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An activist and sociologist, W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) mobilized an advance guard to address the issues of racism and identify with the values to be found in a classical education and in African American folk culture. He would later call this group of college-educated professionals the “Talented Tenth.” Alternative Voices on Racial Advancement in American Society Educator and race spokesman Booker T. Washington (1856?–1915) had a close relationship with Oberlin College. He lectured there on the “Negro Problem” at least three times between 1897 and 1908. His son, Ernest, attended the Oberlin Academy in 1904–5. A number of Oberlin graduates worked at Washington ’s Tuskegee Institute. In the 0ght against discrimination and racial injustice, Washington’s accommodationist philosophy and his emphasis on vocational education and character building for blacks placed him at odds with W. E. B. Du Bois. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Courtesy of the Special Collections Department , W. E. B. DuBois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. On the last day of December 1834, Oberlin students circulated the questionnaire “As to the Practicability of Admitting Persons of Color.” A slim majority came out in opposition to admitting black students. By February 1835, however, the trustees by one vote decided to admit them because “the education of people of color is a matter of great interest and should be encouraged and sustained in this institution.” Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives Student Agency at Work in the Early Years The Reverend Charles Avery (1784–1858), a Pittsburgh philanthropist, whose early benevolence to Oberlin College resulted in a 0nancial aid fund of $1,000 (1848) to provide for the remission of the tuition of students of color. In his will he endowed the Avery Professorship of Greek Literature and Archeology as well as the Avery Scholarship Fund, in the amount of $6,000, for “indigent and worthy” colored students. Source: History of Allegheny County (PA), J. B. Lippincott Press, 1876 Benefactor Establishes a Scholarship Fund for Worthy Black Students George B. Vashon, the 0rst black male graduate to hold an A.B. degree, explains in an 1846 letter to the college treasurer, Hamilton Hill, why he is unable to pay his college bills following his graduation in 1844. Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives An Early Sign That Black Students Would Require Financial Support A program for the 1846 Oberlin celebration of the First of August. Instead of celebrating the Fourth of July, black and white abolitionists and members of the wider community commemorated for many years the anniversary of the emancipation of slaves in the British West Indies on August 1, 1834. Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives Black and White Students Celebrate the First of August Lucy Stanton (Day/Sessions) (1831–1912) became the 0rst black American woman to graduate from a four-year college when Oberlin College awarded her the Literary Course Diploma in 1850. She founded the Sojourner Truth Home for girls in Los Angeles. Source: Los Angeles Times, 1909 Early African American Women Educators Mary Jane Patterson (1840–1894) held the distinction of being the 0rst black female to earn a B.A. degree (1862) in the United States. The Pattersons were among the many dozens of free black families who had relocated to Oberlin, Ohio in the 1840s and 1850s so that their children could receive a quality education. Four children from this family graduated from the College. Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives Born a slave, Fanny Jackson (Coppin) (1837–1913), with important 0nancial assistance from the A.M.E. Church and Oberlin College, graduated with a B.A. degree in 1865. She was the second African American woman to do so. Like Mary Jane Patterson, she taught in the Female Department in the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives This photograph is of the black and white Oberlin Rescuers, who on September 13, 1858, rushed to nearby Wellington, Ohio, to free runaway slave John Price. Oberlin’s black rescuers gave witness to Oberlin idealism and their own black consciousness. In the twentieth century Oberlin students frequently called attention to the Rescue in advancing Oberlin’s activist tradition of supporting equal educational opportunity and social integration. Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives The 1858 Wellington Rescue: A De0ning Moment in Oberlin’s Cultural Memory Young female graduates of the class of 1855, with teachers in the front row. Black student Ann Hazle, a Literary Course student, is in the second row, third from the left. Courtesy...

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