The Problem of Agricultural and Industrial Education for African Americans: A Historical Inquiry

Abstract

The model of agricultural and industrial education for African Americans in the United States was created by Samuel Chapman Armstrong, founder of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Armstrong developed a paternal approach to educating African Americans and developed the Hampton Institute curriculum with moral education as its base. Booker T. Washington, a protégé of Armstrong, carried the Hampton Model to Tuskegee, Alabama, and made it the basis for the curriculum at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. The Hampton Model applied the concepts of moral education and a "learning by doing" approach to instruction. Both Armstrong and Washington were successful in garnering public support and private financial assistance for their respective institutes. The Hampton Model was utilized by a number of schools that sprang up in years after the American Civil War. Hampton and Tuskegee often helped to raise the standard of living for African Americans in the years following the American Civil War, but these advances could not be sustained under the tremendous social pressures associated with race and ethnicity of the 20th century.