Chapter 4: A School Of Their Own: Movements to Provide Industrial Education in Columbus, Georgia for Marginalized Students on Both Sides of the Color Line

The Smith–Hughes Act of 1917 brought national attention to and support for industrial education throughout the United States. Yet, industrial education thrived in Columbus, Georgia, long before the Smith–Hughes Act. In the early twentieth century, the national spotlight shone on the Columbus school system and its experimental educational activities, including primary and secondary industrial education. G. Gunby Jordan (president of the Columbus School Board and textile mill owner) and George Foster Peabody’s (Columbus native and Wall Street Banker) desire to provide a practical education for the children of Columbus factored significantly in the system’s distinction and success.

Columbus owed its economic prosperity to the Chattahoochee River that flowed along the city’s border, supporting numerous textile mills in the mid-to-late-nineteenth century. Civic and industrial leaders in Columbus believed that the city’s youth were its greatest asset; cultivating these children’s economic worth through industrial education was necessary to ensure the sustainability of Columbus’ economic success (Jordan 1905; 1906). As the international textile market grew, Georgia would need a specially trained workforce to remain competitive and meet the demand for higher-quality textile products (Jordan 1901; 1906). To achieve that end, Columbus’ industrialists and philanthropists campaigned to create a secondary industrial school for white pupils. In 1906, the Columbus Industrial High School opened its doors, promising to bolster Columbus’ economic prowess by providing its white students opportunities to receive specialized labor and career training (Telfair 1927; Daniel 1913).