Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools: Fighting for Literacy in America

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Cora Wilson epitomizes the southern lady in this formal portrait taken at the turn of the twentieth century. Like most of her contemporaries in uplift work, she accepted many of the class-based assumptions of her time and place. Volunteers in Rowan County’s first Moonlight Schools were given a trip to Niagara Falls as a reward for their efforts. Moonlight Schools met in the evenings in schoolhouses lit by kerosene lamps and heated by wood- or coal-burning stoves. Claude Turner, a local teacher, taught one of the larger sessions in Morehead in 1911 and 1912. Moonlight Schools caught on quickly. This photograph shows a group of adult pupils in Elliott County, Kentucky, in 1914. Roads were poor in eastern Kentucky, making travel to and from schools difficult. Stewart championed the cause of improved roads and secured help from the state in building a stretch of model road in front of several county schoolhouses. Shown in this photograph are mule-drawn wagons hauling gravel to a new roadbed in Morehead. “Jolt wagons,” like the one shown here, were common in rural eastern Kentucky. In front is Kentucky governor James B. McCreary, traveling in support of a public school rally. McCreary’s backing of Moonlight Schools resulted in the creation of the Kentucky Illiteracy Commission. Volunteers at the Normal School in Castleton, Vermont, provided instruction for black female inmates at a nearby prison. The Moonlight School idea expanded to include adults in towns and cities across the country. Shown here is a class of beginners in Philadelphia in 1930. Stewart insisted on programs for blacks, and although they were generally segregated, they employed both black and white instructors. The illiteracy crusade served as a catalyst for a number of adult education programs like this one for mill workers in Columbus, Georgia, in 1930. American participation in World War I revealed a large number of draftees who could neither read nor write. They became the focus of the literacy campaign in 1917 and 1918, leading Stewart to create the Soldier’s First Book and to demand that no soldier who lacked the ability to read and write be sent into service overseas. Stewart also focused attention on illiterate parents. Those who learned to read and write would gain a new appreciation for education and, she hoped, ensure that their children attended school. Mothers were especially important in this process, and in 1929, Stewart created a special primer just for them. Shown here is a young mother holding the Mother’s First Book. Stewart was appalled at the high illiteracy rates on Indian reservations and took her campaign to them in the 1920s. Women’s Club volunteers in Washington, Oregon, the Dakotas, and other western states provided instruction for both children and adults. (Above) In March 1931, Stewart held an illiteracy clinic on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation near Glacier Park, Washington. (Right) Stewart had to contend with societal misperceptions regarding the ability to learn. For example, many education professionals believed that adults lost aptitude for learning as they aged. This North Carolina couple and many others like them disproved that theory by learning to read and write when they were well into their eighties. Racial stereotypes provided the misperception that blacks typically failed to learn, even in the best of circumstances. Moonlight Schools reached out to blacks in rural areas and small towns across the country and produced many “star pupils.” This middle-aged man won the top prize in his class in Bullock County, Kentucky, in 1922. As head of the National Advisory Committee in Illiteracy, Stewart welcomed a delegation of Tennessee mountain Moonlight students to a White House gathering hosted by President Herbert Hoover. The group brought letters and handicrafts, along with a box of sweet potatoes, which was presented to the president. Stewart is shown looking on from the second row, third from Hoover’s left. Stewart chaired the illiteracy section of several international education meetings. Shown here are delegates to the 1923 International Conference on Education, held in San Francisco in June and July. Stewart is in the front row, seventh from left. Stewart relied on legislators for...