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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This documentary history on black education was made possible by the strong dedication of numerous individuals and by some timely funding from Oberlin College. The book project received grants in 1999 and 2000 from the McGregor-Oresman Scholars Program, administered by Oberlin ’s O2ce of Sponsored Programs. This program enabled me to employ junior scholars Rebecca Johnson ’01 and Melissa Ray ’01 and to receive additional research assistance from student assistants Jonathan Thurn ’02 and Rebecca Deeb ’02. Between September 1999 and July 2001, these junior scholars conducted targeted research into archival 0les, handled some of the word processing for the chapter introductions and prefatory notes of chapters 1 through 3, and completed a multiplicity of other required clerical and technical support tasks for this scholarly publication. Under a third internal college grant, Peter Collopy ’07 served as a manuscript project assistant during the summer of 2005, and Tyler CassidyHeacock ’07 followed him in this capacity during the spring of 2006. Diana Gurfein ’08, during the fall of 2007, and Nicholas Gliserman ’08, during the summer of 2008, provided assistance on a number of small and large prepublication needs, including pulling together hundreds of e-mails (incoming and outgoing) found in the author’s research 0les and making a careful check of the sources cited in hundreds of footnotes for chapters 4 and 5. Gliserman’s time during the 0nal weeks of preparing the manuscript for submission to Ohio University Press was especially valuable. I also gratefully acknowledge the Gertude F. Jacob Publications Fund, which provided funds to underwrite an indexer to prepare the index to this documentary history. Special thanks to Ray English, director of the Oberlin College Libraries, and to Ken Grossi, acting college archivist, for approving the use of this endowed fund of the College Archives for this purpose. Personnel in the o2ce of college relations and many other individuals also supported this documentary history. In the early years of the book project, the late Mavis Clark, then associate editor of the Oberlin Alumni Magazine, was of immeasurable assistance. Elizabeth Rumics, a volunteer in special collections and a good colleague, read select early drafts of the xvii prefatory notes. As the volunteer indexer of Oberlin’s local newspaper, she kindly alerted me to news items on Oberlin’s black community and on race issues for the years 1860 to 1930. I am indebted to a2liate scholar Marlene D. Merrill, who carefully read and commented on early versions of the manuscript. Over the last few years, a number of people contributed by reading drafts of the manuscript and providing encouragement and constructive criticism. Early and subsequent drafts of select chapters were read by emeritus professor of English Robert M. Longsworth (introduction, chapters 4 and 5, and the epilogue); professor of history Gary J. Kornblith (chapter 5 in its early versions); emeritus professor of philosophy Daniel D. Merrill (introduction ); associate professor of educational policy studies at Georgia State University Russell W. Irvine (chapters 1 through 4); emeritus professor of sociology Albert J. McQueen (chapter 4); and then president of the Oberlin Alumni Association Wendell Phillip Russell Jr. ’71 (chapter 4). Robert Stinson, emeritus history professor at Moravian College and now an Oberlin city resident, read various parts of the manuscript, but he was especially helpful in his reading of the introduction to document 10 appearing in chapter 3. James Mark Tucker, dean of library and information resources at Abilene Christian University, read chapter 3 because of his scholarly work on Oberlin’s Azariah Smith Root, the college’s librarian, 1887–1924. Rupert Wilkinson, emeritus professor of American studies at the University of Sussex (England) read the introduction, chapter 5, and an early draft of the epilogue. James C. Millette, Department of African American Studies, read the introduction to document 30. Finally, special thanks go to J. Milton Yinger, emeritus professor of sociology, who as I began this project a decade ago regularly encouraged me to complete my writing even knowing it was a large addition on top of my full-time archival appointment. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to members of the staf of the college archives. They cheerfully carried on when this special project took up a good measure of my energy and time. Associate archivist Ken Grossi (now archivist) faced enlarged responsibilities and spent more time directing the work of student assistants and servicing patrons in the Goodrich Reading Room. In the initial years of the manuscript project, assistant archivist Melissa Gottwald ’97...

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