Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993 TAG: 9303090197
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: MANASSAS LENGTH: Medium
BATTLE ENSUES OVER HOW TO HONOR SCHOOL'S FOUNDER
Nearly 100 years after a former slave established a school for young blacks near the site of two famous Civil War battles, a new battle is being fought over how to honor her.Jane Dean, known as Jennie, opened the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth in 1894. The private boarding school trained thousands of teachers, blacksmiths, domestic workers and others before it was converted to a segregated high school in the 1930s.
The gracious campus, with brick buildings built in part with donations from industrialist Andrew Carnegie, was razed in the 1960s, after the black students had moved to the newer, white high school. The campus had become shabby, and no one then imagined it was worth saving, historians said.
The Manassas Museum and city officials plan a $1 million park on the school site dedicated to Dean and her work. The first section of the memorial would open on the 100th anniversary of the school's founding next year.
But a citizens' group led by several alumni want a separate museum for black history built on the site. And the group says a plan to build an outdoor amphitheater named for Dean is insensitive.
They object to plans to model the amphitheater after a horse barn that originally occupied the site. They also say an amphitheater is impractical in February, which is Black History Month.
"It's just not the way to go. Everything that we said we wanted the city of Manassas just turned a deaf ear to," said Juanita Johnson, 62. "If you're going to spend the money, make it something usable for the community."
"The city has built a museum and we do everyone's history here. It's not just white history and it's not just black history," said Douglas Harvey, director of the Manassas Museum.
"Since you already have a museum, you wouldn't want to build another one," agreed Louise Brown, 76, who graduated from the Industrial School in 1934.
The memorial would stand less than five miles from the site of the Battle of Bull Run. The campus was built atop a Confederate encampment where soldiers guarded a railroad junction during the war. Bull Run and a second battle were fought over control of the supply line.
Dean has been slighted by history, Harvey said. Born a slave in Catharpin in western Prince William County in 1852, she had a rudimentary education yet worked to educate others, he said.
Although Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. duBois and other contemporaries among black educators are well-known, Dean has largely gone unrecognized, he said.
"She really was a visionary, someone so totally dedicated to what she believed needed to be done," Harvey said. "She believed black people should have a good basic education and a skill that they could use to go out and support their families."
The private school represented Washington's philosophy on black education, namely that young people should learn trades to earn money. Others, led by duBois, believed academic education on a par with white students was the best way to advance black society.
"That was never really resolved and we are living with the consequences of that split today," said Marilyn Sanders Mobley, director of African-American studies at George Mason University.
Although not involved in the Dean memorial, Mobley said she sees parallels between the Washington-duBois split and the current debate.
"Within the black community there has always been concern about to what use will this education be put, and there's probably suspicion now about to what purpose will this memorial be put. It's a question of who's going to do the recording, whose history is it."
Dean, who never married, was a tireless fund-raiser and advocate for the school, traveling to New York, Boston and other cities to collect donations.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass and nurse Clara Barton were among those who attended the dedication of the school.