The New York African Free School, 1827-1836: Conflict over Community Control of Black Education

Abstract

rHE NEW YORK AFRICAN FREE SCHOOL was founded in 1789 to serve city's growing free black population. Established by New York Manumission Society to divert black children from the slippery paths of vice, it was among first nondenominational charity schools in American cities. Throughout its history, school's trustees were dedicated to teaching free blacks industry and sobriety, virtues calculated to make them more orderly and tractable as they emerged from slavery.' But African Free School did more than teach black children their place in society. Unlike white charity schools, which were reserved for poor exclusively, African Free School became a focal point of black community aspirations for a better future. And as New York's black population grew more politically astute and better organized, schooling became a matter of controversy. In late 1820s, New York's black community leaders demanded a say in determination of educational policies at African Free Schools. The conflict that resulted may have been nation's first struggle for community control of urban public schools. Like countless others that followed, this effort by blacks to win a voice in black children's future met with only limited success. But it presaged conflicts which would mark progress of black Americans in education for decades to come.