EDUCATION

Education EMANCIPATION OF THE BODY AND MIND – TRAINING “THE HEAD, THE HAND AND THE HEART”

Although it was against Virginia law to teach reading and writing skills to blacks prior to the Civil War, opportunities existed in Hampton for many to learn. Before the war, Mary Peake, a free-born black woman and prominent educator, taught enslaved individuals in her home. By 1861, Mrs. Peake was teaching some 50 pupils, both children and adults. Mary Peake’s classes initially took place beneath the limbs of the Emancipation Oak. Today the tree is recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

As the number of enslaved people seeking asylum grew at Fort Monroe, General Butler made efforts to feed, clothe, and employ them. Schools were started at Fort Monroe, Camp Hamilton, Chesapeake Female College and in the home of former President Tyler on East Queen Street. The largest of the schools, Courtyard School, was built amid the ruins of Hampton’s Courthouse, burned in August 1861 along with almost all of the town’s buildings. By September 1861, authorities contacted Lewis Tappan of the American Missionary Association (AMA) in the North. The AMA sent Rev. Lewis Lockwood to Hampton to help the formerly enslaved, many of whom were women, children, and the elderly. Additional schools were established and hospitals were organized.

By January 1863, the month President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was delivered, six black schools had been constructed in Hampton. Among them was the Butler School, built by and named after General Benjamin Butler, located on County Street outside the perimeter of Camp Hamilton’s former site.

There were many one-room schoolhouses including The Little Red School, whose structure can be seen today adjacent to Emancipation Oak on the Hampton University campus. The building, while original, was moved from another location on campus.

ROSENWALD SCHOOLS IN HAMPTON

The Rosenwald Foundation was set up by Julius Rosenwald, the son of an immigrant clothier, who became president of Sears Roebuck and a passionate believer in helping educate Southern black children. At the urging of Booker T. Washington, he provided funds for a pilot program involving six rural Alabama schools. When they proved to be successful, he set up the fund that eventually built thousands of schools throughout the South. Local school boards were required to raise matching funds and often did so by donating land and labor to build the schools.

BUCKROE SCHOOL

In 1896 the Elizabeth City County Chesapeake District School Board purchased a 1.05-acre lot at the intersection of Buckroe Avenue and Old Buckroe Road. Nearby were Antioch Baptist Church and a community that lived along present-day Franktown Road. The school for first through seventh grades opened the following year. In 1920, the school board applied for funds from the Rosenwald Foundation to build a replacement school. In 1938, upgrades were initiated, including a new roof, new paint and two wash basins. In 1945, Buckroe School closed and children were bussed past their old school to the George P. Phenix School on the campus of Hampton Institute.

There were many one-room schoolhouses including The Little Red School, whose structure can be seen adjacent to Emancipation Oak on the Hampton University campus. The building, while original, was moved from another location on campus.

Emancipation Oak

A living symbol of freedom for African Americans and a National Historic Landmark, the expansive Emancipa tion Oak grows at the entrance to Hampton University. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclama tion issued on January 1, 1863 formalized the abolishment of slavery in the states that had seceded from the Union. It was beneath its embracing branches that residents gathered to hear for the first time a reading of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The announce ment was interpreted as a promise that freedom would come. Mary Peake taught school, against Virginia law, to free and enslaved blacks in the tree’s shade prior to the Civil War. Today, Emancipation Oak is a popular site for visitors, special Hampton University services, social gatherings and picnics. At 98 feet in diameter and designated as one of the “Ten Great Trees of the World” by the National Geographic Society, it continues to be a source of inspiration for all Hamptonians . (Located within view of the parking lot on Emancipation Drive. It is near the intersection with Tyler Road adjacent to the entrance to the university campus.)

UNION STREET SCHOOL

The Union Street School, which opened in 1898, had many lives. First, it served elementary students who attended classes in a wooden, unlit schoolhouse heated by wood stoves. With five teachers, it was the largest of seven Elizabeth City County schools for African American children. When Y. T. Thomas became principal in 1917, Union Street began a gradual transformation to a high school, with upper grade classes added year by year while grammar school classes continued. With the aid of Rosenwald Funds, the transformation to a high school was completed by 1929. Just two years later another change was made as high school students began attending the George P. Phenix School on the grounds of Hampton Institute. By 1932, Union Street was again an elementary school and the first class graduated from Phenix High School. A free night school to help combat illiteracy was begun that year with the help of Rosenwald funds. By then, the school consisted of one brick and two wooden buildings, with about 800 students. A federal grant from the Public Works Administration in 1934 enabled further expansion.The school, named for the street that honored the Union, was finally closed in 1966, nearly seven decades after it opened.

GREENBRIAR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

The first one-room Greenbriar School was built in 1910. On Nov. 21, 1930, Greenbriar Elementary School, a sixroom building, was dedicated as the 5000 th school structure constructed with the help of the Julius Rosenwald Fund. As enrollment grew, eventually reaching 494 students, four additions were made. In 1970, the original Greenbriar Elementary School was demolished, but the additions survived and have been used by the Boys and Girls Clubs.

THE VIRGINIA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, BLIND AND MULTI-DISABLED

To educate African-American children with disabilities, William and Mary Alice Ritter founded this school in 1906. It was the first state-supported institution of its kind. The 80-acre campus was located on Shell Road. In 2008, after 99 years of educational programs dedicated to children with special needs, the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled in Hampton closed its doors.

The school originally operated with one building, 24 pupils and three teachers. When it opened, a school that had been established in 1838 for deaf and blind children already existed in Staunton, Virginia. William and Mary Alice Ritter graduated from the Staunton school in the 1890s. The couple moved to Hampton with the intention of establishing a second Virginia school for the deaf and blind.

Mr. Ritter was deaf and worked as a printer for the large Hampton newspaper, the Hampton Monitor. At the time, a gentleman named Harry R. Houston was managing editor and proprietor of the paper. Houston was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1905 and, in 1906, Houston successfully introduced a bill to the General Assembly that established the Virginia School for Deaf and Blind Children in Hampton.

The school was to serve the special needs of African American children. Years later, the school was opened to all deaf and blind children, regardless of race. Elementary education and trade skills were taught. Students tended to crops and livestock and helped with building construction on campus. By 1913, over 100 students attended the school. While similar to the public school curriculum, the school specialized in auditory training, speech, speech reading for the deaf, Braille and mobility training for the blind. The school also added a deaf-blind division, the only one in the state. In 2007, the General Assembly and the State Board of Education consolidated the Hampton school with the still-operating Staunton school. The two Virginia schools merged and the Hampton school was shuttered. Forty students were enrolled in the Hampton school at the time, most of whom were graduating, and the remaining fourteen were transferred to the other facility.

Site of Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled at Hampton, 700 Shell Road, Hampton, VA 23661.

(Take I-664 to exit 3, follow Aberdeen Road, turn left onto Pembroke Avenue, turn left onto Shell Road. School site is located on the corner.)

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HAMPTON UNIVERSITY

Situated on 204 acres on the shore of the scenic Hampton River, Hampton University opened in 1868 as the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Its mission was the education of thousands of newly freed people. Under the leadership of Brigadier General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, former superintendent of the Hampton area Freedman’s Bureau, the school trained and provided African Americans with manual and academic skills. Using $19,000 acquired from the American Missionary Association, the school opened with two teachers and 15 pupils with Armstrong as principal.

Armstrong’s philosophy emphasized the training of the head, the hands, and the heart. Upon graduation, many students shared their knowledge, teaching in communities throughout the South. For example, Booker T. Washington graduated from Hampton Normal & Agricultural Institute in 1875. He later applied the institute’s philosophies as founder of the Tuskegee Institute.

The students contributed to the construction of several campus buildings and many Hampton homes. Students made bricks and provided labor. The Hampton Singers, students of the university, performed throughout the MidAtlantic raising funds for campus construction.

Hampton University

By 1878, in an agreement with the federal government, the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute extended its innovative education program to include Native Americans. Seventeen young captives of the 1873 Indian Wars arrived from Kiowa and Cheyenne reservations. The university program, supported by the federal government, served as an effort to assimilate the students into mainstream society. The program drew an additional 1,300 members of more than 65 tribes to Hampton over the years, until it ended in 1923.

The school’s name was changed to Hampton Institute in 1930 and Hampton University in 1984.

Today, Hampton University is one of the nation’s topranked private universities and enrolls approximately 6,000 students from 50 countries. The waterfront campus contains 110 buildings, which include the following National Historic Landmarks: Academy Building (1881), Virginia-Cleveland Hall (1874), Memorial Chapel (1886), Mansion House (1828) and Wigwam Building (1878). The sixth National Historic Landmark on campus is Emancipation Oak, whose age is unknown.

(From Interstate 64, take exit 267 to Hampton University. Enter campus by turning left from William R. Harvey Way onto Norma B. Harvey Road. A security officer will provide a campus pass and directions. Suggested driving tour time for campus sites: 30 minutes. Allow additional time for stops at Emancipation Oak, Memorial Chapel, Legacy Park, Booker T. Washington Memorial Garden & Statue and Hampton University Museum.)

DRIVING TOUR, WALKING SITE, MOTORCOACH ACCESSIBLE

Reserve driving tour through Hampton University Museum at 757/727-5308. 10

SITE OF DIXIE HOSPITAL

A training school for Black nurses was established in 1890 at Hampton Normal and Agriculture Institute when one of its teachers, Alice Mabel Bacon, saw that African Americans needed formal nursing skills to tend to their families.

The 10-bed, two-ward hospital was affectionately named “Dixie,” after the horse Alice rode to visit the sick. In 1892, the Virginia General Assembly granted the school the formal title of Hampton Training School for Nurses. It was one of the earliest training schools for black nurses in the country. Dixie Hospital’s last class of nurses graduated in 1956. The location of the hospital changed several times throughout its history and the building was recently demolished. The hospital was moved to Victoria Boulevard in 1959 and became known as Hampton General Hospital in 1973. It was the precursor of Sentara Hampton, located on Coliseum Drive.

The Hampton University School of Nursing presently offers degree programs in nursing on the undergraduate, graduate and PhD levels. Hampton University has continually provided professional nursing education at the Bachelor of Science degree level since 1943. The nursing doctoral program at Hampton is the first to be fully implemented by a historically black college or university. (From William R. Harvey Way on the Hampton University campus, turn right on Queen Street.)

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