Lucy Laney
Lucy Laney was born on this date in 1854. She was a Black educator and pioneer in secondary education.
From Macon, Georgia, Lucy Craft Laney’s family purchased their freedom from slavery. Laney was educated at an American Missionary Association school, and she entered Atlanta University at fifteen. She graduated in 1873 with the first Higher Normal Department students class. With her teacher's training, she spent the next ten years teaching Georgia public schools. She then opened a smaller school in a Presbyterian church in Augusta, Georgia. The school grew rapidly and received a Georgia charter as a normal and industrial school in three years.
She successfully solicited money to expand her school and developed a rigorous liberal arts curriculum Laney named the school Haines Normal and Industrial Institute after its most ardent supporter, Francine E.H. Haines Among those who passed through her school as students and teachers were John Hope and Mary McLeod Bethune Laney continued her education, taking classes every summer.
Though the depression caused severe financial difficulties, Haines had more than a hundred students at its peak The school ceased operations in 1949, sixteen years after Laney’s death On the site of the old school, Lucy C. Laney High School now stands in tribute to her educational contributions.
Reference Library of Black America Volumes 1 through 5
Edited by Mpho Mabunda
Copyright 1998, Gale Research, Detroit, MI
