Multicultural Education at Hampton Institute--The Shawnees: A Case Study, 1900-1923

Abstract

A decade after Hampton Normal and Agriculture Institute opened its doors to newly freed blacks, American Indians joined the student body. From 1878 until 1923 Hampton Institute sought to uplift the two races through academics, industrial trades, and manual training, along with Christian education. Race and color were factors in the kind of education Hampton offered its students. The Institute's success in multicultural education may be measured by studying the Shawnees-several black students designated as American Indians. An agreement between Samuel C. Armstrong, the school's founder, and Richard H. Pratt, the United States Army captain responsible for 75 Indian prisoners at St. Augustine, Florida, resulted in their enrollment. While incarcerated because of participation in the Plains Wars, the Indians learned the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic.' Indian education took on greater importance in 1870 when Congress allocated $140,000 with increases totaling nearly $2 million by 1900. As early as 1872, Armstrong toyed with the possibility of educating Indians at Hampton Institute. In a letter to his wife, Emma, he wrote, I am on the track of some more money-it will be necessary to prove that the darkey is an Indian in order to get