Reconstruction & African American Education | BRIdge from the Past: Art Across U.S. History
How did African Americans experience education during Reconstruction? In this episode of BRIdge from the Past, Mary explores the images of Fisk Jubilee Hall and the Fisk Jubilee Singers to understand the lengths formally enslaved individuals went in order to establish educational facilities and the resistance they faced. What do these images reveal about the African American experience during the time period? How can we use these images to understand the importance of education today?
0:04 Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Bridge from the Past art Across US history. I’m your host Mary, and this series is for students like you to get ahead in your history class by using images as a starting point to think about complex topics in American history. Today, we’re looking at something with which we are all familiar.
0:25 School after the Civil War, during Reconstruction. Freedman that is, African American men, women, and children who were formerly enslaved rushed to set up and attend schools. What does this reveal not only about the African American experience in Reconstruction, but the power and importance of education writ large?
0:46 Let’s jump in and see. Here are images for today. So we’re thinking about the African American experience during Reconstruction, and specifically the role of education. So here is Fisk Jubilee Hall over here on the left and the Fisk Jubilee Singers around 1870. So right off the bat, I have some questions.
1:06 So Fisk, I’m assuming, is the name of the school. This looks like some sort of building perhaps associated with the school, but I’m not really sure. And the Jubilee Singers over here, I can see that they’re African American men and women, and they look pose sort of in a photographer studio or something, but I’m not really sure who they are,
1:28 where they are, why are they having this picture taken. So those are some initial questions I have right here. And then what’s the connection between these two photos? So, as always, when looking at an image, I have some initial questions, but it would be helpful to have a little bit more context before I can go any further. Here are some important things we need
1:48 to know before we can go any further with our analysis. So first of all, we’re in the time period Reconstruction. So this is the period directly after the Civil War where the country is basically trying to heal after this terrible fight between the north and the south. So you have some really big questions that the country is grappling with.
2:09 How to deal with or redress the inequality of slavery. So Freedmen, again, men, women, and children who are formerly enslaved are now free, and they need clothing, they need food, they need education, they want to find family members. So there’s so many questions and issues that have to be dealt with there.
2:30 And they’re also trying to bring back the eleven states that succeeded from the Union. So this is the time period of Reconstruction. The Freedman’s Bureau is going to help deal with some of these issues. So it’s established by Congress in 1865, and it’s related to all matters dealing not only with freedmen, so African American men, women, and children who are formerly enslaved, but also refugees from the Civil War.
2:54 So many people lost land, lost property. There’s just basically a big mess. And the first commissioner leader of the Freedmen Bureau is Oliver Otis Howard or O. O. Howard and the Freedman’s Bureau is going to play a big role in setting up schools for African Americans. So like I said in my introduction, one of the very first things that many
3:18 of the formerly enslaved people wanted was to get an education. They’re denied an education in the system of slavery. To read and to write is power and that is kept from them. It’s one of many ways that enslaved people were attempt to dehumanize them. So during this period of setting up schools and providing clothing, providing land, issuing the right to vote
3:42 to African Americans, you’re going to see a big backlash of white resistance. You’re going to see the rise of paramilitary groups, terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the KKK, and the White League that will basically terrorize not only African Americans, but Republicans who are supporting African Americans and helping them rebuild their lives.
4:04 So registering to vote, attempting to vote. They’re going to attack churches and they’re going to attack schools. So all of this is important information to keep in mind if we’re thinking about education in the Reconstruction era. So here are pictures again. Now that we have some context, we’re going to jump back in and we’re
4:26 going to start with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. So the Fisk Jubilee Singers come from Fisk University, which is set up in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee. So it’s right after the Civil War and it’s open to any student irregardless of their color. So again, it’s opening their doors to African Americans.
4:48 So it’s a school set up for African Americans. And several years after their founding, they really need money. They don’t have a lot of money. The school is literally kind of falling apart. Groups such as the KKK, other groups, are attacking the school. The school desperately needs money. So a music professor has this idea to establish an acapella singing group.
5:13 So here is the first Fisk Jubilee Singers around 1870. So their first public performance outside of sort of local groups is in 1871. And they’re trying to raise money for their school. So they started by singing sort of traditional choral pieces. And what they ended up doing and this young lady right here, Ella Shepherd,
5:37 a member of the group, was instrumental in doing this, was arranging slave songs, what we would now call Negro spirituals, for the group. And they would perform these. And these had never been performed before for an audience and for a largely white audience. And when the audience hears these songs, the power and the emotion of them, many of them are moved to tears.
6:00 And the Fisk Jubilee Singers will go on to popularize this music or expose people to this music. And they tore throughout the United States. They tour throughout Europe. They are they meet Queen Victoria in 1873. And this is a studio portrait of the group. So you can see they’re dressed like Victorian men and women.
6:23 They’re sort of dignified just like any sort of choral group that you would see in a concert hall. So this would be a sharp contrast to how many people would have perceived at the time of African Americans. So this sort of stereotype of a minstrel or someone who isn’t very educated or sort
6:45 of like comical and this is a big, really differs from that. So you have the group here and again, Ella Shepard, who I showed you right here, was a big part of arranging all of these songs and the group tours so much and they bring up so much money and they’re very successful. They send all the money back
7:06 to Fisk University and the school is able to continue and to thrive and they’re still around today and the Fisk Jubilee Singers are still around today. They’re still a wonderful group. They’re actually celebrating as of October 2021, their 150th anniversary. So that’s really exciting. But the money that they send back to their school enables the school enables
7:31 Fisk University to build Jubilee Hall, which is a picture. This is what we’re looking at right here. It’s a large building, it’s several stories, it’s made of brick and stone, it’s a Gothic style. And this was purposeful, it was to show off to any group that would have opposed African Americans having an education such as the KKK or
7:52 White Supremacist, that you can’t destroy this building. So in my context, slide, I told you that the schools were often attacked by groups. This is a building you cannot attack, right? It would be very difficult to bring this down. So it represents this triumph, this hope, this encouragement that the Jubilee Singers and this idea
8:14 of education and music and the arts had for the African American community. We started by asking what these images can reveal about African Americans and reconstruction. And I think this is also a larger story of the power of education writ large. So, as always, there’s so much more
8:34 to the story and I’m going to kick it over to you. What do you think? Why is education so important? And how do we ensure we don’t take our education for granted? What do you guys want to know more about? What’s the next question in our discussion? Let us know in the comments below if you liked this video. If you learned something, please be sure to like it and subscribe to our channel to learn about other
8:58 resources, videos and contests that can help you through this school year. And speaking of contests, are we the student scholarship essay is now open so you can go to our website, my and learn all about the prizes and rules and things like that to enter into the contest. I’ll be back soon with another image
9:18 to help us think about something in American history. So until then, keep your eyes open, always look at the pictures and keep asking questions. See you soon.
