page_title: Calhoun Colored School
section_title: Academic department heads
hierarchical_section_title: Calhoun Colored School / School history / Academic department heads
caption_attribution_description: Staff at Calhoun Colored School
context_page_description: The Calhoun Colored School was a private boarding and day school in Calhoun, Lowndes County, Alabama, about 28 miles southwest of the capital of Montgomery. It was founded in 1892 by Charlotte Thorn and Mabel Dillingham, from New England, in partnership with Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee Institute, to provide education to rural black students. African Americans comprised the majority in this area, and the state had segregated facilities. Calhoun Colored School was first designed to educate rural black students according to the industrial school model common at the time.
  In addition, the school sponsored a land bank that helped 85 families buy land. It created a joint venture with the county to improve a local road so farmers could get their products to market. As the school developed, it raised its standards, created a large library, and offered more of an academic curriculum.
context_section_description: From 1892–1945 there were six different Academic Department heads. Each brought improvements to the curriculum of the school.  The first was Susan Showers (1896), who initiated literacy societies for students, home visits by teachers, single grade assignments for teachers, community socials, holiday celebrations, and evening religious services. (Partnering with the community was not part of the Hampton-Tuskegee model).
  Clara Hart (1898) succeeded Susan Showers.  She began the first free kindergarten at CCS, put reading instruction in every grade level, ensured the use of good literature for all the children, and furthered composition work.
  Mabel Edna Brown (1907) was the first African American to work as Academic Department head. Her focus was to offer a more classical education, which was a major departure from the Hampton-Tuskegee model. She declared, "In all grades we are trying to raise the standards of thinking, accuracy, quickness, articulation, and correct expression." She doubled the time devoted to literacy instruction in the primary grades through the sixth grade, to comprise one-half of the school day.  By 1909, the kindergarten was using games to teach reading, writing and math.  The school also began to solicit donations of books written by African Americans for the school library.
  Jessie Guernsey, who earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree from New York City's Columbia Teachers College, came to Calhoun in 1912 to begin her tenure as Academic Department head.  Under her leadership, high-interest grade-level books were used to teach reading.  She also increased weekly recitations, and reinstated using creative writing to teach spelling and grammar.  She continued literary societies, debates, musical training and social gatherings. The elementary grades began using state-adopted textbooks, while the secondary grades used more literature, newspapers and magazines.  The school added another year of study, to include grade ten.  The growth in curriculum and community outreach strained financial resources. At the same time the county-run elementary schools for African American children were becoming more and more popular.  Many of the CCS graduates had become teachers in the county school system.
  In the mid-1920s Edward Allen became the first man to be Academic Department head at CCS.  He shifted the curriculum focus from teaching the basics of reading to teaching higher-order thinking skills. This was a major departure from the Hampton-Tuskegee model. During Allen's tenure, he greatly expanded the library, both in number and types of books.
  In the late 1920s R. Luella Jones came to CCS. She emphasized making the curriculum more rigorous, both to earn accreditation and to ensure placement of graduates in institutions of higher learning. She added college preparatory classes such as Latin, additional science and math classes, and made industrial arts an elective option.  She also added grades eleven and twelve so that students could graduate from CCS.  The library's collection expanded to over 6,000 volumes.
caption: The staff of the Calhoun Colored School, c. 1900
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