1 00:00:08,245 --> 00:00:14,245 Speaker 1: School of Humans. The nineteen forty eight World Series signaled 2 00:00:14,245 --> 00:00:18,405 Speaker 1: a new era for Major League Baseball. The Boston Braves 3 00:00:18,525 --> 00:00:21,525 Speaker 1: faced off against the Cleveland Indians and the first Championship 4 00:00:21,565 --> 00:00:26,485 Speaker 1: to be nationally televised, and in Game five, Leroy Satchel 5 00:00:26,565 --> 00:00:29,965 Speaker 1: Page took the mound, the first ever player from the 6 00:00:30,005 --> 00:00:33,765 Speaker 1: Negro Leagues to pitch in a World Series. Here's the 7 00:00:33,805 --> 00:00:37,405 Speaker 1: moment he walked onto the field, and here's the announcement 8 00:00:37,405 --> 00:00:48,165 Speaker 1: about the appearance of sache past the Hall of Famer 9 00:00:48,325 --> 00:00:54,285 Speaker 1: remains one of baseball's most celebrated pitchers. Page's pitching remained bold, versatile, 10 00:00:54,645 --> 00:00:57,165 Speaker 1: and unpredictable as he was pitching for the Indians in 11 00:00:57,205 --> 00:01:00,805 Speaker 1: that historic game some seventy four years ago. In the 12 00:01:00,925 --> 00:01:05,205 Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight game, his fast pitching was on full display. 13 00:01:05,525 --> 00:01:11,485 Speaker 1: The pitch swung on and I don't think the fast. 14 00:01:13,245 --> 00:01:15,605 Speaker 1: Each man who went up to bat against him dreaded it. 15 00:01:16,605 --> 00:01:20,365 Speaker 1: And he had stamina. He was eighteen when he began 16 00:01:20,405 --> 00:01:23,725 Speaker 1: playing baseball professionally and didn't hang up his hat until 17 00:01:23,765 --> 00:01:27,565 Speaker 1: he was almost sixty. Page started in the Negro National 18 00:01:27,645 --> 00:01:30,485 Speaker 1: Leagues in the mid nineteen twenties and eventually became the 19 00:01:30,565 --> 00:01:34,005 Speaker 1: first black pitcher to play in the American League. All 20 00:01:34,045 --> 00:01:36,965 Speaker 1: the best players of the time said Paige was the greatest. 21 00:01:37,645 --> 00:01:40,445 Speaker 1: Joe DiMaggio called him the best I've ever faced and 22 00:01:40,605 --> 00:01:44,085 Speaker 1: the fastest. Plus the man had more personality than the 23 00:01:44,085 --> 00:01:47,125 Speaker 1: rest of the league combined. Here he is in nineteen 24 00:01:47,205 --> 00:01:50,445 Speaker 1: fifty eight talking to a reporter in Miami. While he 25 00:01:50,485 --> 00:01:53,165 Speaker 1: was playing. It became a running joke that Sachel would 26 00:01:53,205 --> 00:01:55,405 Speaker 1: never disclose his age. The truth I don't think of 27 00:01:55,485 --> 00:01:57,365 Speaker 1: but a very few people in the United States, nor 28 00:01:57,405 --> 00:01:59,165 Speaker 1: my age, of where I come from me because I've 29 00:01:59,205 --> 00:02:00,845 Speaker 1: been playing him since I was a kid. I never 30 00:02:00,925 --> 00:02:03,525 Speaker 1: had a job. But still this isn't one hundred years 31 00:02:03,605 --> 00:02:06,045 Speaker 1: run everybody on feet. This he did played ball with 32 00:02:06,165 --> 00:02:08,805 Speaker 1: miss albums one hundred, some of them eighty five and ninety. 33 00:02:10,765 --> 00:02:14,685 Speaker 1: Page died in nineteen eighty two. He's buried in Kansas City, Missouri, 34 00:02:15,085 --> 00:02:18,685 Speaker 1: home of his beloved Negro League Monarchs. The Page's roots 35 00:02:18,685 --> 00:02:21,365 Speaker 1: were further south. He grew up in a poor family, 36 00:02:21,565 --> 00:02:25,165 Speaker 1: the sixth of twelve children, in a segregated neighborhood called 37 00:02:25,205 --> 00:02:28,245 Speaker 1: Down the Bay in Mobile, Alabama. Nat You at least 38 00:02:28,245 --> 00:02:31,045 Speaker 1: stands a home in Kansas City. He visits down a 39 00:02:31,085 --> 00:02:34,565 Speaker 1: mobile as that said one time that I just live 40 00:02:34,645 --> 00:02:41,645 Speaker 1: wearing pitcher. Both Satchel Page's birthplace and resting place claim 41 00:02:41,725 --> 00:02:46,165 Speaker 1: him mobile in Kansas City have streets, schools, and scholarships 42 00:02:46,165 --> 00:02:49,445 Speaker 1: in his name, but most people don't know that there 43 00:02:49,525 --> 00:02:53,725 Speaker 1: was a third place that changed Sachel Page's life. In fact, 44 00:02:54,245 --> 00:02:57,645 Speaker 1: if it wasn't for one woman, Cornelia Bowen of Tuskegee, Alabama, 45 00:02:58,125 --> 00:03:01,805 Speaker 1: the great Sachel Page might never have been because he 46 00:03:01,885 --> 00:03:04,645 Speaker 1: was on a trail to He's gonna either get end 47 00:03:04,725 --> 00:03:08,885 Speaker 1: up being lands dead. This is Donald Spivey, an American 48 00:03:08,965 --> 00:03:12,885 Speaker 1: historian and distinguished professor at University of Miami. He wrote 49 00:03:12,885 --> 00:03:15,805 Speaker 1: the book If You Were Only White, The Life of 50 00:03:15,885 --> 00:03:21,285 Speaker 1: Leroy Satchel Page was trouble youth in appollance of black people. 51 00:03:21,325 --> 00:03:25,045 Speaker 1: He was hardheaded. He was just a difficult, difficult child, 52 00:03:25,205 --> 00:03:29,045 Speaker 1: and back then, and particularly in the South, they would 53 00:03:29,085 --> 00:03:31,845 Speaker 1: tell you go and fetch me a switch. He heard 54 00:03:31,925 --> 00:03:34,205 Speaker 1: that so often that that could have been his other 55 00:03:34,325 --> 00:03:36,645 Speaker 1: nickname rather than Satchell. He could have been go and 56 00:03:36,685 --> 00:03:40,205 Speaker 1: fetch me a switch. That hardheadedness got young Satchel into 57 00:03:40,245 --> 00:03:43,845 Speaker 1: trouble outside of the home too. By twelve, he was 58 00:03:43,925 --> 00:03:46,805 Speaker 1: known in his neighborhood for stealing, and it's rumored that 59 00:03:46,845 --> 00:03:49,965 Speaker 1: his nickname Satchel came from an incident where he was 60 00:03:50,005 --> 00:03:54,405 Speaker 1: caught stealing a bag and he skipped school. Even back then, 61 00:03:54,445 --> 00:03:59,205 Speaker 1: though Satchell could throw throw hard, he'd hunt with just 62 00:03:59,325 --> 00:04:03,925 Speaker 1: a pile of rocks in mobile train tracks separated down 63 00:04:03,965 --> 00:04:07,565 Speaker 1: the bay from the nearby white neighborhood, and sometimes young 64 00:04:07,605 --> 00:04:10,525 Speaker 1: white boys and black boys would meet along the tracks 65 00:04:10,565 --> 00:04:16,045 Speaker 1: to battle. They had a ongoing rock bottles with the 66 00:04:16,125 --> 00:04:21,685 Speaker 1: Oakdale School, which was a white school across the railroad tracks, 67 00:04:21,925 --> 00:04:25,605 Speaker 1: and white students threw rocks up and they threw rocks 68 00:04:25,645 --> 00:04:29,685 Speaker 1: back at them, and this became the racial rock wars. 69 00:04:30,565 --> 00:04:34,365 Speaker 1: One bottle got out of hand, page trying to hold 70 00:04:34,405 --> 00:04:39,445 Speaker 1: off this forward coming mob of white started throwing rocks 71 00:04:39,485 --> 00:04:42,605 Speaker 1: with bad intentions, and you know, with his ability to throw, 72 00:04:42,725 --> 00:04:45,405 Speaker 1: he was hitting people in the head. And he's lucky 73 00:04:45,405 --> 00:04:48,845 Speaker 1: he didn't lock somebody's eye out, and the white Yonsters 74 00:04:48,965 --> 00:04:53,405 Speaker 1: luckily didn't complain to their parents about it. Community could 75 00:04:53,405 --> 00:05:00,605 Speaker 1: have been wiped out down the bay, might have been spared, 76 00:05:00,725 --> 00:05:04,325 Speaker 1: but Sachel's prowess with rocks and his reputation for sticky 77 00:05:04,365 --> 00:05:08,965 Speaker 1: fingers soon caught the attention of Mobile's police chief Frank Crenshaw, 78 00:05:09,605 --> 00:05:13,245 Speaker 1: a man whose peacekeeping philosophy included the belief that all 79 00:05:13,325 --> 00:05:16,765 Speaker 1: black boys between seven and sixteen should be sent to 80 00:05:16,805 --> 00:05:21,165 Speaker 1: a detention facility for any minor crime. He said as 81 00:05:21,245 --> 00:05:23,205 Speaker 1: much in a letter he wrote to the founder of 82 00:05:23,245 --> 00:05:29,045 Speaker 1: Tuskegee University, Booker T. Washington, about quote unquote the juvenile delinquents, 83 00:05:31,165 --> 00:05:35,325 Speaker 1: Delinquents like Satchel Paige, who, on July twenty fourth, nineteen eighteen, 84 00:05:35,645 --> 00:05:38,445 Speaker 1: at the age of twelve, was sent to the Alabama 85 00:05:38,525 --> 00:05:43,605 Speaker 1: Reform School for Juvenile Negro lawbreakers in Mount Meg's, Alabama. 86 00:05:44,085 --> 00:05:46,685 Speaker 1: He would be there for six years or until his 87 00:05:46,765 --> 00:05:51,805 Speaker 1: eighteenth birthday, whichever came first. He thinks it's the worst 88 00:05:51,965 --> 00:05:54,885 Speaker 1: day of his life, that he's being sentenced to school, 89 00:05:55,285 --> 00:05:59,165 Speaker 1: he's being sentenced to prison, so he doesn't realize that 90 00:05:59,285 --> 00:06:02,525 Speaker 1: in fact, this saved his life. What we know now 91 00:06:02,685 --> 00:06:05,765 Speaker 1: is that the school, later known as the alabam An 92 00:06:05,805 --> 00:06:10,445 Speaker 1: Industrial School for Negro Children, became a place where thousands 93 00:06:10,445 --> 00:06:14,045 Speaker 1: of Alabama's black boys and girls were subjected to abuse 94 00:06:14,125 --> 00:06:19,005 Speaker 1: and torture in the name of rehabilitation and reform. But 95 00:06:19,125 --> 00:06:22,965 Speaker 1: at its inception, the school was something else, entirely a 96 00:06:23,125 --> 00:06:26,245 Speaker 1: safe haven for black children who would have otherwise been 97 00:06:26,285 --> 00:06:35,885 Speaker 1: thrown into adult prison. I'm Josie Duffie Rice, and this 98 00:06:36,285 --> 00:06:40,645 Speaker 1: is Unreformed the story of the Alabama Industrial School for 99 00:06:40,765 --> 00:07:09,405 Speaker 1: Negro Children. Episode three, Cornelia's Dream. Cornelia Bowen was the 100 00:07:09,485 --> 00:07:12,725 Speaker 1: founder of Mount Megs. And in order to understand what 101 00:07:12,765 --> 00:07:16,205 Speaker 1: Mount Meg's became, you have to understand how it started 102 00:07:16,885 --> 00:07:21,525 Speaker 1: Cornelia's vision, and really you have to understand this strange, 103 00:07:21,525 --> 00:07:25,005 Speaker 1: remarkable life. She lived a life that was only possible 104 00:07:25,445 --> 00:07:29,645 Speaker 1: during that one narrow sliver of history as slavery ended 105 00:07:30,005 --> 00:07:33,965 Speaker 1: in the reconstruction era began. Of myself and the war 106 00:07:34,125 --> 00:07:36,685 Speaker 1: I have done, there is not a great deal to say. 107 00:07:37,245 --> 00:07:41,165 Speaker 1: I was born at Tuskegee, Alabama. My mother lived the 108 00:07:41,205 --> 00:07:43,925 Speaker 1: greater part of her life at this place as the 109 00:07:44,045 --> 00:07:48,485 Speaker 1: slave of Colonel William Bowen. The birthplace of my mother 110 00:07:48,685 --> 00:07:52,285 Speaker 1: was Baltimore, Maryland. She was taught to read by her 111 00:07:52,325 --> 00:07:56,365 Speaker 1: master's daughter in Baltimore and was never forbidden to read 112 00:07:56,445 --> 00:08:01,525 Speaker 1: by those who owned her in Alabama. That's Alabama born 113 00:08:01,685 --> 00:08:05,765 Speaker 1: art historian and professor Alvia Wardlaw. You'll hear her reading 114 00:08:05,805 --> 00:08:10,605 Speaker 1: Cornelia's words throughout this episode. Cornelia was born on the 115 00:08:10,645 --> 00:08:15,805 Speaker 1: Bowen Plantation in Macon County, Alabama, just east of Montgomery. 116 00:08:16,085 --> 00:08:19,005 Speaker 1: It's hard to know exactly when. Some say she was 117 00:08:19,005 --> 00:08:21,885 Speaker 1: born in eighteen fifty eight, Others think that it was 118 00:08:21,965 --> 00:08:24,965 Speaker 1: more like eighteen sixty four, and after going down a 119 00:08:25,045 --> 00:08:28,685 Speaker 1: rabbit hole of census records, I'm inclined to agree. This, 120 00:08:28,845 --> 00:08:31,445 Speaker 1: of course, is one of the casualties of being black 121 00:08:31,565 --> 00:08:35,205 Speaker 1: during slavery and in the years after, records of your 122 00:08:35,245 --> 00:08:39,405 Speaker 1: life were sparse and inconsistent. We don't know anything about 123 00:08:39,405 --> 00:08:42,925 Speaker 1: Cornelia's father. Some think he must have been a slave owner, 124 00:08:43,205 --> 00:08:45,045 Speaker 1: but there is really no way for us to know. 125 00:08:46,285 --> 00:08:49,405 Speaker 1: But what we do know is that her mother, Sophia, 126 00:08:49,605 --> 00:08:53,805 Speaker 1: was enslaved. Sophia worked as a seamstress in the home 127 00:08:53,845 --> 00:08:57,845 Speaker 1: of her white slave owner, and later Cornelia recalled that 128 00:08:57,925 --> 00:09:00,485 Speaker 1: her mother wasn't even allowed to talk to the people 129 00:09:00,645 --> 00:09:05,725 Speaker 1: working in the fields. Another thing about Sophia she could read, 130 00:09:06,365 --> 00:09:09,405 Speaker 1: and later, when her three daughters were young, she taught 131 00:09:09,445 --> 00:09:13,605 Speaker 1: them to read too. On Sundays, with my sisters gathered 132 00:09:13,645 --> 00:09:17,525 Speaker 1: about her knees, we would sit for hours listening as 133 00:09:17,605 --> 00:09:22,285 Speaker 1: mother would read church hymns. These days were days of freedom, 134 00:09:22,565 --> 00:09:25,245 Speaker 1: as I do not remember and know nothing of those 135 00:09:25,285 --> 00:09:30,205 Speaker 1: of slavery. My mother always refrained from telling her children 136 00:09:30,405 --> 00:09:34,845 Speaker 1: frightful stories of the awful sufferings of the slave days. 137 00:09:36,085 --> 00:09:39,605 Speaker 1: So Cornelia was the child of an enslaved woman, and 138 00:09:39,765 --> 00:09:43,325 Speaker 1: her life turned out drastically different than her mother's. In 139 00:09:43,445 --> 00:09:46,885 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty one, the state appropriated two thousand dollars to 140 00:09:46,925 --> 00:09:50,445 Speaker 1: start a black college in Macon County. A white state 141 00:09:50,485 --> 00:09:55,005 Speaker 1: senator former Confederate, had pushed for the appropriation himself, hoping 142 00:09:55,005 --> 00:09:58,365 Speaker 1: it would get him black votes. This was during the 143 00:09:58,405 --> 00:10:02,605 Speaker 1: post Reconstruction period where black people had some voting rights 144 00:10:02,645 --> 00:10:05,645 Speaker 1: before they were taken away again, and this was more 145 00:10:05,685 --> 00:10:09,005 Speaker 1: evidence of what the right to vote meant, at least 146 00:10:09,005 --> 00:10:15,845 Speaker 1: some political power, opportunity, and sometimes education. Booker T. Washington 147 00:10:15,965 --> 00:10:18,965 Speaker 1: himself was the person tasked with building this new college 148 00:10:18,965 --> 00:10:22,965 Speaker 1: in Macon County. He ended up purchasing the Bowen plantation 149 00:10:23,285 --> 00:10:26,805 Speaker 1: where Cornelia was born, the same plantation where her mother 150 00:10:26,925 --> 00:10:31,565 Speaker 1: was enslaved. On it, he built the institute now known 151 00:10:31,605 --> 00:10:35,965 Speaker 1: as Tuskegee University and historically black university that is renowned 152 00:10:35,965 --> 00:10:40,965 Speaker 1: to this day and in eighteen eighty five, Cornelia graduated 153 00:10:41,005 --> 00:10:45,885 Speaker 1: with honors in Tuskegee's first graduating class. To my class 154 00:10:45,965 --> 00:10:50,725 Speaker 1: that graduated in eighteen eighty five, the first one to graduate, 155 00:10:50,845 --> 00:10:56,125 Speaker 1: we proudly boast three Peabody Medals were awarded for excellence 156 00:10:56,205 --> 00:11:00,125 Speaker 1: in scholarship, and I was awarded one of the medals. 157 00:11:00,765 --> 00:11:04,165 Speaker 1: Think for a second about how remarkable this is. Here 158 00:11:04,205 --> 00:11:07,245 Speaker 1: was a black woman getting a college diploma on the 159 00:11:07,365 --> 00:11:10,245 Speaker 1: very same land her own mother had been a slave. 160 00:11:11,525 --> 00:11:14,565 Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what shaped Cornelia's outlook on the world. 161 00:11:14,645 --> 00:11:17,925 Speaker 1: Of course, we missed each other by about a hundred years. 162 00:11:18,685 --> 00:11:20,965 Speaker 1: But in her records you can see the three main 163 00:11:21,085 --> 00:11:24,525 Speaker 1: influences that shaped her politics and how she saw the world. 164 00:11:25,885 --> 00:11:30,005 Speaker 1: The first was her education, and the second was her mentor, 165 00:11:30,405 --> 00:11:36,125 Speaker 1: Booker T. Washington. Mister Washington himself took charge of our classes, 166 00:11:36,845 --> 00:11:39,845 Speaker 1: and I have always been very proud that I can 167 00:11:40,045 --> 00:11:44,365 Speaker 1: say that he was my teacher. If I have been 168 00:11:44,365 --> 00:11:47,605 Speaker 1: of any service to my people, I owe it all 169 00:11:47,645 --> 00:11:52,565 Speaker 1: to mister Washington, who impressed upon me those lessons which 170 00:11:52,645 --> 00:11:55,725 Speaker 1: led me to want to spend myself in the helping 171 00:11:56,165 --> 00:11:59,765 Speaker 1: of my people. Here's Booker T. In nineteen o eight, 172 00:12:00,245 --> 00:12:02,765 Speaker 1: reading an excerpt of a speech he gave in eighteen 173 00:12:02,845 --> 00:12:07,565 Speaker 1: ninety five. It was his most famous, called the Atlanta Compromise, 174 00:12:08,165 --> 00:12:10,885 Speaker 1: and this is the only known audio recording of his voice. 175 00:12:11,245 --> 00:12:13,365 Speaker 1: He did not train that in the first years of 176 00:12:13,405 --> 00:12:16,325 Speaker 1: All New Life. He began at the top because of 177 00:12:16,365 --> 00:12:19,125 Speaker 1: the fun it's hard to hear him, I know, not 178 00:12:19,245 --> 00:12:22,485 Speaker 1: great sound quality in the early nineteen hundreds, But what 179 00:12:22,525 --> 00:12:25,405 Speaker 1: he's basically saying is that black people were too focused 180 00:12:25,445 --> 00:12:29,805 Speaker 1: on political power and intellectual pursuits and not focused enough 181 00:12:29,965 --> 00:12:34,605 Speaker 1: on earning money or learning a trade, or in his words, 182 00:12:34,645 --> 00:12:38,525 Speaker 1: that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions 183 00:12:38,605 --> 00:12:42,805 Speaker 1: than starting a dairy farm or truck garden. Note that 184 00:12:42,845 --> 00:12:46,765 Speaker 1: he's literally giving a speech when he says that. It's 185 00:12:46,765 --> 00:12:49,285 Speaker 1: a confusing thing to say when he only got his 186 00:12:49,405 --> 00:12:53,685 Speaker 1: university because the local state senator needed black votes. But 187 00:12:53,805 --> 00:12:57,645 Speaker 1: Booker t always had a shall we say, controversial perspective 188 00:12:58,085 --> 00:13:00,885 Speaker 1: on how black people should function in a post slavery 189 00:13:00,885 --> 00:13:06,525 Speaker 1: America where racism ran rampant and equality remained a pipe dream. 190 00:13:06,565 --> 00:13:10,565 Speaker 1: He was essentially the father of respectability politics. He spent 191 00:13:10,605 --> 00:13:12,725 Speaker 1: a lot of time focused on what black people were 192 00:13:12,765 --> 00:13:15,685 Speaker 1: doing wrong. He liked to tell black people to work 193 00:13:15,725 --> 00:13:18,765 Speaker 1: harder to get a hobby, and this perspective was a 194 00:13:18,845 --> 00:13:23,005 Speaker 1: foundation on which Booker T's philosophy of industrial education was built. 195 00:13:24,165 --> 00:13:27,885 Speaker 1: Part of the theory behind industrial education was respectability and 196 00:13:28,005 --> 00:13:32,565 Speaker 1: an attempt to make black people indispensable. People like Cornelia 197 00:13:32,605 --> 00:13:36,085 Speaker 1: and Booker T encourage black people to focus on trade work, 198 00:13:36,645 --> 00:13:39,285 Speaker 1: and basically what that meant was that even though black 199 00:13:39,285 --> 00:13:42,485 Speaker 1: folks had been freed from the practice of slavery, they 200 00:13:42,485 --> 00:13:45,965 Speaker 1: should still arm themselves with similar skills that they practiced 201 00:13:46,005 --> 00:13:50,125 Speaker 1: on the plantation. Cornelia was an early and avid supporter 202 00:13:50,165 --> 00:13:54,405 Speaker 1: of Booker T. Washington's philosophy of industrial education, So in 203 00:13:54,485 --> 00:13:58,565 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty eight, when Washington himself requested that Cornelia moved 204 00:13:58,565 --> 00:14:05,245 Speaker 1: to wa to teach, she did it. Wa Waugh was 205 00:14:05,285 --> 00:14:08,845 Speaker 1: this poor black community about fifteen miles outside of Montgomery. 206 00:14:09,765 --> 00:14:12,885 Speaker 1: It was there that Cornelia founded her first school, the 207 00:14:13,005 --> 00:14:16,805 Speaker 1: Colored Institute, almost twenty years before she founded Mount Meg's. 208 00:14:18,045 --> 00:14:21,725 Speaker 1: Not one person in the whole community owned a foot 209 00:14:21,765 --> 00:14:25,725 Speaker 1: of land, and heavy crop mortgages were the burden of 210 00:14:25,845 --> 00:14:30,645 Speaker 1: every farmer. It became evident at once that pioneer work 211 00:14:30,845 --> 00:14:36,085 Speaker 1: was very much needed, homes were neglected, and the sacredness 212 00:14:36,125 --> 00:14:39,685 Speaker 1: of family life was unknown to most of the people. 213 00:14:40,805 --> 00:14:44,605 Speaker 1: While there, Cornelia began getting more involved with local women's clubs, 214 00:14:45,205 --> 00:14:49,485 Speaker 1: the third thing that shaped her worldview. Cornelia never married, 215 00:14:49,685 --> 00:14:53,205 Speaker 1: had no kids, which was unusual for the time, but 216 00:14:53,325 --> 00:14:56,885 Speaker 1: she had a very, very full social life. She was 217 00:14:57,005 --> 00:15:01,045 Speaker 1: part of seemingly endless organizations and in leadership positions of 218 00:15:01,085 --> 00:15:05,045 Speaker 1: many of them. Most notably, she became president of the 219 00:15:05,085 --> 00:15:08,565 Speaker 1: alab i am, a federation of Colored women's clubs, an 220 00:15:08,565 --> 00:15:14,285 Speaker 1: exclusive organization for black women focused on service. Their slogan 221 00:15:14,445 --> 00:15:17,845 Speaker 1: was lifting as we climb, but this idea that as 222 00:15:17,845 --> 00:15:20,925 Speaker 1: you climb a ladder, even if you're at the top 223 00:15:20,965 --> 00:15:23,365 Speaker 1: of the ladder, those folks who were at the bottom 224 00:15:23,365 --> 00:15:27,045 Speaker 1: are still yours. They're still connected to you. That's doctor 225 00:15:27,125 --> 00:15:30,245 Speaker 1: Denise Davis May, Chair and professor of social work at 226 00:15:30,285 --> 00:15:33,965 Speaker 1: Alabama State University and an expert on these women's clubs. 227 00:15:34,365 --> 00:15:38,885 Speaker 1: The women of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs 228 00:15:39,045 --> 00:15:45,005 Speaker 1: were typically second and third generation middle class women, even 229 00:15:45,085 --> 00:15:48,005 Speaker 1: in the eighteen nineties. I think when we talk about 230 00:15:48,005 --> 00:15:50,925 Speaker 1: the eighteen nineties and we talk about black women, particularly 231 00:15:50,965 --> 00:15:56,285 Speaker 1: in the South, we envision share cropping. We envision women 232 00:15:56,325 --> 00:15:59,805 Speaker 1: who are just out of enslavement and have a very 233 00:15:59,805 --> 00:16:04,565 Speaker 1: particular image of what that might be. These women were educated. 234 00:16:05,205 --> 00:16:09,485 Speaker 1: They attended some of the established at the time, not 235 00:16:09,605 --> 00:16:13,725 Speaker 1: historically black colleges but now historically black colleges and universities. 236 00:16:14,005 --> 00:16:17,685 Speaker 1: They were married to professionals in some of their rights. 237 00:16:17,765 --> 00:16:22,485 Speaker 1: They were professional educators in theory. The Colored Institute was 238 00:16:22,485 --> 00:16:26,445 Speaker 1: a school, but ultimately it was more than that. At 239 00:16:26,445 --> 00:16:29,565 Speaker 1: just twenty three, Cornelia was sent to law to essentially 240 00:16:29,845 --> 00:16:34,045 Speaker 1: fix the people there, their homes, their families, their perspectives, 241 00:16:34,165 --> 00:16:39,605 Speaker 1: their lives. And she took this role very seriously. She 242 00:16:39,685 --> 00:16:41,845 Speaker 1: went from house to house each week to make sure 243 00:16:41,885 --> 00:16:45,165 Speaker 1: that they were clean. She inspected children in the morning 244 00:16:45,165 --> 00:16:47,925 Speaker 1: to make sure that they had neat hair and clean fingernails. 245 00:16:48,605 --> 00:16:52,205 Speaker 1: She dealt with family disputes. She pushed the men to 246 00:16:52,285 --> 00:16:56,205 Speaker 1: work and the women to stay home. I am pleased 247 00:16:56,245 --> 00:17:00,125 Speaker 1: with the progress the people have made. Many now own 248 00:17:00,205 --> 00:17:03,165 Speaker 1: their own homes, and eight and ten persons are no 249 00:17:03,285 --> 00:17:08,045 Speaker 1: longer content to sleep in one room log cabins. I 250 00:17:08,205 --> 00:17:11,325 Speaker 1: know what I'm saying when I state that sacred family 251 00:17:11,405 --> 00:17:16,485 Speaker 1: ties are respected and appreciated as never before in this 252 00:17:16,605 --> 00:17:21,485 Speaker 1: immediate region. Years later, in a newspaper interview, she stated 253 00:17:21,565 --> 00:17:24,285 Speaker 1: proudly that a large part of her success could be 254 00:17:24,325 --> 00:17:29,285 Speaker 1: attributed to one particular tactic, shaming people. There were some 255 00:17:29,605 --> 00:17:35,205 Speaker 1: class based issues in terms of how they serve the community. 256 00:17:35,325 --> 00:17:39,165 Speaker 1: That is definitely correct. As a black woman in Alabama, 257 00:17:39,285 --> 00:17:42,605 Speaker 1: Cornelia was among the most disadvantaged demographic in the country, 258 00:17:43,405 --> 00:17:47,565 Speaker 1: the bottom of the barrel. And yet among black women 259 00:17:48,285 --> 00:17:52,645 Speaker 1: there were differences. Some had more power than others, and 260 00:17:52,765 --> 00:18:00,125 Speaker 1: at the top of that list was Cornelia. Her work 261 00:18:00,165 --> 00:18:02,805 Speaker 1: at the Colored Institute turned her into somewhat of a celebrity. 262 00:18:03,605 --> 00:18:05,965 Speaker 1: There are all these articles from the late at hundreds 263 00:18:05,965 --> 00:18:09,285 Speaker 1: of her traveling the country, giving speeches and raising money 264 00:18:09,685 --> 00:18:13,405 Speaker 1: and hobnobbing with people whose names we know today, Harriet Tubman, 265 00:18:14,085 --> 00:18:18,845 Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas, Ida B. Wells. There she is in eighteen 266 00:18:18,925 --> 00:18:22,165 Speaker 1: ninety six, being named president of the National Federation of 267 00:18:22,205 --> 00:18:26,165 Speaker 1: Afro American Women. In nineteen oh four at the World's Fair, 268 00:18:26,725 --> 00:18:29,485 Speaker 1: traveling the country to speak in Boston and Chicago. In 269 00:18:29,485 --> 00:18:34,325 Speaker 1: New York, giving speeches to path rooms, she was the 270 00:18:34,405 --> 00:18:37,485 Speaker 1: subject of a long fawning profile in The Washington Post 271 00:18:37,565 --> 00:18:41,205 Speaker 1: in nineteen oh five, framed as the good, classy Negro 272 00:18:41,325 --> 00:18:46,365 Speaker 1: woman helping the poor ones. The Montgomery Advertiser described her 273 00:18:46,405 --> 00:18:54,965 Speaker 1: as the Booker Washington among colored women. Cornelia was complicated. 274 00:18:55,805 --> 00:18:58,525 Speaker 1: On one hand, she was responsible for so much good 275 00:18:59,125 --> 00:19:02,245 Speaker 1: At the Colored Institute and later at Mount Meg's. Cornelia 276 00:19:02,325 --> 00:19:06,125 Speaker 1: provided a level of attention, assistance, and opportunity to so 277 00:19:06,165 --> 00:19:09,485 Speaker 1: many Black people when they never could have afforded otherwise. 278 00:19:10,405 --> 00:19:14,725 Speaker 1: She really did care about the community, and still she 279 00:19:14,765 --> 00:19:17,765 Speaker 1: looked down on them. Like her mentor book or t 280 00:19:18,325 --> 00:19:22,005 Speaker 1: Cornelia seemed to believe that true social and legal equality 281 00:19:22,405 --> 00:19:25,685 Speaker 1: was an arm's reach of black people. All we had 282 00:19:25,685 --> 00:19:28,485 Speaker 1: to do was be a little better, a little more useful, 283 00:19:29,085 --> 00:19:32,485 Speaker 1: make a little more money, work a little harder, and 284 00:19:32,605 --> 00:19:37,645 Speaker 1: white people might just come around. In one speech, Cornelia 285 00:19:37,725 --> 00:19:41,285 Speaker 1: told the audience, we cannot be respected till we learn 286 00:19:41,365 --> 00:19:46,005 Speaker 1: to do something. White men will not respect you. I 287 00:19:46,005 --> 00:19:51,285 Speaker 1: would not respect you myself. And unsurprisingly, Cornelia's willingness to 288 00:19:51,325 --> 00:19:54,485 Speaker 1: be critical of black people gained the admiration of more 289 00:19:54,525 --> 00:19:58,445 Speaker 1: than a few white ones. After all, Cornelia had the 290 00:19:58,485 --> 00:20:02,205 Speaker 1: tendency to attribute the black community struggles to their own 291 00:20:02,285 --> 00:20:06,965 Speaker 1: failings rather than persistent, systemic and justice and centuries of 292 00:20:07,045 --> 00:20:11,405 Speaker 1: slavery that had ended just a few years prior, a 293 00:20:11,565 --> 00:20:17,165 Speaker 1: child of a slave basically preaching about bootstraps. The question 294 00:20:17,285 --> 00:20:20,085 Speaker 1: is did Cornelia really believe the stuff that she was 295 00:20:20,125 --> 00:20:24,605 Speaker 1: saying publicly. I'm inclined to believe that she did, But 296 00:20:24,645 --> 00:20:28,245 Speaker 1: it's also possible she was playing politics, saying the things 297 00:20:28,285 --> 00:20:31,165 Speaker 1: that white people wanted to hear the only way she 298 00:20:31,205 --> 00:20:33,325 Speaker 1: could get what she wanted from the people who were 299 00:20:33,365 --> 00:20:37,845 Speaker 1: really in power. So these women understood the necessity to 300 00:20:37,885 --> 00:20:41,605 Speaker 1: work in community with the women who had the ear 301 00:20:42,525 --> 00:20:46,525 Speaker 1: of people who were in charge. Right, that's not very 302 00:20:46,525 --> 00:20:50,245 Speaker 1: different than today. You need to be able to establish 303 00:20:50,285 --> 00:20:52,525 Speaker 1: relationships with the folks who are sitting at the dinner 304 00:20:52,565 --> 00:20:58,285 Speaker 1: table with the man who signs the probate for your land. 305 00:20:59,085 --> 00:21:01,485 Speaker 1: Cornelia has been running the Colored Institute for more than 306 00:21:01,485 --> 00:21:04,325 Speaker 1: ten years. When she gets interested in a new project, 307 00:21:05,685 --> 00:21:09,645 Speaker 1: she and her club want to help build a juvenile reformatory. 308 00:21:09,885 --> 00:21:12,165 Speaker 1: When I was researching Cornelia, there was one thing that 309 00:21:12,245 --> 00:21:15,605 Speaker 1: kept nagging at me. Here she was president of her 310 00:21:15,645 --> 00:21:19,805 Speaker 1: woman's club, principle of a growing school, adored by the community, 311 00:21:20,405 --> 00:21:25,405 Speaker 1: and often outspokenly critical of black youth. So why suddenly 312 00:21:25,445 --> 00:21:30,245 Speaker 1: start this school for quote unquote juvenile delinquents. Then I 313 00:21:30,245 --> 00:21:34,205 Speaker 1: stumbled upon a document in old files from the nineteen sixties, 314 00:21:35,125 --> 00:21:53,845 Speaker 1: and it began to answer this question. At the turn 315 00:21:53,845 --> 00:21:57,325 Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, four boys are arrested in Birmingham 316 00:21:57,365 --> 00:22:00,485 Speaker 1: accused of breaking and entering. One of them is just 317 00:22:00,605 --> 00:22:04,925 Speaker 1: eleven years old. Now, had they been white, they would 318 00:22:04,925 --> 00:22:07,805 Speaker 1: have gone to the reformatory for white boys, which had 319 00:22:07,805 --> 00:22:10,805 Speaker 1: been created after a white women's club champion the project. 320 00:22:11,485 --> 00:22:14,045 Speaker 1: But these four boys were black, which meant that there 321 00:22:14,085 --> 00:22:16,605 Speaker 1: was no place for them to go except adult prison. 322 00:22:17,765 --> 00:22:20,885 Speaker 1: This is what inspires Cornelia's Club to build a juvenile 323 00:22:20,925 --> 00:22:25,125 Speaker 1: reformatory for black children. Then the state of Alabama, black 324 00:22:25,205 --> 00:22:30,325 Speaker 1: youngsters as early as aged ten ten years old had 325 00:22:30,365 --> 00:22:35,605 Speaker 1: been sentenced to male prisons, and the women concluded that 326 00:22:35,645 --> 00:22:39,485 Speaker 1: if they were going to save an endangered population, which 327 00:22:39,525 --> 00:22:42,925 Speaker 1: was the young black males, they needed to open a 328 00:22:43,245 --> 00:22:47,685 Speaker 1: reformatory where young black males could be sent. By the 329 00:22:47,725 --> 00:22:50,805 Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds, reform schools were part of a growing 330 00:22:50,845 --> 00:22:54,525 Speaker 1: movement across the United States and the world, as progressives 331 00:22:54,565 --> 00:22:57,325 Speaker 1: began to talk about the concept of children as a 332 00:22:57,365 --> 00:23:01,565 Speaker 1: class of people in their own right. That's significant because 333 00:23:01,685 --> 00:23:05,485 Speaker 1: before the twentieth century, there weren't many formal legal distinctions 334 00:23:05,565 --> 00:23:09,805 Speaker 1: between adults and miners, and that persisted for black kids. 335 00:23:10,765 --> 00:23:15,005 Speaker 1: Black children in particular, were typically treated just like adults. 336 00:23:15,045 --> 00:23:17,325 Speaker 1: They were sentenced just like adults, they were put in 337 00:23:17,365 --> 00:23:20,725 Speaker 1: the same prisons with adults, and they were executed just 338 00:23:20,805 --> 00:23:25,485 Speaker 1: like adults. That's Barry Feld, Professor emeritus at the University 339 00:23:25,485 --> 00:23:29,045 Speaker 1: of Minnesota Law School. As the United States at the 340 00:23:29,125 --> 00:23:33,685 Speaker 1: end of the nineteenth century was switching, shifting from a 341 00:23:33,805 --> 00:23:38,925 Speaker 1: primarily agricultural economy to a more industrial economy, and so 342 00:23:39,045 --> 00:23:43,525 Speaker 1: the progressive reformers had adopted a new conception of childhood 343 00:23:43,525 --> 00:23:47,605 Speaker 1: as vulnerable and innocent. Well, at least some children were 344 00:23:47,605 --> 00:23:51,645 Speaker 1: seen as vulnerable and innocent, but not Black kids, who 345 00:23:51,685 --> 00:23:55,845 Speaker 1: study show society has always perceived as older and more 346 00:23:55,885 --> 00:24:00,445 Speaker 1: adult than they are. So Cornelia School was meant to 347 00:24:00,445 --> 00:24:03,085 Speaker 1: fill a long overlooked void in the care of black 348 00:24:03,085 --> 00:24:07,445 Speaker 1: Alabamian children. She gave a statement to the local paper 349 00:24:07,685 --> 00:24:10,005 Speaker 1: saying that she and the members of the women's clubs 350 00:24:10,325 --> 00:24:14,645 Speaker 1: were building a school for so called juvenile delinquents, or, 351 00:24:14,765 --> 00:24:18,805 Speaker 1: as she put it, the unfortunate and floating young element 352 00:24:18,885 --> 00:24:22,365 Speaker 1: of our race, who, from lack of good home training, 353 00:24:22,885 --> 00:24:28,805 Speaker 1: find their way to jail penitentiaries and convict minds. It 354 00:24:28,885 --> 00:24:33,325 Speaker 1: is conceded that children thrown among hardened criminals are made 355 00:24:33,365 --> 00:24:37,565 Speaker 1: worse in character by unwholesome environments, and in the end 356 00:24:37,925 --> 00:24:43,965 Speaker 1: proved themselves criminals rather than useful citizens. Black reformatories weren't 357 00:24:44,005 --> 00:24:47,485 Speaker 1: necessarily popular, but they had support across a white spectrum. 358 00:24:48,245 --> 00:24:51,565 Speaker 1: In nineteen o seven, my local paper, The Atlanta Constitution, 359 00:24:52,125 --> 00:24:55,325 Speaker 1: supported a reformatory for black kids in the most racist 360 00:24:55,365 --> 00:24:59,645 Speaker 1: way possible. Quote. The necessity for such a specific treatment 361 00:25:00,245 --> 00:25:02,765 Speaker 1: is even more powerfully applicable to the Negro than to 362 00:25:02,805 --> 00:25:07,205 Speaker 1: the white race. The Negro youth is essentially racially of 363 00:25:07,245 --> 00:25:13,325 Speaker 1: a roving, irresponsible, impulsive, susceptible temperament. The race itself is 364 00:25:13,365 --> 00:25:18,045 Speaker 1: but half child. Cornelia and the club ladies raised two 365 00:25:18,045 --> 00:25:20,605 Speaker 1: thousand dollars on their own to build their own school, 366 00:25:21,445 --> 00:25:23,405 Speaker 1: and when they couldn't get anyone to give them land, 367 00:25:23,645 --> 00:25:28,285 Speaker 1: Cornelia already had a solution. She owned four hundred acres 368 00:25:28,285 --> 00:25:32,005 Speaker 1: outside of Montgomery, a feat for any black person, let 369 00:25:32,045 --> 00:25:35,485 Speaker 1: alone a black woman, and she agreed to sell twenty 370 00:25:35,525 --> 00:25:38,125 Speaker 1: acres to the club for less money than she paid 371 00:25:38,165 --> 00:25:46,085 Speaker 1: for it. On August eighteenth, nineteen oh seven, the Alabama 372 00:25:46,165 --> 00:25:50,845 Speaker 1: Industrial School for Negro Boys opened, but there wasn't much 373 00:25:50,885 --> 00:25:54,405 Speaker 1: press about it, at least that I could find, except 374 00:25:54,445 --> 00:25:58,205 Speaker 1: in a magazine called The Colored American, in an article 375 00:25:58,405 --> 00:26:02,965 Speaker 1: called child Saving in Alabama. The magazine praised the school, 376 00:26:03,725 --> 00:26:06,565 Speaker 1: and this article has a picture of the school. It's 377 00:26:06,605 --> 00:26:09,805 Speaker 1: the only one we have from that era. In it, 378 00:26:09,885 --> 00:26:13,245 Speaker 1: you can see about twenty black boys standing stoically in 379 00:26:13,285 --> 00:26:18,005 Speaker 1: two rows, their faces shadowed by the sun. Behind them 380 00:26:18,085 --> 00:26:21,005 Speaker 1: is a white house, the same white building I saw 381 00:26:21,005 --> 00:26:23,525 Speaker 1: when I went to Mount Megs, And in front of 382 00:26:23,525 --> 00:26:31,805 Speaker 1: them is a field of cotton. The following year, Cornelia 383 00:26:31,885 --> 00:26:35,285 Speaker 1: gave a proud assessment at a conference at Tuskegee. The 384 00:26:35,485 --> 00:26:40,365 Speaker 1: school has twenty two boys and no bolts or bars. 385 00:26:40,885 --> 00:26:44,805 Speaker 1: The boys work in the garden. Cornelia saw the school 386 00:26:44,885 --> 00:26:47,765 Speaker 1: as a place that gives black children a chance at opportunity, 387 00:26:48,445 --> 00:26:52,045 Speaker 1: a much better and even life saving alternative to prison. 388 00:26:52,965 --> 00:26:57,645 Speaker 1: But there was a problem money. Despite the good things 389 00:26:57,645 --> 00:27:01,285 Speaker 1: about Mount Megs, even at the start, it was struggling financially. 390 00:27:02,045 --> 00:27:04,165 Speaker 1: Cornelia had a lot of money for a black woman 391 00:27:04,205 --> 00:27:07,885 Speaker 1: at the time, but again it's all relative. She didn't 392 00:27:07,885 --> 00:27:11,085 Speaker 1: have money to keep an entire school afloat, and while 393 00:27:11,125 --> 00:27:13,685 Speaker 1: the clubs spent a lot of time raising funds, it 394 00:27:13,765 --> 00:27:17,445 Speaker 1: was simply not enough to keep the school going. But 395 00:27:17,885 --> 00:27:21,805 Speaker 1: Cornelia was determined to keep Mount Mag's open, So just 396 00:27:21,925 --> 00:27:25,885 Speaker 1: three years after the doors opened, Cornelia began lobbying the 397 00:27:25,925 --> 00:27:30,325 Speaker 1: state to take over Mount Mag's. I besieged every member 398 00:27:30,325 --> 00:27:33,725 Speaker 1: of the legislature. It was funny. I would send in 399 00:27:33,885 --> 00:27:37,325 Speaker 1: from the lobby for a member. Of course he would 400 00:27:37,365 --> 00:27:40,205 Speaker 1: not know, but what it was a white woman asking 401 00:27:40,245 --> 00:27:43,605 Speaker 1: for him, and he would come out. Then he would 402 00:27:43,645 --> 00:27:46,885 Speaker 1: ask what I wanted, and I would say, we have 403 00:27:47,005 --> 00:27:50,765 Speaker 1: a bill prepared to make an appropriation for a reformatory 404 00:27:50,765 --> 00:27:54,365 Speaker 1: for Negro children, and I want you to vote for it. 405 00:27:54,845 --> 00:27:57,765 Speaker 1: And I wouldn't let him go until I had his 406 00:27:57,925 --> 00:28:01,765 Speaker 1: promise to vote for it if it came up. This 407 00:28:01,885 --> 00:28:06,405 Speaker 1: was where Cornelia's connections came in handy, especially her connections 408 00:28:06,405 --> 00:28:11,445 Speaker 1: to white people. She lobbied judges, legislators, and other prominent 409 00:28:11,445 --> 00:28:14,685 Speaker 1: white men in the community to support the state's takeover, 410 00:28:15,405 --> 00:28:19,525 Speaker 1: and not just privately but publicly, and many of them 411 00:28:19,565 --> 00:28:24,525 Speaker 1: did it. One headline read juvenile Reformatory at Mount Megs 412 00:28:24,725 --> 00:28:28,885 Speaker 1: is endorsed by many prominent white men. In fact, the 413 00:28:28,965 --> 00:28:31,925 Speaker 1: fact that Cornelia had connections with powerful white people was 414 00:28:31,965 --> 00:28:34,285 Speaker 1: the only reason she was able to build Mount Megs 415 00:28:34,285 --> 00:28:38,365 Speaker 1: at all. And Alabama, even the most successful black people 416 00:28:38,765 --> 00:28:42,365 Speaker 1: needed white approval to do almost anything. Even with the 417 00:28:42,445 --> 00:28:45,605 Speaker 1: money raised within the black community, they still needed the 418 00:28:45,685 --> 00:28:51,405 Speaker 1: support and approval of the institutions beyond the black community. 419 00:28:52,165 --> 00:28:56,245 Speaker 1: In nineteen eleven, the state of Alabama officially took over 420 00:28:56,325 --> 00:29:00,005 Speaker 1: Mount Megs. This may have been the biggest mistake of 421 00:29:00,085 --> 00:29:05,005 Speaker 1: Cornelia Bowen's life. The institution was able to stay alive, 422 00:29:06,005 --> 00:29:11,165 Speaker 1: but at an unimaginable cost, and Mount Meg's was irreparably changed. 423 00:29:12,685 --> 00:29:14,885 Speaker 1: There's this quote from one of those white men who 424 00:29:14,925 --> 00:29:18,485 Speaker 1: supported the state takeover, a quote that I think about 425 00:29:18,485 --> 00:29:22,525 Speaker 1: a lot now. It foreshadowed the future of the institution. 426 00:29:24,245 --> 00:29:26,805 Speaker 1: It says, I've always felt that when you put a 427 00:29:26,845 --> 00:29:29,885 Speaker 1: young boy in jail or in the penitentiary for any 428 00:29:29,965 --> 00:29:33,605 Speaker 1: length of time, you went a long way toward killing 429 00:29:33,645 --> 00:29:54,205 Speaker 1: a human soul. Oh done back on meds all librate. Cornelia, 430 00:29:54,285 --> 00:29:57,845 Speaker 1: it seems, had only good intentions. The school needed funding 431 00:29:57,845 --> 00:30:00,965 Speaker 1: that she and her club in her community couldn't sustainably provide. 432 00:30:01,845 --> 00:30:04,885 Speaker 1: But almost immediately after the state took over, there were 433 00:30:04,925 --> 00:30:07,125 Speaker 1: early side that the way that they thought about the 434 00:30:07,125 --> 00:30:11,125 Speaker 1: black kids in their care was drastically different than Cornelia's outlook. 435 00:30:11,805 --> 00:30:17,205 Speaker 1: The first change, renaming the school the Alabama Industrial School 436 00:30:17,245 --> 00:30:21,245 Speaker 1: for Negro Boys, would now be called the Alabama Reform 437 00:30:21,325 --> 00:30:27,885 Speaker 1: School for Juvenile Negro Lawbreakers. Cornelia remained intimately involved with 438 00:30:27,925 --> 00:30:31,485 Speaker 1: Mount Meg's for years as a trustee until she died 439 00:30:31,565 --> 00:30:35,605 Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty four, but the real power always remained 440 00:30:35,605 --> 00:30:39,565 Speaker 1: with the white male board members, men with connections wealth 441 00:30:39,885 --> 00:30:43,125 Speaker 1: and land, men who saw Mount Meg's as a way 442 00:30:43,165 --> 00:30:47,165 Speaker 1: to generate money, not rehabilitate children. And this is an 443 00:30:47,165 --> 00:30:50,685 Speaker 1: important thing to note about Mount Meg's. Sure, the state 444 00:30:50,725 --> 00:30:53,405 Speaker 1: agreed to take it over, but that didn't mean they 445 00:30:53,405 --> 00:30:57,565 Speaker 1: were going to fund it, not sufficiently anyway, not like 446 00:30:57,645 --> 00:31:01,325 Speaker 1: they funded the white schools. We mentioned this last episode. 447 00:31:02,165 --> 00:31:05,245 Speaker 1: When the white schools needed something, they'd asked the state 448 00:31:05,285 --> 00:31:12,205 Speaker 1: for money. But when Mount Megs needed something schoolbooks, medicine, teachers, 449 00:31:12,565 --> 00:31:17,525 Speaker 1: working toilets, clean water, the state mostly expected them to 450 00:31:17,525 --> 00:31:21,645 Speaker 1: pick enough cotton to get it themselves. I wondered if 451 00:31:21,645 --> 00:31:24,005 Speaker 1: Cornelian knew what she was doing handing the school over 452 00:31:24,005 --> 00:31:27,285 Speaker 1: to the state of Alabama, if she expected Mount Megs's 453 00:31:27,285 --> 00:31:31,245 Speaker 1: fall to be so swift, So to expect that, as 454 00:31:31,285 --> 00:31:36,565 Speaker 1: Miss Bowen and other individuals begin to retire out and 455 00:31:36,645 --> 00:31:41,365 Speaker 1: transition out, you now have the state system responsible for 456 00:31:41,525 --> 00:31:45,285 Speaker 1: the well being of these children, and to expect that 457 00:31:45,325 --> 00:31:49,725 Speaker 1: they would do so respectfully and in love. In Jim Crow, 458 00:31:49,805 --> 00:31:56,485 Speaker 1: Alabama is cotta insane given the context of where we're located, 459 00:31:57,325 --> 00:31:59,765 Speaker 1: and how might the women who made Mount Meg's possible 460 00:32:00,005 --> 00:32:05,325 Speaker 1: have felt about what this school became. They created the 461 00:32:05,525 --> 00:32:09,405 Speaker 1: Mountain Meg's a formatory for colored boys because they didn't 462 00:32:09,445 --> 00:32:12,405 Speaker 1: trust anybody else to do it, And I would think 463 00:32:12,445 --> 00:32:15,925 Speaker 1: that they would not be surprised. I think they would 464 00:32:15,925 --> 00:32:20,325 Speaker 1: be upset that we allowed it to happen. I think 465 00:32:20,365 --> 00:32:22,325 Speaker 1: they would be upset that we allowed it to happen. 466 00:32:24,645 --> 00:32:26,765 Speaker 1: When I was reading or talking to people about their 467 00:32:26,765 --> 00:32:30,005 Speaker 1: personal experiences at Mount Meg's, I had to keep reminding 468 00:32:30,045 --> 00:32:34,245 Speaker 1: myself that it was a school, because by the time Lonnie, Mary, Jenny, 469 00:32:34,325 --> 00:32:37,405 Speaker 1: and Johnny were all incarcerated there in the nineteen sixties, 470 00:32:37,525 --> 00:32:40,845 Speaker 1: Mount Meg's had become something very different. What more than 471 00:32:40,885 --> 00:32:44,885 Speaker 1: one person called a slave camp. But it hadn't always 472 00:32:44,925 --> 00:32:48,485 Speaker 1: been like that, not that bad. Even after the school 473 00:32:48,565 --> 00:32:51,605 Speaker 1: was handed over to the state, it maintained some level 474 00:32:51,645 --> 00:32:59,205 Speaker 1: of humanity, at least at the beginning. So let's go 475 00:32:59,285 --> 00:33:02,565 Speaker 1: back to nineteen eighteen, when, at the age of twelve, 476 00:33:02,765 --> 00:33:06,125 Speaker 1: Satchel Page was arrested and sentenced to six years at 477 00:33:06,125 --> 00:33:10,125 Speaker 1: Mount Meg's. The charge boys, who at the time were 478 00:33:10,165 --> 00:33:14,525 Speaker 1: exemplary fellow students, were trusted to transport him fifteen miles 479 00:33:14,525 --> 00:33:20,125 Speaker 1: in a wagon to Mount Meg's. Here's author Donald Spivey 480 00:33:20,125 --> 00:33:25,085 Speaker 1: again he sees the plays. It is clear that this 481 00:33:26,125 --> 00:33:29,205 Speaker 1: is not what he thought it would be. He was 482 00:33:29,245 --> 00:33:32,925 Speaker 1: looking for some plays, probably with bars and all of 483 00:33:32,965 --> 00:33:39,605 Speaker 1: that sort of right, and there were no bars, no bars, 484 00:33:40,205 --> 00:33:44,725 Speaker 1: no cells. Instead, Satchel found a meal, clothes and a 485 00:33:44,765 --> 00:33:47,525 Speaker 1: pair of shoes waiting for him, hand me downs that 486 00:33:47,645 --> 00:33:51,325 Speaker 1: to him looked brand new. The boys had to adhere 487 00:33:51,325 --> 00:33:55,885 Speaker 1: to a strict routine sunrise, wake up, morning, prayer, breakfast, 488 00:33:56,405 --> 00:34:00,125 Speaker 1: and then chores like feeding the livestock or mending the buildings, 489 00:34:00,205 --> 00:34:04,165 Speaker 1: or cleaning the schoolroom or harvesting the crops. The rest 490 00:34:04,205 --> 00:34:06,245 Speaker 1: of the time, the boys works affected to be in 491 00:34:06,245 --> 00:34:11,045 Speaker 1: the schoolroom, learning arithmetic, reading and writing a classic book, 492 00:34:11,125 --> 00:34:15,365 Speaker 1: or t industrial education. This model actually worked in the 493 00:34:15,405 --> 00:34:19,925 Speaker 1: case of Satchell Page. Perhaps that's because during Satchell's time there, 494 00:34:20,005 --> 00:34:24,645 Speaker 1: Cornelia Bowen's influence still permeated the school. She didn't run 495 00:34:24,645 --> 00:34:26,925 Speaker 1: the school anymore, but she remained on the board and 496 00:34:27,005 --> 00:34:30,885 Speaker 1: was still closely involved, and Satchell became one of Cornelia's 497 00:34:30,925 --> 00:34:35,405 Speaker 1: favorite students. Good behavior earned Satchel the privilege of joining 498 00:34:35,405 --> 00:34:38,645 Speaker 1: the Mount Meg's baseball team, a group of boys with 499 00:34:38,685 --> 00:34:42,685 Speaker 1: a special place in Cornelia's heart. She's the one who 500 00:34:42,725 --> 00:34:47,885 Speaker 1: believes that baseball sports can be a reclamation project, so 501 00:34:47,965 --> 00:34:51,525 Speaker 1: this is a reward for the boys, but it's also 502 00:34:51,565 --> 00:34:55,725 Speaker 1: a teaching tool to get them to understand sportsmanship, to 503 00:34:56,605 --> 00:35:01,765 Speaker 1: understand working together, and it's a process that she uses 504 00:35:01,845 --> 00:35:06,445 Speaker 1: quite effectively. Satchel Page, the legendary Picture, learned how to 505 00:35:06,485 --> 00:35:14,565 Speaker 1: play baseball at Mount Meg's. Playing baseball open Satchel's world. 506 00:35:15,085 --> 00:35:18,085 Speaker 1: The team traveled to play games sometimes, and there were 507 00:35:18,125 --> 00:35:21,165 Speaker 1: big picnics where Mount Meg's students and the surrounding community 508 00:35:21,365 --> 00:35:26,525 Speaker 1: would come out to cheer them on. And when Satchel 509 00:35:26,605 --> 00:35:30,165 Speaker 1: left Mount Meg's five years later, the story is that 510 00:35:30,245 --> 00:35:33,645 Speaker 1: he had been transformed for the better. And he came 511 00:35:33,645 --> 00:35:36,645 Speaker 1: out with a nice pair of shoes and clothes. And 512 00:35:36,765 --> 00:35:38,765 Speaker 1: I forget how much they gave you back, Dan a 513 00:35:38,805 --> 00:35:42,525 Speaker 1: couple of dollars. And it knew how to pitch, he said, 514 00:35:42,525 --> 00:35:45,125 Speaker 1: If training five years of my life to learn how 515 00:35:45,165 --> 00:35:48,845 Speaker 1: to pitch like this, it was well worth it. The 516 00:35:48,965 --> 00:35:52,605 Speaker 1: year Satchel arrives, Mount Meg's seems to be a success story. 517 00:35:53,725 --> 00:35:57,565 Speaker 1: The reformatory is doing splendid work, said one nineteen eighteen article. 518 00:35:58,445 --> 00:36:02,965 Speaker 1: Substantial improvement has been made, said another. Cornelia in the 519 00:36:02,965 --> 00:36:06,245 Speaker 1: club are thinking of starting a school just like for girls. 520 00:36:07,885 --> 00:36:10,605 Speaker 1: But in the end there were so few Satchel pages, 521 00:36:11,925 --> 00:36:14,925 Speaker 1: it seems way likelier that most of the kids were 522 00:36:15,005 --> 00:36:19,525 Speaker 1: Lonnies and Jennies and Johnnies and Mary's. By nineteen twenty, 523 00:36:19,605 --> 00:36:23,005 Speaker 1: everything at Mount Meg's was being rationed, from the tools 524 00:36:23,045 --> 00:36:26,245 Speaker 1: to the food, and even with money from the state, 525 00:36:26,765 --> 00:36:29,685 Speaker 1: the Federation of Women still had to fundraise to cover 526 00:36:29,805 --> 00:36:34,885 Speaker 1: infrastructure and faculty salaries. Farming, which was once just part 527 00:36:34,925 --> 00:36:39,005 Speaker 1: of the industrial education model, quickly became the school's primary 528 00:36:39,005 --> 00:36:42,885 Speaker 1: source of income. That made the boy's labor essential to 529 00:36:42,965 --> 00:36:46,605 Speaker 1: keeping the school in operation. In nineteen twenty, the governor 530 00:36:46,645 --> 00:36:49,725 Speaker 1: of Alabama wrote to the school informing them that he 531 00:36:49,805 --> 00:36:53,285 Speaker 1: was prepared to parole some of the boys. The school's 532 00:36:53,325 --> 00:36:58,805 Speaker 1: assistant superintendent, JR. Wingfield responded, discouraging the governor from releasing 533 00:36:58,845 --> 00:37:01,805 Speaker 1: five of the boys because he needed them to operate 534 00:37:01,845 --> 00:37:05,205 Speaker 1: the machinery. He wrote, I would like for the Governor 535 00:37:05,245 --> 00:37:07,965 Speaker 1: to withhold his actions until we can train a boy 536 00:37:08,325 --> 00:37:11,125 Speaker 1: to take each of these places. I hope that you 537 00:37:11,165 --> 00:37:14,485 Speaker 1: will understand my position clearly. I do not object to 538 00:37:14,565 --> 00:37:17,725 Speaker 1: parolling the boys. They might wait just a little while 539 00:37:17,845 --> 00:37:21,045 Speaker 1: till we can get their places filled, rather than disarrange 540 00:37:21,125 --> 00:37:26,445 Speaker 1: and inconvenience everything. This was what Mount Meg's became, a 541 00:37:26,565 --> 00:37:29,805 Speaker 1: labor camp for black children and yet another way for 542 00:37:29,925 --> 00:37:33,645 Speaker 1: black work to generate white money. The state told students 543 00:37:33,725 --> 00:37:36,445 Speaker 1: they were there for their own improvement, but it was 544 00:37:36,485 --> 00:37:39,805 Speaker 1: glaringly clear that they were there for the benefit of Alabama. 545 00:37:41,045 --> 00:37:43,765 Speaker 1: With the state's dependence on the unpaid labor of its 546 00:37:43,805 --> 00:37:48,605 Speaker 1: black child prisoners, Mount Meg's mission shifted from rehabilitating its 547 00:37:48,605 --> 00:37:53,445 Speaker 1: words to exploiting them. But the violence at Mount Meg's 548 00:37:53,605 --> 00:37:57,405 Speaker 1: was often met with resistance. Starting even in Sachil Pages 549 00:37:57,485 --> 00:38:01,965 Speaker 1: Day notices started appearing in the local newspapers, ratcheting up 550 00:38:02,005 --> 00:38:05,765 Speaker 1: through the fifties and sixties. They said things like six 551 00:38:05,885 --> 00:38:10,165 Speaker 1: armed Negroes escaped Mount Meg's Industrial School, or police seeking 552 00:38:10,285 --> 00:38:14,485 Speaker 1: escape artist in Burglary running away was a regular part 553 00:38:14,525 --> 00:38:19,085 Speaker 1: of the Mount Meg's experience. On the next episode of Unreformed, 554 00:38:19,285 --> 00:38:22,045 Speaker 1: we hear about these escapes and we look at one 555 00:38:22,085 --> 00:38:31,085 Speaker 1: in particular and its harrowing consequences. Unreformed, The Story of 556 00:38:31,085 --> 00:38:34,285 Speaker 1: the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children is a production 557 00:38:34,285 --> 00:38:37,405 Speaker 1: of School of Humans and iHeartMedia. This episode was written 558 00:38:37,445 --> 00:38:40,365 Speaker 1: by me Josie Deffie, Rice and Taylor von Leslie. Our 559 00:38:40,405 --> 00:38:43,725 Speaker 1: script supervisors Florence Burrow Adams, and our producer is Gabby Watts, 560 00:38:43,965 --> 00:38:46,725 Speaker 1: who had additional writing and production support from Sherry Scott. 561 00:38:47,125 --> 00:38:50,445 Speaker 1: Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Elsie Crowley, Brandon Barr, Matt 562 00:38:50,525 --> 00:38:53,885 Speaker 1: Arnette and Knee. Sound design and mixes by Jesse Niswanger. 563 00:38:54,285 --> 00:38:57,325 Speaker 1: Music is by Ben Soli. Additional recordings our courtesy of 564 00:38:57,325 --> 00:39:00,285 Speaker 1: the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture. The song featured in 565 00:39:00,325 --> 00:39:03,285 Speaker 1: this episode is Jesus My Only Friend by Mary le Bandolf. 566 00:39:03,565 --> 00:39:06,645 Speaker 1: Cornelia Bowen was voiced by ALBI Award Special Things to 567 00:39:06,685 --> 00:39:09,845 Speaker 1: the Alabima Department of Archives and History, Michael Harriet, Floyd Hall, 568 00:39:09,965 --> 00:39:12,365 Speaker 1: Kevin Nutt, Van Newkirk, and all of the survivors of 569 00:39:12,445 --> 00:39:15,645 Speaker 1: Mount Meg's willing to share their stories. If you are 570 00:39:15,645 --> 00:39:17,365 Speaker 1: someone you know attendant Mount Megs and would like to 571 00:39:17,405 --> 00:39:21,365 Speaker 1: be in contact, please email Mountmegs Podcast at gmail dot com. 572 00:39:21,365 --> 00:39:24,885 Speaker 1: That's Mt M e i G S Podcast at gmail 573 00:39:24,925 --> 00:39:41,885 Speaker 1: dot com. School of Humans