An Architecture of Education

This book by Angel David Nieves examines the lives and works of two late nineteenth-century women educators—Elizabeth Evelyn Wright (1872–1906) and Jane (Jennie) Dean (1848–1913), who established the Voorhees Normal and Industrial School (now Voorhees College) in 1897, in Denmark, South Carolina, and Manassas Industrial School in 1892, in Manassas, Virginia, respectively. Nieves reveals that during the period in which Wright and Dean lived—the post-Civil War years—African American leaders and educators were involved in building institutions and communities, such as schools and neighbourhoods, among others, ‘as a primary vehicle for race-based advancement’ (p. 1). For African American women educators such as Wright and Dean, education was historically viewed as a major tool for liberation from white racial tyranny, economic exploitation and political disenfranchisement. Hence, they believed that their schools would contribute to the racial uplift and empowerment of Black civil society. But they also believed that aspects of the ‘built environment’ (p. 1), such as land and home-ownership, were key to African Americans’ economic stability

Archaeology · Architecture · Architecture, Design, and Social History · History