Horace Mann Bond

Horace Mann Bond (1904-1972) was an important figure in African American education during the 1930s and 1940s working to end segregation while still improving the education of African American students.

An imposing figure in a family that produced several important scholars and civil rights leaders, Horace Mann Bond had a career that exemplifies the dilemma of the black educator in the segregated South during the 1930s and 1940s: despising segregation and silently struggling to abolish it, while still helping to improve education for African Americans within its confines. Sociologist, college president, and philanthropic agent, Horace Mann Bond resolved this dilemma with intelligence and diplomacy. His work, and that of other educators like him, set into motion the historic forces that found expression in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Background

Grandson of slaves, Bond was the child of an extraordinary couple. His mother was a schoolteacher, his father a minister. Both excelled in the network of religious and educational institutions established in the South after the Civil War. Bond was an academic prodigy, graduating from high school at the age of fourteen. He attended Lincoln University, a black college in southeastern Pennsylvania. Lincoln placed a premium on W. E. B. Du Bois's notion that racial improvement in the United States would be accomplished by a "talented tenth" of African Americans. Bond quickly proved himself to be such a leader, graduating with honors in 1923. While taking graduate courses at Pennsylvania State College, Bond earned grades higher than those of his white classmates and returned to Lincoln in 1923 as an instructor. Bond then suffered the only setback to his success: he was dismissed from the college for tolerating a gambling ring in a dormitory he was supervising.

Difficulties

Despite his embarrassment at Lincoln, Bond had a reputation as a fine scholar, and he spent much of the next fifteen years alternating between various jobs as an administrator of African American schools and graduate work in sociology at the University of Chicago, from which he received his doctorate in 1936. Bond's administrative work at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma, and at Alabama State Normal School in Montgomery taught him valuable lessons in the difficulties of education in the segregated South. To keep the white state legislature funding Langston, for example, Langston faculty had to "fool" visiting legislators into thinking the school taught only domestic sciences and "honest labor and toil," giving visiting legislators sumptuous meals of fried chicken and mounting theatrical displays of teachers picking peas. After the whites left, satisfied that the blacks of Oklahoma were receiving education sufficient for their "place," Langston got back to teaching. Throughout the 1930s Bond was engaged in a similarly difficult and often frustrating relationship with the Rosenwald Fund, a white philanthropy that donated large sums toward black education. The Rosenwald funding was instrumental in Bond's pursuit of his doctorate, as well as in securing Bond's major academic appointments to Fisk University in 1928 and to Dillard University in New Orleans in 1935. Nonetheless, the Rosenwald Fund, enamored of Booker T. Washington's notion that African American improvement was best pursued through industrial and agricultural labor, was often conservative and rarely challenged the segregated status quo in the South. That perspective privately annoyed Bond; during the Depression, however, no responsible educator could antagonize a steady source of funding. Believing in black academic excellence, Bond confronted white resistance to equality as a scholar, attacking one of the cornerstones of segregation: the belief that intelligence testing had "proved" the intellectual inferiority of African Americans.

Intelligence Testing

The U.S. Army had begun intelligence testing during World War I. In the 1920s various academics, such as Carl Brigham of Princeton, used the army data and other studies to argue that intelligence testing demonstrated the innate racial inferiority of African Americans. At Chicago, however, Bond had studied sociology in a department that had pioneered research in the impact of environment and society on individual personality. He had also supervised the creation of a statistical survey on the socioeconomic and educational condition of African Americans for the Tennessee Valley Authority. In a series of important articles, in a book titled The Education of the Negro in the American Social Order (1934), and in his dissertation, published as Negro Education in Alabama: A Study in Cotton and Steel (1939), Bond assailed intelligence testing for its cultural bias and ignorance of environmental factors in education. White academics argued that "bright" blacks moved North; Bond conducted empirical studies at Lincoln demonstrating no significant difference in innate intelligence between northern and southern African Americans. Many asserted that the decline of black schools was owing to African American indifference; Bond demonstrated that it resulted from poor financing by white-dominated school boards. Bond showed that exceptional black students were usually the products of exceptionally well-financed and well-administered black schools, rather than any genetic characteristic. Bond tied the poor educational performance of African Americans to their political disenfranchisement and economic exploitation. He revealed that in many counties where the majority or near majority of the population was African American, white school boards kept taxes low and financed good schools for white children by directing the bulk of black tax payments to white schools - even as black schools remained substandard. Black taxpayers, in other words, were financing education for their white neighbors. "The School," he wrote in his 1934 book, "has been the product and interpreter of the existing [economic] system, sustaining and being sustained by the social complex." With Du Bois he also inaugurated a revisionist history of southern Reconstruction, which - in contrast to the dominant "Dunning" school of southern history in his time - did not applaud the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in "redeeming" the South after the Civil War.

Administrator

Bond's scholarly work, although fairly radical for the time, was tempered by articles and speeches in which he lauded the work of "Southern white gentlemen" and racial moderates. He also did not recommend the abolition of the segregated school system but instead advocated financing it on a truly equal basis. Such gestures were necessary for the continued functioning of any southern educator committed to improving black education in the Jim Crow South. After 1939 Bond was foremost among such educators. That year he accepted the presidency of Fort Valley State College in Fort Valley, Georgia, a position he held until 1945, when he assumed the presidency of his alma mater, Lincoln. The first black president in the history of Lincoln, Bond held the office until 1957. He used his position to pursue several concerns: pan-Africanism and the development of African studies in American universities (following a trip to Africa in 1949), desegregation in Pennsylvania schools, assistance to the NAACP legal team that argued the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) suit before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the physical expansion of Lincoln and the improvement of its courses. He increased the number of black faculty members at Lincoln and brought to campus its first Jewish professor. He aroused opposition to his presidency by his activism and in 1957 resigned his office owing to the increased combativeness of the board of trustees. He then became dean of the School of Education at Atlanta University, remaining there until his retirement in 1971. During that time he renewed his criticisms of intelligence testing and standardized achievement tests following a flurry of new activity in those fields in the early 1960s, but increasingly his energy was focused on helping the civil rights activities and political career of his son, Julian Bond. Horace Mann Bond died in December 1972.

Further Reading

Wayne J. Urban, Black Scholar: Horace Mann Bond, 1904-1972 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992).

Roger M. Williams, The Bonds: An American Family (New York: Atheneum, 1972).

President of two historically black colleges from 1939 to 1957, and dean of the School of Education at Atlanta University from 1957 until shortly before his death in 1972, Horace Mann Bond was also a historian and social scientific observer of the condition of African Americans. He was born on November 8, 1904, in Nashville, Tennessee, the sixth of seven children of a Congregationalist minister and a teacher, both of whom had attended Oberlin College. Bond grew up as his father pastored various churches and took other ministerial positions in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia. He attended schools in Alabama and Georgia and graduated from the Lincoln (Kentucky) Institute, a high school for African Americans indirectly tied to Berea College. His collegiate career began at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, from where he graduated, and continued with postbaccalaureate study at the Pennsylvania State College (now University). He did his graduate work at the University of Chicago, from which he earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in education, with an emphasis on the history and sociology of education. He finished his doctorate in 1936. Among his teachers were Newton Edwards in history of education, Frank S. Freeman in tests and measurements, and Robert Park in sociology. His family valued education enormously, encouraging all their children to achieve to their utmost. Horace's closest sibling, J. Max Bond, also earned his doctorate in education and had a rewarding academic career.

Career

Bond worked at a variety of academic institutions before finishing his doctorate, including Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma; Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee; and Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He also worked as a researcher for a time for the Julius Rosenwald Fund, a philanthropic organization with which he would maintain a close, working relationship for approximately two decades, lasting until its dissolution in 1948. He worked his way up in the hierarchy of black colleges, becoming a dean at Dillard in 1934, chairman of the education department at Fisk University later in that decade, and president of the Fort Valley State College in Georgia in 1939. In 1945 he was chosen as president of his alma mater, Lincoln University, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he served until 1957. While at Lincoln, he pointed the attention of the college and its students and faculty toward Africa and Africans, building relationships with famous African Lincoln alumni, such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria. He made several trips to Africa in these years and was an officer of the American Society for African Culture (AMSAC). After leaving Lincoln, he became dean of the School of Education at Atlanta University. He worked at Atlanta until his death in 1972.

Publications and Scholarly Pursuits

Bond's publications in the 1920s included two articles critical of the racial bias in the intelligence testing movement. He continued to publish numerous articles in the 1930s, a decade in which he also published a textbook for education courses in historically black colleges, The Education of the Negro in the American Social Order (1934), and Negro Education in Alabama: A Study in Cotton and Steel (1939), which was based on his doctoral dissertation. While at the rural Fort Valley State College in the 1940s, Bond published Education for Production: A Textbookon How to Be Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise (1944). In the 1950s, after leaving Lincoln, he gave several lectures at Harvard University, which were subsequently published as The Search for Talent (1959). The theme of black academic excellence, which had animated Bond's own life and much of his early work, as well as his Harvard lectures, was explored again in Black American Scholars: A Study of Their Beginnings (1969). Finally, Bond's Education for Freedom: A History of Lincoln University, was published posthumously in 1976. His scholarship was mainly in the areas of educational tests and measurements, educational history, and educational sociology. Much of his early and middle career was devoted to teacher training, and issues involved in its pursuit in black colleges. His later years were devoted to the pursuit of positive relations between Africans and African Americans, as well as expansions of his earlier scholarly interests.

Bond was an accomplished student, and his early scholarly career was one of great promise. His detour into academic administration, encouraged by the Rosenwald interests, took him away from his scholarly pursuits until late in his life. By that time, his absence from the scholarly arena for several years hampered his efforts, though it did not stop his productivity. His accomplishments as a college president were considerable at Fort Valley, where he pioneered the collegiate development of one of the three black colleges in the Georgia State University System. His tenure at Lincoln, however, was marred by acrimonious relationships with some faculty and alumni, which eventually culminated in his dismissal as president, an outcome which he considered, with some bitterness, to be totally unjust. At Atlanta he was reasonably successful as a dean but exhibited little enthusiasm for the work. He was more interested in research on black educational history and black academic achievement and pursued these interests after being named head of the School of Education's Bureau of Educational Research.

Family Life

Bond married Julia Agnes Washington, a student he met while on the Fisk faculty in the 1920s, in 1929. Julia Washington was from an economically successful and prominent African-American family in Nashville, Tennessee, and she and Horace had three children: Jane Marguerite, born in 1939; Horace Julian, born in 1940; and James, born in 1945. He had high academic expectations for all of his children, expectations which were met initially only by his daughter. His son, Horace Julian, became a leader in the black college student wing of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, went on to become a state legislator in Georgia, and in his political activism achieved a fame that had eluded his father. In the early twenty-first century he serves as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and teaches history at the University of Virginia.

Bibliography

Bond, Horace Mann. 1934. The Education of the Negro in the American Social Order. New York: Prentice Hall.

Bond, Horace Mann. 1939. Negro Education in Alabama: A Study in Cotton and Steel. Washington, DC: Associated Publishers.

Bond, Horace Mann. 1969. Black American Scholars: A Study of Their Beginnings. Detroit, MI: Balamp.

Bond, Horace Mann. 1976. Education for Freedom: A History of Lincoln University. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press for Lincoln University.

Urban, Wayne J. 1992. Black Scholar: Horace Mann Bond, 1904 - 1972. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

Williams, Roger. 1971. The Bonds: An American Family. New York: Atheneum.

— WAYNE J. URBAN

Horace Mann Bond
Fort Valley State College Lincoln University
Term	1939 – 1945
Successor	Dr. Cornelius V. Troup
Born	November 8, 1904(1904-11-08)
Died	December 21, 1972 (aged 67)
Alma mater	Lincoln University University of Chicago

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Horace Mann Bond (November 8, 1904 – December 21, 1972) was an American historian, college administrator, social science researcher, and the father of civil-rights leader Julian Bond. He earned a master's and doctorate from University of Chicago, at a time when only a small percentage of any young adults attended any college. He was an influential leader at several historically black colleges and was appointed the first president of Fort Valley State University in Georgia in 1939, where he managed its growth in programs and revenue. In 1945 he became the first African American president of Lincoln University, Pennsylvania.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Marriage and family 3 Career 4 Friendship with Albert Barnes 5 Books 6 References 7 Additional reading

Early life and education

Horace was born 8 November 1904 in Nashville, Tennessee, the grandson of slaves. His mother Jane Alice Browne was a schoolteacher, his father James Bond a minister who served at Congregational churches across the South, often associated with historically black colleges. Both had graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio, one of the first colleges that was interracial. They were among the black elite and encouraged their children in academic achievement.^[1]

Horace was the sixth of seven children – one brother was prominent educator J. Max Bond, Sr.. At age eight, Bond suffered an attack by the Ku Klux Klan that wounded him more emotionally than physically. He worked all his life to advance his race. Bond excelled in school, graduating from high school at the age of fourteen.

Bond graduated with honors from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania at age 19 in 1923. He also obtained membership in Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. While taking classes at Pennsylvania State College, Bond earned grades higher than those of his white classmates. Later he returned to Lincoln University as an instructor. Bond then suffered the only setback to his success; he was dismissed from the college for tolerating a gambling ring in a dormitory which he was supervising. Despite his embarrassment at Lincoln, Bond achieved a reputation as a fine scholar and administrator.

Bond earned the M.A. and Ph.D degrees from the University of Chicago, where his dissertation on black education in Alabama won the Rosenberger Prize in 1936. It was published in 1939. As was customary in those years, Bond taught at a variety of academic institutions before completing his doctorate, and published his first academic book in 1934.^[1]

Marriage and family

Bond married Julia Agnes Washington in 1929. She was a student he met while teaching at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in the 1920s. Julia Washington was from a wealthy and prominent African-American family of mixed race in Nashville. She and Horace had three children: Jane Margaret, born 1939; Horace Julian, born in 1940; and James, born in 1944. Bond and his wife had high expectations for all three of their children.^[1]. Jane Bond Moore is a Labor lawyer specializing in employment discrimination. She formerly represented the Oakland Unified School District and the Federal Trade Commission. Ms. Moore currently teaches Employment Law and Civil Rights Law at John F. Kennedy University Law School. James Bond is a member of the Georgia legislature. Julian Bond has been Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People since 1998.

In the 1960s, Horace Julian Bond, known as Julian Bond, became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, founding the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), of black college students. Julian Bond was elected to both houses of the state legislature in Georgia, where he served a total of 20 years. In his social activism and long political career, the younger Bond achieved a national renown beyond his father's.

Career

Bond taught at several universities while completing his doctorate, including Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma; Fisk University and Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

He worked his way up in academic administration, proving his leadership abilities by becoming dean at Dillard University in 1934, and chairman of the education department at Fisk University later in the 1930s. Bond was the first president of Fort Valley State College, in Fort Valley, Georgia, where he was appointed in 1939 and served until 1945. During his tenure he managed the expansion of the college to a four-year institution. More importantly, he gained a doubling in school income and a tripling in the state's appropriation for the college during lean economic times in the nation, substantial achievements for any college, and especially for a black college during the years of segregation.^[1]

In 1945 Bond was selected as president of Lincoln University, the first African American to be appointed to that position. He served at his alma mater until 1957. During those years, he started years of research for his history of Lincoln University. In 1953, together with historians John Hope Franklin and C. Vann Woodward, Bond did research that helped support the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)'s landmark US Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954).^[1]

He then returned with his family to the South, becoming dean of the School of Education at Atlanta University (later Clark Atlanta University). Bond later served as director of the Bureau of Educational and Social Research at the university. He retired in 1971.^[1]

Friendship with Albert Barnes

In one of his important relationships while president of Lincoln University, Bond became friends with Albert C. Barnes, businessman, art collector and founder of the nearby Barnes Foundation. Barnes supported education for working people and took a special interest in students of Lincoln University. Barnes structured his foundation to enable Lincoln University to control the foundation's board of trustees, and thereby oversee one of the largest private art collections in the world, with valuable holdings in Impressionist and Modern art.

The art collection is worth over $2 billion in 2007. In recent years, the Barnes Foundation contested Albert C. Barnes' will and Lincoln University's control in an effort to modernize administration of the institution, provide for renovation of the current building, and to build a new one. Supporters want to move the collection to Center City, Philadelphia, where they expect to attract more paying visitors and guarantee the collection's financial viability. In 2005 Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell brokered a settlement between the Foundation and the University that would allow moving the collection to Center City.

Books

• The Education of the Negro in the American Social Order(1934),
• The Education of the Negro in Alabama: A Study in Cotton and Steel (1939),
• Education for Freedom: A History of Lincoln University (1976); and
• The Star Creek Journal (1997), with Julia W. Bond, ed. Adam Fairclough

He published "stinging critiques" of racial claims about the intelligence of blacks, among which the best known was his essay "Racially Stuffed Shirts and Other Enemies of Mankind", a parody of segregationist psychology of the 1950s.^[1]

His papers are archived at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In his research, he studied the social, economic, and geographic factors influencing academic achievement of black children.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "Horace Mann Bond", New Georgia Encyclopedia, accessed 13 Jan 2009

Additional reading

• Fred Jerome, The Einstein File ISBN 0-312-28856-5
• Philadelphia Inquirer; The Deal of the Art^{[dead link]}
• "Horace Mann Bond", Encyclopedia of World Biography[1]
• "Horace Mann Bond" [2], Bookrags

Academic offices
New title	President of Fort Valley State College 1939-1945	Succeeded by Cornelius V. Troup

v • d • e President of Fort Valley State University Bond • Troup • Blanchet • Burse • Prater • Lomotey • Rivers

Academic offices
Preceded by Walter Livingston Wright	President of Lincoln University 1945-1957	Succeeded by Armstead Otey Grubb

John Miller Dickey John Pym Carter John Wynne Martin Issac Norton Rendall John Ballard Rendall William Hallock Johnson Walter Livingston Wright Horace Mann Bond Marvin Wachman Herman Russell Branson Niara Sudarkasa Ivory V. Nelson

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