The American Negro Academy was the first organization in the United States to support African-American academic scholarship. It operated from 1897 to 1928, and encouraged classical academic studies and liberal arts. It was formed to provide support to classic scholarship, in contrast to Booker T. Washington's approach to education at Washington's Tuskegee University where vocational and industrial training for southern blacks was emphasized. Washington thought these areas of study were more practical for the lives most would live in the segregated South, where most blacks lived in rural areas.
Founder members
The founders of the ANA were primarily authors, scholars, and artists. They included Alexander Crummell, an Episcopal priest and Republican from New York City; John Wesley Cromwell of Washington, DC; Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet and writer in Washington; Walter B. Hayson, and Kelly Miller. Crummell served as the first president. Their first meeting on March 5, 1897 included eighteen members:
Blanche K. Bruce
Levi J. Coppin
William H. Crogman
John Wesley Cromwell
Dr. Alexander Crummell, an Episcopal clergyman, trained in theology and a prominent church founder.
The Academy was organized in 1897 in Washington, D.C. Black newspapers expressed excitement that the Academy would have wide possibilities to serve a large audience, seeking to elevate the race through educational enlightenment. Through an assessment of statistical tends, mainly concerning black illiteracy, the Academy-based its work that was to then be published in its Occasional Papers. The scholarly contributions aided the spirit of blacks who were being forced into legal segregation in southern states. The Academy generally held an annual meeting of one-two days at the Lincoln Memorial Church in Washington, D.C. A public audience was invited to attend all but the Academy's business meetings, reserved solely for members. The schedule would occupy the entire day. Reports were presented by the Academy's secretary and treasurer. During this time, new membership applications to the Academy were considered, as well as discussions on current business. In the evening, an annual address was delivered. For example, W.E.B. Du Bois presented the Academy's second annual address. A presentation of a paper would follow. The following day, after several paper presentations, discussions took place. Discussions centered around the efficacy of a scholar's musings. In order to distribute the works of various Academy members, copies were available upon requests made directly to the Academy's secretary, or through newspaper requests.
Legacy and efficacy
The ANA took its turn in the struggle for equal rights for blacks. It was organized shortly after the United States Supreme Court had upheld the principle of "separate but equal" in the 1896 case, Plessy v. Ferguson. Du Bois suggested that a Talented Tenth of African Americans, primarily composed of blacks trained in classical higher education, could lead in educating masses of black citizens. Most of the latter would work in rural or unskilled jobs; in the South they suffered second-class status. Through a publication of works among the Academy's Occasional Papers, the group wanted to expand the reach of its scholarship, and to aid black intellectuals' efforts having influence on “his schools, academies and colleges; and then enters his pulpits; and so filters down into his families and his homes…to be a laborer with intelligence, enlightenment and manly ambitions”. Scholars have disputed the influence of the Academy. Dr. Alfred A. Moss Jr. argued for its efficacy in The American Negro Academy: Voice of the Talented Tenth. In his analysis of a collection of private letters written by Crummell, Moss explains that nearly from the beginning, the Academy was bound to become fully defunct. The organization was unable to consistently organize; it struggled to recruit new members, and to raise scholarship funds for educational uplift of more students. Moss claims that founding member Archibald Henry Grimké expressed in his writings an understanding of the difficulties and socio-economic hardships among African Americans, but that due to efforts to unseat Grimké as ANA president, he was more concerned with self-serving interests.
