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The Early History of
Cincinnati Public Schools
The Cincinnati Public School District dates from its official start in 1829 as a district
called The Common Schools of Cincinnati.
The City of Cincinnati was founded in 1788 on the
Ohio River bank opposite the mouth of the Licking River. By the early
1800s, several public schools were operating, making Cincinnati the first
to have a public school system in the new Northwest Territory, according
to a 1902 book by John B. Shotwell, “Schools of Cincinnati.”
Leather tanner William Woodward and his wife,
Abigail Cutter, donated land on Sycamore Street in 1827 for a public
school. In 1831, Woodward High School opened on what is now the site of
the School for Creative and Performing Arts. The first successful school
in the city, Woodward today remains the oldest public school west of the
Allegheny Mountains. Famous Woodward graduates include President William Howard
Taft. In the mid-1840s, William McGuffey, author of the famous readers,
was a Woodward teacher.
An Ohio state law passed in 1825 allowed a
half-mill tax to be collected to pay for public schools. That led to the
establishment in 1829 of “The Common Schools of Cincinnati.” The district
was run by “The Board of Trustees and Visitors,” with one member elected
from each ward by popular vote of the public. The Board’s name was changed
in 1868 to the “Board of Education.”
For two decades, there was no superintendent. The
Board ran the district, doing inspections of schools and hiring teachers.
On March 23, 1850, a special state act authorized the election of a
superintendent by popular vote of the public. Nathan Guilford, a lawyer
and state senator who had helped create the 1825 school-funding law, was
elected the district’s first superintendent. He served from 1850-52.
Joseph Merrill, elected superintendent in 1853, followed him. After 1853,
the Board received authority to appoint its superintendent.
The first printed report on the district appeared
in 1833, according to Shotwell. The district then enrolled 1,900 students
and had spent $7,778 on its schools in 1832.
The district struggled financially in the early
years. An 1831 report mentions that, “many of the schools were poorly
lighted and situated in unhealthful localities.’’
The Board, seeking ways to ignite interest in the
schools, began in the 1830s to hold annual public examinations of
students. Invited to watch were the press, teachers from other states,
politicians and students’ family and friends. In 1833, the examination
ended with students parading through the streets before enthusiastic
crowds. The interest stuck, and within two years, the district had built
new, model schools throughout the city.
Cincinnati schools continued to grow in
popularity. A German Department was added in 1840 to help educate the
city’s growing German-immigrant population. By 1846, enrollment had grown
to 7,000 students, and the district employed 76 teachers and was overseen
by a 20-member Board of Education. Enrollment grew by 1850 to 11,000
students taught by 124 teachers.
Nine years before the Civil War, the city’s
African-American residents successfully moved to create their own,
separate public school system. In 1852, the state granted them the right
to create and operate the Independent Colored School System. Financed by
proceeds from taxes on property owned by blacks and operated by a board
elected by African-Americans, this school system was credited for
providing a base for Cincinnati’s emerging black middle class, according
to an account in “Cincinnati — The Queen City” by Daniel Hurley.
After black males were enfranchised by the 15th
Amendment, the independent black school board was abolished in 1874 and
the system was gradually dismantled. Ten years later, the only school that
remained was the Elm Street School, which became Douglass School in 1910.
In 1914, an African-American teacher in Cincinnati
Public Schools, Jennie D. Porter, persuaded the Cincinnati Board of
Education to allow her to organize a segregated school with black teachers
and a black student body in the West End. Although Porter’s Harriet
Beecher Stowe School was successful, it was also controversial among some
black leaders in the community. One of the most prominent, newspaper
publisher Wendell Phillips Dabney, was outspoken in his criticism of
Porter, arguing for true integration. Stowe remained an all-black school
until it closed in 1962.
Sources: “ Cincinnati: An Urban
History,” published by the Cincinnati Historical Society (1989); “History
of the Schools of Cincinnati and Other Educational Institutions – 1900,”
compiled and published by Isaac M. Martin; “Schools of Cincinnati,” By
John B. Shotwell (1902); “The Schools of Cincinnati and Its Vicinity,”
J.P. Foote (1855); and “Cincinnati – The Queen City,” by Daniel Hurley
(1982, Cincinnati Historical Society).
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