The Black Pioneers of Los Angeles County: The “Colored School” of Los Angeles, 1865-1875

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

The establishment of public schools in Los Angeles in 1854, coming four years after the establishment of the incorporated city under the American system of government, took place at a time when the education of children was slowly moving toward a standard of near-universal literacy, though there was still a long way to go.

Then there was the matter of which children. In the City of Angels, there was a small African-American community, with only about ten persons enumerated in the 1850 federal census (taken early in 1851 because of California’s admission to the Union in September) and nearly three dozen in the sole state census, conducted in 1852 because of the severe undercount of the federal enumeration. The Black population grew to about 85 in the census of 1860 and then to over 120 a decade later. In 1880, the total was about 180, though there may have been a decline due to an economic depression that led to a drop in the overall population in the county.

The earliest located mention of the education of African-American children in Los Angeles-area newspapers is in 1865, just after the conclusion of the Civil War, during which came the Emancipation Proclamation and the freeing of slaves. While the Black population of the Angel City was far removed physically from what transpired elsewhere in the country, they certainly were not emotionally or intellectually detached, as they celebrated emancipation, along with the passage of the 15th Amendment, which established voting rights for African-American men.

Moreover, they did what they could to build and support community institutions, such as the establishment, by 1870, of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, clubs and organizations, and what was commonly referred to as the “colored school” for the education of Black children. The first found reference to the school was in the 26 August 1865 issue of the Wilmington Journal, which used the equipment and press of the Los Angeles Star, after it closed in fall 1864 after thirteen years of operation.

The Journal noted that “some months ago State Superintendent [of schools] Swett severely criticized the condition of Los Angeles schools,” including his critique of inadequate desks “admirably adjusted to twist the spines of growing girls and break the backs and weary the legs of sturdier boys.” The superintendent was also quoted as commenting, “it cannot be said that Los Angeles county offers to families any superior school facilities as an inducement to settle there.” 

In fact, the Workman and Temple family relied on sending children to other parts of the country or on private instruction at the Workman House from Frederick Lambourn, who went on to be foreman of William Workman’s share of Rancho La Puente, a member of the state Assembly, and a prominent wholesale merchant. Some family members attended schools in Maryland and Massachusetts, as well as northern California because of the highly inadequate facilities in Los Angeles. Moreover, given the poor state of public schools, the Roman Catholic Church opened St. Vincent’s College in 1865 to educate young men from about fourth grade through college, while the Sisters of Charity School provided scholarship for girls.

A journalist from the Journal joined superintendent, Rev. Elias Birdsall and a trustee named Clarke on a tour of public schools, with the boys’ grammar school of thirty scholars having newly acquired desks, while the younger “primary” students of about fifty in number were still using desks old enough, it was stated, to have been from the time of Noah. At the second city school, there was a primary section of thirty students and the girls’ grammar school of forty scholars. In all, these schools were considered to be operating well enough and the reporter then recorded,

We supposed our visiting was ended when we left this well conducted school, but it was thought best to make one more call. So after a short walk we entered the colored school, taught by Mr. Thompson, who received us in his shirt-sleeves [that is, with no coat]—his spectacles on the top of his forehead and the perspiration pouring down his face. He teaches in a small room, [and] has about thirteen scholars, who seem to be interested in their studies.

The fact that the visit to the African-American school was something of an afterthought and the description of a sweating teacher in the small room on First Street west of Hill Street in what has been generally known as Bunker Hill is a contrast to the placid and orderly surroundings described in the other two schools. Then there is, of course, the nature of segregation and the question of equitable resources and educational opportunities for the children.

Over the next few years, references to the school were limited to mention of the “African school” in notices concerning the opening of terms or the schedule of examinations and we don’t know if Thompson taught beyond 1865 or not. In 1869, we learn that Mary B. Fuller was the teacher at the school and this is also when we start getting some material on the school censuses that were annually required and which were often used to estimate the city population in between the censuses each ten years.

While the reconstituted Star of 17 June 1869 provided, thanks to superintendent Henry D. Barrows, a table of returns for the county including 23 districts, the figures are interesting, but they are only by gender of those from 5-15 years of age along with the total number of children younger than school age and there is no breakdown of ethnicity. Still, it is worth noting that Los Angeles had nearly 1,500 school-age children, with a slight majority of girls comprising 52% of the total, while there were well over 600 young ones under 6.

The next highest population was in the Santa Ana Township, embracing the town and surrounding areas, and which recorded 275 school-age children, about 55% of which were boys, and 58 who were younger than six. Green Meadows, south of Los Angeles, had nearly an exact split in boys and girls among its 241 school-age children as well as 71 youngsters. San Gabriel had a 54% male majority among its 224 school-age population, but also had 114 children below 6, much more than any district outside Los Angeles. The Anaheim district had 222 school-age children with a slight majority of girls and 78 youngsters.

As a reflection of the fact that greater Los Angeles was undergoing its first development and growth boom of significance, the Star observed that the school children total of just shy of 4,400 (which about the total population of the county as recorded in the 1860 census) was some 20% higher than in 1868. The number of children under 5 had a more modest increase of about 13% from 1,500 to around 1,700. It was also noted that there were five more school districts than during the previous year.

In early 1870, the city’s Board of Education adopted a set of revised rules and regulations, stipulating the terms of the year (mid-August to Christmas and mid-January to the end of June); bell schedules for 9 a.m. for a Noon dismissal for lunch and 1 p.m. for a 4 p.m. end of the school day; handling absences or tardiness; cleanliness of classrooms and pupils; requirements for vaccination and keeping children at home when ill with a contagious or infectious disease; keeping students from bringing books not assigned as textbooks; allowing teachers to use discipline as at the home; and proscriptions of pupil misbehavior. As for recess, this was the sole mention of specific schools, with the Black children’s school, along with the ungraded and primary schools, having different recess times of five minutes’ shorter duration.

In early May 1870, city school superintendent T. Harrison Rose issued a card in the Los Angeles News, in which he asserted,

Some unscrupulous person, on a recent occasion, put in circulation a report that I was in favor of educating the white and colored children in the same public school. The statement is an unmitigated falsehood. I never in my life expressed a sentiment of the kind. While I am in favor of giving the colored population all the educational facilities enjoyed by the whites, I would do it in colored schools taught by colored teachers. With this view I have for months been endeavoring to procure an efficient and competent colored man to take charge of the colored school.

Rose added that the state superintendent Oscar P. Fitzgerald was in support of this idea and expressed the hope that the city’s education board would approve “and do all that may be necessary to give suitable free instruction to the colored children in our midst.” Notably, when the fall term began, the school for African-American children did not open, though whether it had to do with this policy or not is unknown. The next identified teacher of the school, however, was a Miss Gower, so it is obvious that Rose’s plan was not carried out as intended.

There were at least two occasions in which the school was vandalized or robbed. The Star of 29 August 1871 reported that “the young Hoodlums of this city are in the habit of going on the hill west of Hill street, and stoning the house,” including the breaking of sixty-six panes of glass. The paper added that the identifies of some of the perpetrators was known to authorities and arrests were expected imminently, with parents warned that their children might “be found missing and turn up in the city jail.” The Los Angeles Herald‘s edition of 12 August 1874 noted that a “hoodlum . . . stole several articles belonging to the scholars,” but, when an officer apprehended the young man, he was let go “with no worse punishment than a little good advice.”

In June 1871, the Star briefly commented on the year-end examinations at the San Pedro, Alameda and “colored” schools and stated that it was “proved that the care and skill shown by the teachers during the past half year, had not been thrown away.” A report at the end of the prior month revealed that Miss Gower had 23 African-American children enrolled in her care, with average daily attendance being 13 students, a far lower percentage than at the other seven city schools—though, obviously, one has to consider the environment for these children. 

The Star of 18 June reported that the school census enumerated 25 Black children attending public school, three receiving a private education, and 9 not going to school at all—comprising about a quarter of the total. Of these 37 children, 20 were boys and 17 girls. Notably, the white school-age population was 1,743, with 53% being girls, but also that 40% attended private school compared to 28% in public school and a third who did not go to school.

Miss Gower completed a second year as teacher in the school before leaving to go to San Francisco and continued her own education. The Star of 22 February 1872 noted that she had a second grade [level] teaching certificate and was previously at a school in the hinterlands outside of Los Angeles before her appointment at the “colored school.” It was concluded that “she has from fourteen to twenty-four young people who are presumed to be making due progress.” A half-dozen monthly reports during the 1871-1872 year showed that enrolled students varied from 14 to 25 with actual attendance fluctuating from 11 to 15.

The 25 June 1872 edition of the paper, in its brief review of examinations, recorded that “the pupils gave much satisfaction by their behavior and vast improvement since last session, under the watchful care and instruction of Miss Gower.” A week later, the Star summarized the latest school census, noting that there were 42 Black children (there were 10 “Mongolians” and 95 Indians, as well) out of more than 2,800. As for attendance, a third of school-age children were in public school, a quarter were getting private educations and about 40% were not going to school at all.

E.O. Burnham followed Gower for the 1872-1873 and, in a rare example of the mention of specific students at the school, the Star of 20 December identified the roll of honor with the fact that “Mr. Burnham desires us to state that many more [students] reached the minimum percentage (85) in proficiency, but were set back under the rule for deficiencies in deportment.” Still, ten African-American scholars were listed, half at the 85 level, with two scoring higher than 90 and the brothers Samuel and Thomas Sampson achieving perfect scores. When Burnham finished the year and then left the city, he “was the recipient of a quantity of presents from the children and their parents.”

Meanwhile, Rose was accused by some former students of being abusive, but he was defended by two other pupils, who decried the presence of “rowdies” at school, including one who filed the complaint, but, one of the defenders noted, deserved having a slate fired in his direction. Both letter writers added that Rose paid out-of-pocket (and then was reimbursed) for new desks, but it was also noted that the old desks were carted off to the African-American school, which obviously brings up the purported “separate but equal” idea referred to above by Rose.

The 1873-1874 year was conducted by Mrs. Baker, described by the Los Angeles Express of 10 June as “a painstaking teacher.” The school had been moved to the brick building at Second and Spring streets that was the first public school structure and it was reported that there were sixteen Black students who “had unquestionably striven hard to make proper use of the advantages afforded to them,” though what these were compared to the white students is the question.

Still, when superintendent William T. Lucky asked for recitations of a poem, the students choosing one called “My Mother’s Grave,” it was stated that

As indications of the character of the taste for reading being formed among these children, the incident is not unworthy of notice. The recitations of the class in geography would have done credit to any class in any school. They were prompt and correct also in their answers in arithmetic. They also sang a familiar melody in correct time and with much expression.

In addressing the parents, Lucky exhorted them as to “the necessity and importance of regular and systematic attendance on the part of the children, and reminded them that they had placed at their disposal, the same advantages that were accorded to others.” The 1874 school census, released in mid-July, showed just above 7,000 white children between 5-17 years of age, with almost half going to public schools and under 8% attending private ones and 44% not going to school. There were 60 African-American children with over 60% being boys and just over half going to school, while another 11 were under school age.

For the 1874-1875 year, there was another new teacher, John Witherow, and, with the start of the new year came a new location for the school at a building owned by merchant Lorenzo Leck on Main Street between 2nd and 3rd streets. When the year ended, the Express of 27 May commented that “there was a very full attendance of the parents and visitors” at Leck Hall and “the class passed a very creditable examination, and the school is steadily increasing in numbers.”

Moreover, it was expected and, the school board did in fact pass a resolution calling for a bond election to the effect, that a new school-house for African-American children was to be soon constructed. The bond issue was passed and a new site chosen, but, when the 1875-1876 year began, the Herald of 25 July reported that “the colored school will hereafter be held in the colored people’s church [First AME], on the height at the head of Third street,” with the structure leased by the Board of Education.

The 1875 school census showed nearly a 10% increase in children, to almost 7,700, but there was a significant decline in Black children of nearly 30% to 43, with another eight under the age of five. The number of those of school age who attended school at any point during the recent year was 28, while there were two who received private instruction and seven who did not go to school at any time. There were 117 Chinese children, only 32 of which went to school and there were 72 indigenous children, but only a dozen who received instruction. The report for March 1875 showed 32 enrolled students, of which 28 attended, a much higher percentage than in previous years.

Fragmentary as these date and accounts are, they do help us get some understanding of the situation involving the education of African-American children during the decade from 1865-1875, with indications that scholars performed generally well, even as there were claims that they were getting the same “advantages” as white children under a so-called “separate but equal” doctrine. 

In fact, the Herald of 1 March 1874 reported on a California Supreme Court “test case regarding the law providing separate schools for colored children” in which it was ruled that state law “providing separate schools for colored and Indian children, is not unconstitutional,” while, if such schools were not provided, “colored and Indian children may resort to white schools”—whether such was feasible and realistic was another matter. It would not be until the 1946-1947 case involving the Mendez children of Westminster in Orange County that the segregated school concept would be determined unconstitutional.