THE
UNITED
rican
A MAGAZINE OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP
Devoted to the Cause of
Americanization, Assimilation and Group Elimination; Pointing the way to a Constitutional
Americanism, to Equality in Citizenship, and a better understanding
between Native born and Foreign bom.
Vol. 3 Ä”'“ 21
July, 1925
Number 10
ADULT EDUCATION IN ALABAMA
SOUTHERN STATES IN WARFARE AGAINST ILLITERACY
By CLUTIE BLOODWORTH, Director Exceptional Education, State of Alabama
(Special for The United American)
shows vividly the spirit and ability of the thousands of
A LABAMA’S SCHOOL census report of 1914 placed
a highway marker on the State’s road to literacy.
The state superintendent of education, M. F. Feagin,
made a departure from the customary school census re
cords by classifying all persons from seven years of age
to twenty-one as literate or illiterate. He states that:
The execution of the plans was entered upon with a remark
able degree of enthusiasm in the hope that accurate findings
and a detailed study of the same might make it possible to
devise ways and means for erasing the dark stain of gross
ignorance which beclouds many regions and enshrouds many
individuals in Alabama.
This hope was realized. When Alabama was
shown that if the State continued to travel by the
round-about way it was pursuing that it would take
sixty-five years to reach school opportunities equalized
for all, the State led by the teachers began the cam
paign for better ways of educational progress.
The executive committee of the Alabama Education
Association, at its annual meeting in November, 1914,
adopted as a campaign slogan for the year “Illiteracy
in Alabama—Let’s Remove It” and set apart Friday
night, April 2nd, during the 1915 meeting of the Associ
ation to be observed as Illiteracy Night. On February
9, 1915, prior to the above named date, a bill author
izing the creation of a commission for the removal of
adult illiteracy, having been passed by both houses of
the Legislature, was signed by Governor Henderson.
On March 25, 1915, the governor appointed a Com
mission of four members, of which a former governor,
Mr. Wm. D. Jelks, became chairman, and the state
superintendent, ex-officio member, secretary-treasurer.
The Alabama Education Association made Illiteracy
Night a feature of its annual meeting April 7, 1916.
On this occasion Mr. G. W. Johnson, a man 57 years
old, made a remarkable speech. Perhaps no man has
ever stated more clearly the reasons for native white
illiteracy. His response to educational opportunities
native white illiterates of the State. He said:
I am slow to think and very awkward spoken; am an
uneducated man raised up in the woods right after the Civil
war. Three families lived in five miles of us and I was raised
up almost wild, growed up and married quite young; raised
eleven children but had ambition enough to give them an
education; and the way I managed to give them an education,
if there wasn’t public schools I hustled around and gave part
of my earnings to a teacher to teach them!
The speech of Mr. Johnson was taken verbatim by
a stenographer. He told how the county superintendent
of education and his wife persuaded him to go to
school and in the following words he related his own
realizations of his condition and to an extent became the
spokesman for a large percentage of our citizens:
I started out and as I started out I thought this: Well
all this fifty-seven years is past and I have raised eleven
children .and the baby boy now in the fifth grade, and here I am,
can’t write my name, and I went on to the school house.
This was as dark to me as midnight and no moon and me blind.
The illiteracy commission served four years and
waged a vigorous and successful campaign. It was
to some extent due to the work of this commission
that the Legislature passed an act in February, 1919,
providing funds for an educational survey of the State.
This survey was made under the direction of Dr. P. P.
Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education.
A new school code became the aim of the educational
forces, and the emphasis given to education by the war
and by the findings of the Education Commission made
its enactment possible. The Department of Education
was re-organized and the work classified into ten divi
sions with a head for each division. The division of
exceptional education with a director was provided
for with a definite appropriation of $12,500.00 for
the work. By the new code the powers and duties of the
State Board as to illiteracy are defined as follows:
The State Board of Education shall be charged with the
responsibility for the removal of illiteracy in Alabama. It
shall have the power to make research and to collect data,