Lucy Craft Laney was a trailblazing Black educator. In 1883, she founded the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Georgia, named for the school’s primary benefactor. Lucy Craft Laney was the principal of the school from 1883-1933. In addition to Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, Laney founded the first African American kindergarten in Georgia and the first nurse training programs for African Americans.
Early Life
Lucy Craft Laney was born on April 13, 1854. She was one of ten children. Her parents weren’t enslaved. They purchased their freedom twenty years prior to Lucy’s birth. Lucy learned to read and write at the age of four. She could also translate passages of Latin by the age of twelve.
In 1869, she enrolled in Atlanta University (later known as Clark Atlanta University). She graduated from teacher training in 1873. Despite her knowledge of Latin, she was not allowed to take Classics courses because she was a woman.
Teaching Career
After teaching for ten years in various cities in Georgia, she started a school in 1883 in the basement of Christ Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia. She received a state charter for the school three years later. Lucy intended for the school to be only for Black girls, but she did admit some Black boys who were in need of education.
She was always searching for funding for Haines Normal School. In 1886, she attended the General Assembly of the Northern Presbyterian Church and addressed the all-white assembly in the hopes of getting funding. She received none.
However, a white woman by the name of Mrs. Francine E.H. Haines overheard her speech at the assembly and contacted Lucy. Mrs. Haines donated $10,000 to the school and became a lifelong benefactor of the school. Lucy named the school after Mrs. Haines.
By 1912, Haines School employed 34 teachers and had 900 enrolled students. It also included a fifth year of college preparatory education which included Classics training. Many of the graduates of the school matriculated at Howard, Fisk, Yale, and other renowned universities.
Activism and End of Life
Lucy founded a local chapter of the NAACP in Augusta, Georgia. She, along with Henry McNeal Turner and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were the first African Americans to have their portraits hung in the Georgia State Capitol. She died on October 23, 1933.
Source: The Lucy Craft Laney Museum
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