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Introduction
When exploring the multifaceted history of African American education in Pennsylvania from the eighteenth through late twentieth century, it is best to approach the subject by looking more closely at three central themes: African American schooling, which occurred in formal and informal public and private settings, and under the auspices of religious, secular, or state governance; the advent and maintenance of literary societies and adult-based, male and female, extracurricular educational organizations; and the history and development of the two African American colleges, Lincoln and Cheyney universities, both of which flourish as active institutions in the nation's Historically Black College and University (HBCU) system.
Beginning in the eighteenth century, a number of African American and white religious leaders, as well as Black businessmen, often led the charge for the creation of private educational institutions for African American youth. These individuals were spurred at first by the absence of, and later the neglect by, Pennsylvania to provide adequate public education to African American children. The discourse surrounding the debate over African American educational opportunities once the Commonwealth entered into the fray, however, quickly turned into one of segregation versus integration, which galvanized proponents and opponents on both sides of the racial divide.
The abundance of African American literary societies and educational clubs, organized during the nineteenth century, afforded their adult members a forum for learning, although their constituents were largely women and men of the middle and upper classes. The institutions identified as HBCUs differed not only in their origins but also in their missions; they underwent numerous changes in the types of education they provided and they served as foundations for rhe founding of educational fraternities and societies.
Private, Parochial, and Public Education
Founded in 1897, the Transeau School, Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pa., served the children of the 13th Ward as an integrated public elementary school. The school disbanded in 1955.
The first formal educational institution in Pennsylvania to which African Americans were admitted dates to at least 1740, when Robert Bolton, a dance instructor and proprietor of a dancing hall, opened a school for African American and white students. Bolton attended the evangelical sermons of George Whitefield, an itinerant Anglican evangelical minister who played a large role in the Great Awakening of 1739-1740. He...