Heads versus Hands

A national controversy over the education of African American students played out at Storer College, where persistent difficulty attracting funding was shaped by white benefactors who largely favored trade school training. To secure better financial backing, the college opened an industrial arts building in 1905. In 1906, speaking on the Storer College campus, W.E.B. Du Bois opposed educating black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings or for the use of other people, insisting that they had a right to know, to think, and to aspire. Despite the controversy, students continued to earn liberal arts degrees there until the school closed in 1955, while industrial arts training included carpentry, upholstering, and caning and liberal arts courses such as chemistry struggled for funding.

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia · United States