration patterns suggest that, before 1850, freedmen from the South mainly moved to Indiana or California and later to Kansas, Texas, or Wisconsin. Three major colleges made Ohio a key destination for black migrants, but the attraction was diminished by the economic or social prospects in the North and West. Still, there were at least 152 “identifiable black” college and preparatory students at Oberlin before the Civil War. There were 12 black women recipients of the Literary Degree (L.D.) and 44 black women candidates for that degree by the mid-1860s. Of this number, 23, almost half, were from Ohio, and only 13 were from southern states.3 The number of black women students at Oberlin continually grew, but they were confined to the Literary Course, regarded as the “ladies’ course,” Figure 1. Lucy Stanton Sessions. Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives. Figure 2. Mary Jane Patterson. Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives. “A Plea for the Oppressed”: Educational Strivings, Pre-1865 23 which was designed to be less academically challenging than the course for males enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs, or the “gentlemen’s course.” As in other schools, the curriculum at Oberlin was segregated by gender. In 1850, Lucy Stanton was the first black woman to complete the requirements for the L.D. at Oberlin.4 Stanton was born free in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1831. Her parents, Margaret Stanton and John Brown, were active in the abolitionist movement. As the president of the Ladies Literary Society and a graduation speaker at the 1850 commencement, Stanton delivered an address titled “A Plea for the Oppressed ” that challenged the privileged class in the audience to actively participate in the struggle for African American freedom. As noted in Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction, Stanton had a noteworthy but challenging career in education. She taught in Ohio, Mississippi, and Alabama before ultimately moving to Los Angeles in 1903 with her daughter, Florence. She was married and divorced twice, and because of her marriage status, her role as a single mother, and her race, some applications she filed to teach in the South were rejected. Nevertheless, she melded her learning Figure 3. Fanny Jackson Coppin. Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives. 24 Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850–1954 and her social activism, becoming an influential member of her Los Angeles community. She died in February 1910.5 Twelve years after Stanton received her L.D., Mary Jane Patterson became the first black woman to earn the B.A. degree. A few students at Oberlin had substantial family support, and their families became central figures in the local communities surrounding the college. Patterson exemplified this case. She was part of an extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins who owned a local grocery called “Patterson’s Corner” in the Oberlin community.6 After graduation in 1862, Patterson moved to Philadelphia and eventually taught with Fanny Jackson Coppin, another Oberlin graduate, at the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY). She taught there until 1869, when she moved to D.C., where she worked until her passing in 1894. She became the first black principal of the Preparatory High School for Negroes in 1871...