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 Elizabeth Evelyn Wright.
Elizabeth Evelyn Wright was born in Talbotton, Georgia on April 3, 1872. Her father was African-American and her mother was a full-blooded Cherokee indigenous woman. Her education came at an all-grade school in a church basement where she learned to read and write. As a teenager, she came across a flyer, promoting the famed Tuskegee University, and after saving money to travel, Wright went to Tuskegee University to enroll.
She was a night student who worked during the day to help pay her way through school. After two years at the university, she moved to a town in South Carolina to support a trustee of Tuskegee who established the school in that town. Sadly, the white people of the town burnt the school down. Wright then left to return to Tuskegee to graduate.
After graduation, she returned to South Carolina and created a school model after Tuskegee University. She was inspired by the mission and work of Dr. Booker T. Washington. She understood that there was a need for higher education opportunities for Black people in the Lowcountry. With spirit in mind, Wright began teaching while raising funds to create the school she founded; the Denmark Industrial School, named after the town where it was located in Denmark, South Carolina.
Wright received $5,000 from Ralph Voorhees of New Jersey to purchase 280 acres of land for the school. She renamed the building and school Voorhees Industrial School. The school was open to children of all ages from elementary to secondary. Vocational training was the focus and Wright was a champion of the work. Not only did the children learn, reading and writing and arithmetic, but they also learned sewing, cleaning, farming, and cooking.
Staying true to her Tuskegee roots, Wright married a Tuskegee graduate, Martin Menifee. However, within a few weeks of her marriage, she became terminally ill. She traveled to Battle Creek Michigan to receive surgery to make her feel better however she died there. However, the work of right did not die in vain. The school would become a junior college and later affiliated with the Protestant Episcopal Church as an accredited four-year private college.
The work of right in establishing an institution of higher education for African-Americans in South Carolina was a critical work that stressed the importance of higher education, but also of black uplift. Although hers was a life cut short, it was not a life wasted. Wright used all the time she had to help the African-American community. It’s a lesson that we can learn from today.
Elizabeth Evelyn Wright; a member of the Black Educator Hall of Fame.
For more information on Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, visit the following site.
