Thursday, December 14, 2023

It is the 14th of December, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

It should be of no surprise to regular listeners that the history of education and the church have forever been intertwined in the West. The earliest schools were cathedral schools for the training of future ministers and canon (church) lawyers.

It was the Protestant Reformation that sparked a revolution in literacy- with a Bible, books, and church service in the vernacular, there was a new impetus to teach boys and girls even if they weren’t destined for church work.

In England and America, the “Sunday school” was not initially a place for juice and crackers while parents were in “big church.” Sunday schools were church-sponsored schools- free schools- to educate those who couldn’t afford a basic education- they were the precursors to the great American experiment of free education for all. And part of any education, it was believed, was a grounding in the Bible and Christian faith.

 It was in the American South, post-Civil War, that education was seen as a means to not only education but emancipation as well. And it was the Baptists and Methodists, amongst other Christian denominations, that supported these schools financially and tied the life of the student to the life of the church.

This brings us to a remarkable but unheralded hero in the history of the church and education in the South. She was Elizabeth Evelyn Wright- born in 1872, the 7th of 21 children. Her mother was a Cherokee, and her father was an African American and former slave.

Due to economic strain, Elizabeth was sent to live with her grandmother and uncle at the age of 5. By the time she was 10, she was involved in the local Episcopal church and school and, by 14, was praying for direction in life.

It was there, by a tree she passed daily, that a piece of paper flew up in her face. Part of this flying scrap was an advertisement for Book T. Washington’s Tuskegee School in Alabama for “colored youth” where they could get an education.  One of her teachers encouraged her to study and save (and gave her housework to do in exchange for money). She made her way to the Tuskegee school, where she impressed Mrs. Washington, and on account of being sickly, Evelyn was granted a scholarship such that she could study without the work conditions attached to most.

Upon graduating, it was her desire to open a school like Tuskegee- she traveled across the deep south in her native Georgia and then up into South Carolina. She went from church to church with her plan and raised some money, but her plans were stopped, often by sabotage. A woman, an African American woman, and a woman who spoke in various churches were seen as suspicious.

It was in Denmark, South Carolina, that Evelyn spotted a large tract of land and inquired about its sale. The owner, a state senator, suggested that if she received a recommendation from Booker T. Washington, he would consider it. The letter came, and the senator was good on his word. But there were more troubles- one of Elizabeth’s fellow teachers and fundraisers was a Seventh-Day Adventist, which caused some consternation. Secondly, Elizabeth’s frailty led to her being sent to a sanitarium- that of the famous Adventist and Cereal magnate, Kellog, in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Eventually, it was philanthropists from the north- Ralph and Elizabeth Voorhees (yes, with a common ancestor of Steven Coert van Voorhis of Brooklyn) who put up the money to not only build out on the 120 acres from the senator but also rebuild when the woman dorm was burned down. The Voorhees money was not contingent on the school belonging to one denomination- they called it “multi-denominational.” Wright would return and see the school- now called the Voorhees Industrial School- grow to an enrollment of 299 with 75 boarding in 1903. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Evelyn Wright's frailties caught up with her, and she died on the 14th of December in 1906. The school would later partner with the Episcopal church, and last year, it was named “Voorhees University” for its 125th anniversary. We remember its dogged founder- the first woman to found a historically black college in America: Elizabeth Evelyn Wright. She died at the age of 34.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary from the book of Philippians.

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 14th of December 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose own Gillespie College would teach the Augsburg Confession, as well as audio, coffee, and beard management; he is Christopher Gillespie. 

The show is written and read by a man thankful his branch of the family kept the van and thus kept us somewhat insulated from the connection to Jason of Friday the 13th Fame. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.