Black Public Schools: They Never Wanted Us To Learn Since We Arrived!

Imagine being one of those readers seeking knowledge that reflects on your own human experience and being withheld from doing so. Unfortunately, in the United States, there was a time when certain individuals were prohibited from learning to read or write based on the color of their skin. Historically, black people were not allowed to read, write, or even own a book because of anti-literacy laws. Anti-literacy laws made it illegal for enslaved and free people of color to read or write. Southern slave states enacted anti-literacy laws between 1740 and 1834, prohibiting anyone from teaching enslaved and free people of color to read or write. The purpose of this blog is to shed light on the history of anti-literacy laws that restricted black people’s access to literacy and to demonstrate the resilience of a people who used their emancipated minds to obtain literacy by any means necessary.

Alabama Anti-Literacy Laws and Jennie Proctor

The state of Alabama passed an anti-literacy law in the form of a slave code which states:

The Alabama Slave Code of 1833 included the following law “[S31] Any person who shall attempt to teach any free person of color, or slave, to spell, read or write, shall upon conviction thereof by indictment, be fined in a sum of not less than two hundred fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars.”


Jennie Proctor was enslaved in the state of Alabama in 1850-1865. She did an interview with the Federal Writers’ Project in San Angelo Texas in 1937. The Federal Writers’ Project was a collection of interviews of over 2,300 formerly enslaved black people conducted in the 1930’s. In her interview, she gives a firsthand account of her life as a slave in Alabama. Jennie started working in the fields at the age of 10. In this interview, Jennie gives her account of learning how to read even though it was forbidden. She said,

“None of us wuz ’lowed to see a book or try to learn. Dey say we git smarter den dey wuz if we learn anythin’, but we slips around and gits hold of that Webster’s old blue back speller and we hides it ’til way in de night. Den we lights a little pine torch and studies dat spellin’ book. We learn it, too. I can read some now and write a little, too.”

Restrictions did not keep Jennie from learning how to read. In the wee hours of the night, she would use Webster’s old spelling book, lighting a pine torch to read the words. The black community knows how to make a way out of no way. Our role is that of a pathfinder, forced to come up with ways to get around the unjust limitations imposed on us by those who oppressed us. Despite being enslaved, Jennie refused to be defined or oppressed by her status. She was determined to learn how to read by any means necessary.


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