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FREEDOMWAYS                             FOURTH QUARTER 1968

"African." Where the African population in the North was sparse, the African children were generally admitted to existing parochial and to the slowly developing public schools. Secondary free education developed even more slowly; the admission of African children to the private, usually parochial secondary schools, sometimes provoked violent community opposition, as in the case of Prudence Crandall's unsuccessful attempt, at Canterbury, Connecticut, to operate a racially integrated school for girls. When Miss Crandall then tried to continue her school for African children if none other would attend a state law was passed making her school an illegal operation. Miss Crandall was arrested and convicted of violating the law. On appeal, she was acquitted but local harassment forced her to close the school. The redoubtable Beriah Green, who operated a school, for boys in Oneida Country, New York, admitted African youth in spite of determined opposition from his community. Among them was the boy Alexander Crummel, who had received his elementary education in the African Free Schools of New York City. Crummel later took a baccalaureate degree at Queens College of Cambridge University. In The Souls of Black Folk, in 1903, Du Bois penned an eloquent tribute to Crummell for his inspiring leadership qualities:

"And now that his is gone, I sweep the Veil away and cry, Lo! the soul to whose dear memory I bring this little tribute. . . . The more I met Alexander Crummell, the more I felt how much that world was losing which knew so little of him."

In Philadelphia, in 1831, the Quakers established an Institute for Colored Youth, that was an extension of the African Free School established by Anthony Benezet in 1758. Here were educated many of the leaders of the next generation.

In Philadelphia, in 1831, the Quakers established an Institute for Colored Youth, that was an extension of the African Free School established by Anthony Benezet in 1758. Here were educated many of the leaders of the next generation. 
Higher education was infrequently available to the African. Few institutions admitted them. Oberlin College, founded in 1834, encouraged their attendance; a handful attended, and graduated from other institutions. Two African native-born seamen were sent from Newport, Rhode Island, in 1774, to the College of New Jersey-now Princeton- with the idea of being trained for missionary and teaching work in Africa. Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, was founded in 1854 as Ashmun Institute, with the specific aim of educating American and native Africans for missionary service in Africa. It was not until the end of the Civil War in 1865, that numerous colleges especially intended for the benefit of persons of African descent were established throughout the South; they were staffed 

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