School
The house, on the Canterbury Town Green, was empty and available for sale in 1831, and Crandall purchased the house for $500 down payment plus a $1500 mortgage.
It was the site of a girls school run by Prudence Crandall during 1832–1834 that first had all-white students, then Crandall admitted one black girl, which made the school into what is believed to be the first integrated school in the United States. That led to immediate protest and withdrawal of the white girl students. The school was then was closed and reopened as an all-black school, first with three then eventually 24 students, mostly boarding students from out-of-state. The school was challenged locally and in court rulings up to the state supreme court level. The case became a "cause celebre" nation-wide, and was subject of William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator and other newspaper coverage.
The Connecticut legislature passed a law, the "Black Law" in 1833, which prohibited blacks from out-of-state to receive education unless the school's town specifically allowed it. Undaunted, Crandall proceeded. She was arrested and put in jail over one night in August 1833. Later, after receiving a court ruling in favor of the school, a mob attacked the school with clubs and iron bars, breaking 90 windows on September 9, 1834. Crandall closed the school the next day.
Read more about this topic: Prudence Crandall House
Famous quotes containing the word school:
“A man who graduated high in his class at Yale Law School and made partnership in a top law firm would be celebrated. A man who invested wisely would be admired, but a woman who accomplishes this is treated with suspicion.”
—Barbra Streisand (b. 1942)
“A man of sense and energy, the late head of the Farm School in Boston Harbor, said to me, “I want none of your good boys,Mgive me the bad ones.” And this is the reason, I suppose, why, as soon as the children are good, the mothers are scared, and think they are going to die.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The most powerful lessons about ethics and morality do not come from school discussions or classes in character building. They come from family life where people treat one another with respect, consideration, and love.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)