Peabody Fund

In the years after the Civil War, a number of northern philanthropists and progressive Southerners took an interest in supporting free, public education in the South. One of the most prominent of the philanthropists was George Peabody (1795–1869), who established the Peabody Education Fund in 1867 to rebuild and improve Southern schools. The fund gave a total of $2,478,000 to strengthen education in the former Confederacy and West Virginia during the 30 years between 1867 and 1898. Because the resources of the fund were directed toward strengthening existing schools, no money went to the education of freed Blacks in the early years. Later, after Black schools had been established, the trustees adopted a deliberate policy of directing the majority of the grants to White schools, thereby playing a significant part in establishing a segregated system of education across the South. Even though the fund did very little to improve educational prospects for Black children, it contributed to significant reform of White schools and helped overcome resistance to free, public schooling in the South. When the fund was dissolved in 1898, the remaining money was given to George Peabody College for Teachers.

Despite sporadic attempts to establish public schools, most notably in North Carolina, the idea of free, state-sponsored public education did not take firm root in the South prior to the Civil War. Since the establishment of public school systems for both Blacks and Whites was a condition for readmission to the Union, southern states were forced to confront the issue during Reconstruction. The former Confederacy was so deeply impoverished, however, that there was little likelihood that anything resembling quality public education would be possible. In addition, public sentiment for universal education was sorely lacking. The South had a tradition of private education for those who could afford it, and common schools were few and far between. Clearly the South needed help if free, public education were to become a reality.

In 1866 George Peabody, a wealthy American émigré who made his home in London, toured the South and was appalled by the conditions he observed there. Becoming convinced that public education was the most effective means of rebuilding the southern economy and promoting reunification, Peabody established a philanthropic trust to improve public schools and support teacher education. The Peabody Education Fund (PEF) was governed by a board of trustees made up of prominent gentlemen from the North and South, including General Ulysses S. Grant, [Page 688]Admiral David C. Farragut, and the former governors of North and South Carolina. Barnas Sears, who had succeeded Horace Mann as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education and later served as president of Brown University, was appointed to manage the Fund.

From its beginning, the resources of the PEF were targeted almost entirely at schools for White children. Sears urged the trustees to establish model schools by giving money to improve existing public schools, which, in the early days of the Fund, were almost invariably White. This policy was seen as a more effective way to promote quality education than spreading the money more thinly to create new schools across the South. Later, Sears persuaded the trustees to award funds to Black schools at a level one-third of that for White schools. He justified this by observing that it cost much less to maintain the inferior schools that became the norm for Black children. Sears also advocated the use of PEF monies to support only segregated schools, and again the trustees agreed. When Louisiana and South Carolina made brief, abortive attempts to establish integrated schools during the Radical Reconstruction period, the Fund contributed $17,000 to private, Whites-only schools on the grounds that White children would not attend mixed-race schools. Sears also took an active role in successfully opposing Senator Charles Sumner's efforts to mandate mixed schools as part of the Civil Rights Bill of 1875. Sears's judicious application of PEF money and political influence to promote segregated schools decoupled public schooling from mixed-race schooling and helped remove the Reconstruction taint from the idea of free, public education. Educational reform supported by the PEF was a Whites-only enterprise. During the 30 years of its existence, the PEF played a significant role in establishing segregated schooling as the foundation of southern public education.

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