Alabama's Black Belt: Legacy of slavery, sharecropping and
segregation
By Consuela Lee
Snow Hill, Ala.
"We are expecting the lowest scores (Stanford Achievement
Test) to come from predominantly Black schools in the Black
Belt."
--Ed Richardson, Alabama State Superintendent of
Education (2000)
I was 12 years old when I silently vowed to return home to
Snow Hill, Ala., in Wilcox County, after I finished college to
help educate children. As a young person I was concerned that I
was miles ahead of my schoolmates in basic academic skills and
general knowledge. Most of my classmates were children of
sharecroppers and were needed by their parents to help sow and
gather crops. Consequently the school year was well underway
when these students reported to class.
I returned home in 1980 to revitalize my alma mater, Snow
Hill Institute, founded and built by my grandfather, William J.
Edwards. The school was started in 1893; it had been closed in
1973 because of a desegregation edict.
Edwards, born on the R.O. Simpson Plantation in 1868,
survived a childhood of abject poverty and illness. He attended
Tuskegee Institute where, during his senior year, he registered
for a class taught by Booker T. Washington. Dr. Washington
exhorted his students, upon graduation, to go back home and
help elevate the social status of Black people through
education and vocational training.
Edwards did just that--and with the help of Tuskegee
Institute and Dr. Washington bought close to 2,000 acres of
land, rich in timber, for an excellent boarding school for
Black youth, grades 1-12.
The school began to decline after Edwards' principalship
ended in 1925. By 1973, it had lost its great purpose and
academic excellence. The state of Alabama had taken charge of
the academic programs in 1927.
During the summer of 1980, 45 children registered for music
classes at Snow Hill Institute for Cultural Arts and Heritage.
My goal was to reopen the school as an arts and educational
facility. At first, I could not understand the dialect the
children were speaking. Educationally, the children could not
answer simple questions nor clearly say their names. There
still exists today serious neglect in the state of Alabama's
obligation to educate and protect our children!
In fact, the state government cares more about the economic
interests of the corporations that are exporting timber out of
Wilcox County and elsewhere at record numbers without paying
restitution to the Black residents who live on the land.
According to a recent series of articles in the Birmingham
News, Wilcox County has one of the highest percentages in the
categories of poverty and infant mortality, poor education, a
high rate of poor, single mothers, and inadequate health care
and unemployment in Alabama. The News series labeled Wilcox
County and other Black Belt counties "Alabama's Third World."
(Download http://www.al.com/specialreport/ birminghamnews
/?blackbelt.html)
Slavery, sharecropping and segregation are the shameful
hallmarks of the history of this area. In his book "Twenty-Five
Years in the Black Belt," Edward cites: "In the 1920s and
1930s, Black children were allotted 35 cents per child for
education while white children received $15 per child."
"Keep 'em ignorant!" is the battle cry of those who control
Black Belt schools. I came to the sad conclusion, long before
the News articles were printed, that there is a carefully
planned death sentence for Black children.
This genocidal policy is sponsored by the state of Alabama,
abetted by school administrators and school boards. This policy
includes poorly trained teachers, unworkable computers,
libraries stocked with books seldom used and months wasted
teaching "how to pass" the SATs. There are very few, if any,
ongoing music or other arts classes.
This death sentence accelerated with the closing of Snow
Hill Institute, a national historic site that had the glorious
history of academic achievement plus the indomitable and
lasting spirit of a Black man who not only built an educational
landmark but brought his people out of the bondage of
sharecropping into the independence of landownership.
The state of Alabama, and the corporate timber interests it
is subservient to, have kept the Black community in
semi-slavery conditions. Reparations must be paid for the
crimes committed against the multi-generations of Black people
in Alabama's Black Belt.
For more information on the restoration struggle of Snow
Hill Institute, write to Consuela Lee, P.O. Box 100, Furman, AL
36741. To read Edwards' "Twenty Five Years in the Black Belt"
online, download http://docsouth.unc.edu/edwards
/edwards.html
Reprinted from the Aug. 22, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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