Where is Wright? Situating Elizabeth Evelyn Wright and Voorhees Industrial School in the History of Black Community Colleges

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this project was to examine scholarship on Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, a Black woman, who in 1897 founded what became Voorhees College, a school for Black students. We aimed to assess if and where she and her vital contributions to Black education figure into the foundations of community college literature, specifically, the historically Black community college. We reviewed extant literature and used Black feminist thought as a lens to examine the thin historiography on Wright, ultimately demonstrating that community college scholarship has overlooked her and Voorhees.