Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools

Though generally unknown and unheralded today outside her native Kentucky, Cora Wilson Stewart (1875–1958), more than any other person of her generation, awakened Americans to the tragedy of adult illiteracy. Her so-called moonlight schools began in the mountains of eastern Kentucky and inspired a nationwide grass-roots movement that, within twenty years, bestowed a rudimentary education on an estimated 700,000 men and women. An eloquent, talented advocate of lifelong learning, Stewart battled penurious lawmakers, entrenched male politicians, and unsupportive professional educators in championing the crusade for the elimination of illiteracy in one generation. Little in Cora Wilson's youth hinted that she would one day become an adviser to presidents. One of twelve children born to middle-class parents, she studied in a one-room schoolhouse in Rowan County, Kentucky, that held classes only three months a year. When she was fifteen she began teaching without formal training. Soon she completed work at a pair of normal schools in Ohio and Kentucky. At age twenty-six she became the first woman ever elected school superintendent in Rowan County. She divorced her abusive, hard-drinking husband, A. T. Stewart, but retained her married name

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• Literacy and Illiteracy, History of

  Open Access•István György Tóth•International Encyclopedia of the…•2015

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