Evening star., 1935-11-17
SCHOOL SYSTEM
DUE TO OEX-SLAVES
Bell, Franklin and Liverpool
Responsible for Ad-
vance.
nv Jessie FAINT EVANS.

Columbia three = names 1, de. de-
~ serve to lead all the rest.
Up from slavery themselves. George
Bell. Nicholas Franklin and Moses
Liverpool gave of hard-earned sub
stance in their newly acquired free
dom that the lamp Of learning might
burn for their race.
Where in the annals of any people
will you find more striking instance
of self-sacrifice for an idea? Frank
lin and Liverpool were freed men from
the lower counties of Virginia VINO
were employed as caulkers of vessels
at the navy yard. 1t is the impress
sion of the author that NICHOLAS
Franklin bought his freedom from
Nicholas Franklin of Spottsylvanla
County. Va. The author remembers
an elderly aunt telling the story OF
how lone of grandfather'S smart
Young slaves developed into such
GOOD carpenter that he was allowed
to purchase his freedom, and when he
came to washington worked on the
building of vessels at the navy yard.
George Bells freedom from his owner
Anthony Addison, was bought for S4OO
bv his wife, Sophia Browning. Penny
upon penny and dime upon dime she
accumulated this sum from the sale
of market produce which she had cul-
tivated before Sun-up and after sun
down. In turn when freed, George
Bell released his wife from ponoage
for Five pounds Maryland currency.
Together thev earned the freedom OF
their children.
Bell. with Franklin and Liverpool,
we're not content simply With physlcai
freedom. Since in slave-holdlng COM
munities it was a penal otfense TO
teach a slave to read and write. al
though the ladies of slave householos
often did so by means of Bible lnstruc-
tion. the three of them were unlettereo'
That they might free their own chill
dren and others similarly situated
from the shackles of ignorance. they
huilt a school where colored children
might be taught.
Build Small School.
pooling their meager resources and
their time after their tasks for the
day were done, they erected "a 1alr
little one-story frame structure upon
the present site of the Providence Hos
pital." employing as teacher OF the
three RS white man by the name
of Lowe. The year was 1907. Just TWO
wears after the first school for white
children had been opened IN the DIS
trict of Columbia. Out OF total
population of 1,498 colored persons
there we're 494 who we're in possession
of their freedom papers. The pupils
who f1ocked to this school were the
children of this group. Other individ-
uals speedily followed this breath-tak-
ing innovation. The school OF the
Widow Billings, opened in Georgetown
in 1910, was we'll known. Mrs. Billings
was a white woman who had come
to Georgetown with her husband, a
cabinet maker, from England in 1900.
BY means of the school, which she
conducted in her home and which was
first attended by both white and COL
ored pupils, Mrs. Billings supported
herself and her orphaned family. So
great was the reputation of her school
that colored pupils from as far as
Bladensburg attended her classes.
And her spirit and vision lived or
In her colored pupils. For Henry
Smothers, originally her assistant.
established in a school which he
built. and in which he taught, the
nucleus of one Of the most infuen-
tial colored school communities In
the annals of the races educational
history. A tall Office building on II
street at the corner of Fourteenth
now occupies its former site.
Another School Founded.
There came to Washington from
Mount Vernon shortly after the death
of Martha Washington, Louisa PARK,
whose family had won its freedom
from the family of Mrs. Washington.
For "a years Louisa's husband was
q trusted messenger in the Bank OF
Washington. In 1928. at the age OF
1e. their daughter, Louisa Park Costin.
established a school in the family
home on Capitol Hill. Upon her
sudden death in 1881, sister, Martina
educated at convent in Baltimore,
carried this school on successfully.
The first seminary for colored girls
was established in washington in
1927 by Father Vanloman. Catholic
priest, with Martha Becraft, tai
ented young colored woman, in charge
So successful and popular was she in
this specialized field that she was
transferred to work of similar ma
ture In Baltimore, where she coll
tinued until her death.
John Prout, considered "by far the
ablest educator among his people in
: his time succeeded Henry Smothers
as principal of his school. During his
incumbency the people of his race,
through board of trustees. tempOra-
rily opened the doors of this school
as free one. The fact that this brave
and noble experiment did not long
continue before the school was obliged
to revert to pay basis in no way
detracts from the broad concept of a
schools function which actuated this
early colored school and its coterie
of supporters among the colored peo-
pie. Theirs was the vision which an
ticipated the free public school system
for colored pupils, inaugurated after
the abolition of slavery, nearly so
years later. It was this school, too,
which saw that the torch kindled by
George Bell, Nicholas Franklin and
Moses Liverpool in their first school
for the colored race, was kept burning,
Neither would it seem mere chance
:; that John F. Cook, nephew of George
Bell, up from slavery like his uncle,
years after his freedom had been pur-
I'D AETTNC