By Pauline Masson –
Among milestones in Pacific’s emergence as a progressive city was the city’s role in an early 1900s program to prepare young Colored men and women to teach elementary school to Colored children.
We use the word Colored to represent Blacks in this article because of the vast body of news coverage on the teacher training program that – at that time – was the common description of African American people.
When the Emancipation Proclamation freed more than four million slave families in 1865 the United States board of education ordered the states to create separate (segregated) schoolhouses to educate an estimated two million Colored children.
Primarily white teachers were assigned to teach Colored children. But from the outset, Colored families and Colored leaders believed that Colored youngsters would respond better to learning if their teachers were Colored, and began to lobby government to train Colored teachers.
Between 1865 and 1890 there were only two State Normal Schools (teachers colleges) for Colored teachers in the U.S. – one was in Massachusetts and one was in Missouri.
The Missouri school had its own historic story to tell.
Two regiments of emancipated Colored soldiers, who enlisted in the Union Army in northwest Arkansas, were taught to read and write as part of their training in boot camp. They saw it as life changing for Colored people and said every Colored child should to learn to read and write. They came up with the momentous decision to start a normal school for Colored teachers. The soldiers, whose pay averaged $13 a month, came up with $6,400 to establish an educational institution in Jefferson City, Missouri which they named Lincoln Institute.
King Williams Adams, legendary Pacific Colored leader and constant teacher, who enlisted in the Union Army in Arkansas, was, in all likelihood, a member of this group
In January 1870 the Colored People’s Educational Convention for Missouri was held in Jefferson City. George W. Gaines of Washington represented Franklin County.
Following the convention a small number of Colored teachers formed the Missouri Colored Teachers Institute (CTI) to promote and campaign for training Colored teachers.
It would take time – 27 years to be exact.
In 1897 the national board of education ordered all states to begin preparing young Colored men and women as teachers.
In 1899 the State of Missouri adopted the measure and turned to the CTI to organize the state’s teacher training program.
The Missouri board of education located the state program in Franklin County and the County board of education selected the City of Pacific as the headquarters for Colored teacher training.
Pacific educators accepted the responsibility and approved the Colored school to host the program. Initially named Lincoln School to honor President Abraham Lincoln who had freed the slaves, the name was later changed to honor a famous Colored Missouri educator, Benjamin Franklin “B. F.” Allen.
On May 26, 1899 state, county and Pacific boards of education and CTI leaders met in the office of C.C. Close, clerk of the board of education to organize the school. It was immediately obvious that the three-room frame schoolhouse at the corner of West Union and Third streets was not large enough for the vast CTI curriculum. Following the precedent set by the national board of education, Pacific leaders asked the local colored Baptist church (Historic First Baptist) to house the overflow training sessions.
The word went out. Hopeful teachers were asked to submit essays describing their education level, why they wanted to be teachers and which grade they wanted to teach. Cost for the classes was three dollars the first year but was reduced to one dollar for the following years.
Local educators put together the curriculum needed for a normal school for Colored teachers in one year.
In August 1900, young Colored men and women from across Missouri arrived in Pacific for the first two-week (ten-day) training, testing and certification program to prepare then to teach elementary school classes. Aspiring teachers would return each summer for the next five years.
With limited hotel rooms, some local families welcomed the students into their homes. Young men, eager to mingle with the visitors, put together outdoor dances, bon fires and hay rides to entertain the visitors in the evening hours.
Charles Calkins, the local newspaper publisher who had been reporting on CTI meetings and activities for at least five years was enthralled at the scope of classes. Year after year, he dutifully published the full curriculum, names of the teachers (famous and unknown), names of state and county officials who came to help, and the names of the students who earned certificates.
“Thanks to the state board of education for placing the institute in Pacific,” he said in his introduction of the first year classes. “And thanks to the Pacific board of education for the use of the school, to the Colored Baptist Church for the use of their building, and the people of Pacific for their hospitality, especially the young men for their evening events.”
“And thanks to C. A. Cole and A. H. Steinbeck for their assistance in securing the institute for Pacific.
The Transcript also recognized publisher Calkins for his reporting on the school activities and visiting the institute to give a talk on history.
One name among the instructors that caught the eye of this reporter was Jesse Adams.
Jesse, 28 years old at the time, was the third son of King William Adams, a recognized supporter of the Colored community. Something of a neighborhood gadabout, Jesse could never keep still. As he approached adulthood he was the self-appointed mediator in the relations between Whites and Colored. If a Colored acquaintance found himself or herself in a dispute with a White neighbor, Jesse intervened with determination to set everything right. He was always certain he could settle the matter amicably by talking it through, his daughter Ella Adams Villery Miller told me in 1997 – when she was ninety-seven and a resident of Pacific Care Center.
“My Daddy was the smartest man anywhere,” she said “Everybody knew it. They came to hear him when he read the newspaper out loud every week, the whole newspaper.”
In the CTI classes Jesse was assigned to introduce the trainees with the objective of the school and what they could achieve if they applied themselves.
The teacher trainees were instructed in effective way to teach language, math, penmanship, and spelling but also the need to inspire their future students in importance of recitation, how to keep up interest in school work and the value of race pride.
More than sixty attendees received their certificates to teach first through fifth grades in the Pacific classes.
Local Black students continued to attend the B. F. Allen School until 1955 when schools were integrated and the school was closed. In 1991, the building was demolished to make room for Pacific Eye Care, which opened at that location.
By all measures, the Colored teacher training program was a success.
By 1915, when Marie Henson, a well known Colored teacher received a teaching certificate, she was one of 1,200 Colored teachers in Missouri, teaching in 200 Colored Schools. By then, there were six normal schools in the state. Known locally as Mother Jones for her married name, Marie Henson was a singular example of the value of Colored teachers. She would teach at Cedar Grove School in Villa Ridge for 50 years. And was known throughout the community for contributing most of her earnings to help educate Colored students.
The Lincoln Institute was a singular landmark in Black history. Today the legacy of those long-ago soldiers lives on. Lincoln University is now a four-year Missouri university located in 30 buildings on 167 acres, offering associate, graduate and post-graduate degrees in 35 majors to a student population of nearly 1,800. B F. Allen was president of the university 1902 to 1918.
This moment in local history was uncovered during a search for events on the annual Black History holiday Juneteenth. The first CTI school was held here in August, 1900 but the following years classes were held the month of June, thus the teacher training program was discovered and seemed worth sharing. Although there was no mention of Juneteenth (see sidebar) in the search, the Colored educator stories illustrated Pacific’s unique role in Black History.
