E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Phillys7thWard.org, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer.
But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month. February is just the Blackest.
Today, our featured Black Educator is Lucy Craft Laney.
I want to wear out, not rust out.
Lucy Craft Laney was born in 1854 in Georgia. The daughter of a Presbyterian minister and domestic worker, Laney learned how to read at the age of four, attended a high school founded by the Freedman’s Bureau, and was part of Atlanta University’s inaugural graduating class in 1873.
Upon graduating, Laney spent the next ten years teaching children in Macon, Milledgeville, and Savannah, before settling in Augusta, where she founded the first boys’ and girls’ school for Black children at the behest of the Presbyterian Church and the Freedman’s Bureau. Enrollment ballooned from six students to over two hundred. With $10,000 secured by way Francine E. Haines of the Presbyterian Church, Laney built a home for the Haines Normal CONTINUE READING: Lucy Craft Laney, Black Educator Hall of Fame Member - Philly's 7th Ward