Tate, W. K. (William Knox), 1870-1917. W.K. Tate papers, 1894-1952.
Title:
W.K. Tate papers, 1894-1952.
Correspondence, reports, speeches, financial records, and other papers documenting W.K. Tate's contributions to educational improvement in S.C. during early decades of the 20th century, including fund-raising for construction and enhancement of schools for white and African-American children. Places represented include Charleston and York County, S.C.; Tennessee; Switzerland; and elsewhere; topics include rural schools, education for African American students, curriculum, and related issues. Institutions represented include Memminger Normal School (Charleston, S.C.), ca. 1898-1909, at which time Tate was appointed Assistant Superintendent of City Schools in Charleston and worked to improve the Colored Industrial School and the Mitchell School. A letter of 17 July 1908, from Seth Low, New York, advises Tate that he had been successful only in raising $5,000 pledged toward "an Industrial School building for Negroes, based upon the raising of not less than $20,000.00 and the agreement on the part of the City to support the school.... few people will give at my request unless I give myself, and... I am no longer in a position to give for such purposes on a large scale...." and urging more local support among the city of Charleston and the African American population of the city. Other letters dating from Sept. 1909 concern plans for building the industrial training school for African-Americans; undated report, "The Charleston Public Schools," presumably issued by Tate ca. 1909, mentions the Industrial School for Colored Children being erected at the corner of President and Fishburne streets, with the financial support of the Peabody Board of Trust, and Mr. Alfred T. White of New York City, and additional funds pledged by the Slater Fund. Between 1903 and 1910 Tate also taught in the Summer School of the South at Knoxville, Tenn., and he was actively involved with the formation of the Southern Branch of the American Peace League, being elected second vice-president and secretary in July 1909. A printed broadside from 1904, "Declaration of Principles," was issued by the Summer School of the South, under sponsorship of the General Education Board, and calls for consolidated and centralized school systems, reconstructed curriculum, rural libraries, and a central teachers college. In 1910 Tate became president of the South Carolina State Teachers' Association. In addition, he was a member of the State Board of Education from 1904 to 1910. In 1910, Tate was named State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools in South Carolina. The position was a new one, just having been created as a cooperative venture between the State Department of Education and the Peabody Education Board through its agent, Wickliffe Rose, who was a frequent correspondent throughout this period. Rose writes of the magnitude of the task to which Tate had been called. Tate recognized the challenge before him as well, responding in a letter of 5 Jan. 1910 that "the organization of the Rural School system in the state of South Carolina is a task which cannot be accomplished in a day. I should not like to have my work adjudged by the results of even the first five years, though I believe a great deal could be done in that space of time." A significant unit of letters (Dec. 1909 to June 1910) between Tate, Rose, University of South Carolina president Samuel Chiles Mitchell, Winthrop president David Bancroft Johnson, Superintendent of Education John Eldred Swearingen, and others discuss issues re questions of salary, travel funds, secretarial help, whether Tate would be attached to Winthrop or Carolina, and the suggestion that Tate was being considered for the presidency of Clemson, a matter in which the educator insisted he must "be assured of a practical unanimity in my selection." Colleagues urge Tate to remain in his current position to improve rural schools. Tate's enthusiasm for the rural schools job is revealed in a letter written on 5 February 1910 to Albert Pike Bourland, another Peabody associate. "I am heartily with you in the plan to make South Carolina a model for the south in her system of rural schools," Tate commented. "This state in many respects possesses points of superiority over every other southern state in its opportunities for such leadership. It is not so large and can be more easily and quickly reached from a central point." York County, S.C., was chosen as the demonstration county in rural supervision, with an aim to convince school officials in other counties of the value of appointing county supervisors. Tate surveyed rural school conditions throughout the state, held conferences with the trustees and patrons of many schools, and introduced measures to improve school facilities, lengthen school terms, stimulate county fairs and field days, consolidate schools, and relieve student transportation problems. Reports such as the "Comparative Statement of Enrollment in Typical Counties of South Carolina 1902 to 1910," provide information on numbers of white and African-American students in city and county schools, and the "Quarterly Report of W.K. Tate, State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools of South Carolina," issued on 9 May 1911 reveals that he was inspecting both African-American and white schools and documenting the schools and buildings photographically. Copies of the images reportedly were being sent to the appropriate county superintendent of education and to A.P. Bourland. Leila A. Russell, who had been appointed to supervise rural schools in York County, wrote on 1 Mar. 1912 to report on the conditions and attitudes she encountered as she visited schools throughout the county, which included indifference to school attendance shown by both the children of the average farmer and many teachers as well. In 1912 United States Commissioner of Education P.P. Claxton sent Tate to Switzerland to study the Swiss school system, and included among the collection are travel materials from the trip. Results of his international study were published by the United States Bureau of Education in 1914 under the title "Some Suggestive Features of the Swiss School System." In 1913 Tate was elected president of the Southern Educational Association, a leadership position from which he advocated the merger of the Southern Educational Association and the Conference for Education in the South. He was elected to the Professorship of Rural Education at George Peabody College in Nashville, Tenn., in 1914. While at Peabody he also lectured in Vanderbilt University's School of Religion.
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