Implementing Historically Black Education Strategies at the Presbyterian Congo Mission, 1918–1919

This chapter details aspects of Fisk University, Stillman Institute, and Tuskegee Institute that Althea Brown and Alonzo Edmiston adapted for religious education from 1918 to 1919. It analyzes each missionary’s experiences at one of these campuses between 1892 and 1904 to show the academic roots of their perspectives on art, folklore, finance, local politics, and sustainable agriculture. Details of the consequences of colonial taxation and forced labor help explain why the Edmistons’ plans for the Luebo Agricultural College failed the following year. Descriptions of the student body suggest that the legacy of the college reflected its balance of classical and industrial education even when its agricultural goals went unmet.