Every day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Education Post and Philly’s 7th Ward, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer.
But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month and February is just the Blackest. All year are ongoing opportunities to learn and teach and the colossal impact Black educators have had on society.
Today, our featured Black educator is Cordelia Augusta Jennings Atwell.
Cordelia Augusta Jennings Atwell was born in 1843 in New York City. At age 13 in 1856, Atwell enrolled at the famed Philadelphia Institute for Colored Youth, Cheyney University today. At the institute, she was an exceptional student. She graduated in 1860; one of three graduates from the Institute. Following graduation, she opened her own school at her mother’s home on 10th St. and South Street in the Pine Ward section of Philadelphia.
Exceptional as a teacher and educator, Atwell’s school became popular among many African Americans in the city. Her teacher teachers were skilled and passionate. Her teacher included Caroline LeCount, who also graduated from the Institute of Colored Youth. Because of the school’s population of 56 students, Atwell requested that the Philadelphia School District absorb her school. Her request was granted in the school was incorporated into the city district in 1864 and Atwell was made principal.
Fanny Jackson Coppin is commonly known as the first Black woman principal in Philadelphia. However, Atwell has her beat by about 5 years.
As enrollment grew at her school, Atwell moved her facility to Ohio Street and renamed the school. The Ohio Street School continued to grow in stature and reputation amongst the African-American community in the city. In 1867 Atwell’s life would change. She resigned from the position of principal of the Ohio school, married Joseph S. Atwell, a future Christian minister, and moved to Louisville, KY to become the principal of the Freedman school there—her husband founded the school. Concerning her work with the Freedman schools, Atwell described her educational endeavors as:
“Education is a reality with the Freedman now, a fixed fact. We have no quaint or rapture expressions of Thanksgiving or wonder to narrate, as when schools were first opened, and we introduced books with their mysteries. Schools are a system; we have classes like those and other regulated institutions.”
The next year, they moved to Petersburg, VA and she continued teaching, at another freedman school. She moved again, to Savannah, GA, and later to New York City. But no matter where she moved, she continued to teach and educate Black people. When her husband was appointed Rector to an African American Episcopal church in New York City, Atwell opened a school for African Americans in Harlem.
It is suspected that Atwell continued teaching until her death.
Cordelia Augusta Jennings Atwell; a member of the Black Educator Hall of Fame.
For more information on Cordelia Augusta Jennings Atwell, visit the following site.
