a biography of the day-lucy craft laney (educator, 1st black nursing school, kindergarten in augusta

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Lucy Craft Laney
Born April 13, 1854
Macon, Georgia, United States
Died October 24, 1933 (aged 79)
Residence 1116 Phillip Street, Augusta, Georgia
Education Atlanta University
University of Chicago
Lincoln University
South Carolina State College
Alma mater Atlanta University
Occupation Principal
Years active 1886-1933
Employer Haines Normal and Industrial School
Known for Principal and Founder of Haines Normal and Industrial School, Augusta, Georgia
Political party Republican
Religion Presbyterian

Lucy Craft Laney (April 13, 1854 – October 24, 1933) was an early African American educator who established a school for African American children in Augusta, Georgia. Jimmy Carter selected her portrait to hang in the Georgia State Capitol.


She was born in Macon, Georgia, on April 13, 1854, to Louisa and David Laney. Her father was a former slave who managed to save enough money to free both himself and his wife. Both of her parents were strong believers in education and were very giving to strangers; an atmosphere, which would heavily influence Laney in her life to come. At the time of her birth it was illegal for blacks to read; however with the assistance of Ms. Campbell, the slave owner’s sister, she was able to start reading as early as the age of four. Her education would continue and in 1869 she entered Atlanta University.[1]
Teaching career

After graduating she spent some time as a teacher in Macon, Milledgeville, Georgia and Savannah, Georgia before deciding to open a school of her own.[2] The school she opened would be the first in Augusta, Georgia for black children. With an original class size of only six, Laney managed to stimulate interest within the community enough that by the end of the second year the schools roster had jumped to 234 students. With the increase in students came a need for more funding. Looking to help expand her school she turned to the Presbyterian Church Convention and pleaded her case there in front of her peers. Her request was initially denied and she was sent on her way; however upon returning home one of the attendee’s, a Mrs. Francine E.H. Haines, declared an interest in her school and donated $10,000. With this money Laney was able to fund a proper school and decided to change the name of her school to The Haines Normal and Industrial Institute.
The school eventually grew to encompass an entire city block of buildings. By 1928, the school's enrollment was over 800 students.[2]

Besides her school for black children, Lucy Craft Laney also opened the first black kindergarten and the first black nursing school in Augusta, Georgia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Craft_Laney

http://www.lucycraftlaneymuseum.com/




Lucy Craft Laney (1854-1933)

The founder and principal of the Haines Institute in Augusta for fifty years (1883-1933), Lucy Craft Laney is Georgia's most famous female African American educator.
She was born on April 13, 1854, one of ten children, to Louisa and David Laney during slavery. Her parents, however, were not slaves. David Laney purchased his freedom about twenty years before Laney's birth; he purchased his wife's freedom sometime after their marriage. Laney learned to read and write by the age of four and could translate difficult passages in Latin by the age of twelve, including Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War. She attended Lewis (later Ballard) High School in Macon, which was sponsored by the American Missionary Association. In 1869 Laney joined the first class at Atlanta University (later Clark Atlanta University), graduating from the Normal Department (teacher's training) in 1873. Women were not allowed to take the classics course at Atlanta University at that time, a reality to which Laney reacted with blistering indignation.

After teaching in Macon, Savannah, Milledgeville, and Augusta for ten years, "Miss Lucy," as she was generally known, began her own school in 1883 in the basement of Christ Presbyterian Church in Augusta.
Haines Normal and Industrial Institute
The school was chartered by the state three years later and named the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute. Originally Laney intended to admit only girls, but several boys appeared and she could not turn them away. Laney began her lifelong appeal for funding for her school by traveling to a meeting of the General Assembly of the Northern Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis in 1886. She addressed the assembly but received only her fare home. She did, however, obtain the confidence of a lifetime benefactor, Mrs. Francine E. H. Haines, for whom her school was named. By 1912 the Haines Institute employed thirty-four teachers, enrolled nine hundred students, and offered a fifth year of college preparatory high school in which Laney herself taught Latin. Haines graduates matriculated at Howard, Fisk, Yale, and other prestigious colleges, where they reflected the confidence and pride that Laney and her staff had instilled in their students.

Haines not only offered its students a holistic approach to education but also served as a cultural center for the African American community. The school hosted orchestra concerts, lectures by nationally famous guests, and various social events. Laney also inaugurated the first kindergarten and created the first nursing training programs for African American women in Augusta.

In Augusta Laney helped to found the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in 1918, and she was active in the Interracial Commission, the National Association of Colored Women, and the Niagara Movement. She also helped to integrate the community work of the YMCA and YWCA. Her friends and students included Mary McLeod Bethune, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Nannie Helen Burroughs, W. E. B. Du Bois, Joseph Simeon Flipper, John Hope, Langston Hughes, Mary Jackson McCrorey (the associate principal at Haines from 1896 to 1916), William Scarborough, Martha Schofield, Madame C. J. Walker, Richard R. Wright Sr., and Frank Yerby. Laney died in 1933.
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http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-820

http://www.georgiawomen.org/2010/10/laney-lucy-craft/