Early Black Educators

In the first half of the 20th century, Charles Montgomery Eppes was one of Eastern North Carolina's most extraordinary friends in the cause of education. He served as supervising principal of Greenville's African American schools from 1903 to 1942 and, as a follower of Booker T. Washington's accommodationist approach to pedagogy and race relations, advocated hard work, racial self help, and public harmony with the white leaders of the day. Eppes helped coordinate major improvements in African American education in Greenville and much of the state. By the time of his death in 1942, he had outlived and out-served, as a teacher-administrator, all his peers, black and white, establishing a state record, still unbroken, of 65 years of active service as a public school educator. The broader history of Black education in Pitt County also included Professor George Roscoe Whitfield, known as G.R. Whitfield, founder of the county's first high school, and H.B. Sugg, who led his community in many biracial efforts.

Greenville, North Carolina · United States