1855-1879

Educator's work pays dividends

Land for the Howard School, which was on Gillespie Street, was purchased in 1867.

Robert Harris faced a crisis. His requests for teachers and money to educate black children had gone unanswered.

So in 1867, he asked two of his most promising scholars to help him teach at Fayetteville's Howard School.

Soon, Harris was providing teachers to outlying schools in the county such as Beaver Creek, Lower Rockfish, Black River and Manchester.

Harris' work paid a bigger dividend. In 1877, when the legislature heard proposals to establish the state's first black teachers' college, Fayetteville's offer shined. The Howard School had already been training teachers for 10 years.

That spring, the state authorized spending $2,000 to turn the Howard School into the State Colored Normal School, now Fayetteville State University.

Education of blacks in Cumberland County predates the Civil War, with references to schooling as early as 1822. According to the 1860 census, 11 percent of the county's black people could read or write.

Missionary efforts

In 1865, the American Missionary Association of New York City and the federal Freedmen's Bureau combined to start a school for blacks. The Rev. David Dickson, who was white, was its first principal.

In 1868, John S. Leary, who represented Cumberland County in the legislature, lobbied to hire black teachers. Leary was black.

Harris and his brother Cicero were hired, even though their only teaching experience was educating slaves before the war.

The Howard School also got a permanent home when a two-story building was finished on Gillespie Street a few blocks from the Market House. Seven black people, including Leary's father, had paid $136 for two lots in 1867.

The school's curriculum stressed the basics. Arithmetic lessons included "problem-solving skills useful in negotiating one's labor." Students had to have good moral character to be admitted.

In 1872, Charles Chesnutt, a student, was hired as a teacher. He served as the principal of the normal school from 1880 to 1883 before embarking on his literary career.

Dr. Ezekiel E. Smith succeeded Chesnutt and led the university for most of the next 50 years.