THE MOVABLE SCHOOL GOES TO THE NEGRO FARMER
Scarce inscribed first edition of this firsthand account of the Tuskegee Institute's Movable School effort, by agricultural pioneer Thomas Monroe Campbell — entirely printed and bound by Tuskegee students.
Very good plus in good plus jacket.
Price: $2,500.00
THE MOVABLE SCHOOL GOES TO THE NEGRO FARMER
"The primary aim of this book is to create a wider and keener interest in the lives of the rural people in the deep South, so that ultimately a larger portion of public aid will reach those who are farthest down the economic ladder."
The idea for the Movable School — The Tuskegee Institute initiative to bring "modern agricultural tools and methods to rural areas and people in Alabama" — was born from Booker T. Washington's vision of outreach. As head of the school, Washington would "make regular trips on horseback to talk, eat, and stay overnight with the rural people he hoped to educate at his school" (Zabawa) and in doing so realized that the farmers who made up a large share of the population were unable to leave their land to attend the school. When George Washington Carver arrived at Tuskegee in 1896 to head the school of Agriculture, he developed the Movable School to bring new methods to these farmers.
Washington would refer to the school as a "Farmer's College on Wheels" and it would have several incarnations, beginning with the Jesup Agricultural Wagon in 1906, managed by Tuskegee graduate Thomas Monroe Campbell. Campbell details here his journey to Tuskegee (where he studied under Washington), his experiences operating the first Movable School, and his selection as the government's "first Negro Extension Agent," emphasizing "the scope and influence in this country and abroad" that the work of the Movable School would have.
The Movable School would operate in some iteration until 1944, when a permanent workforce of Cooperative extension agents was established. Campbell was the first of these agents, of any color, and headed the first Extension program as a field agent for the US Department of Agriculture. This copy is warmly inscribed to a fellow member of the Department of Agriculture's extension service, Reuben Brigham, who was responsible for starting the Extension Service Review Magazine. An important monograph from this important Black academic press, it is genuinely uncommon in trade, especially in jacket, and rare inscribed.
Read more: Zabawa: "Tuskegee Institute Movable School" Encyclopedia of Alabama.
The Object
Tuskeege, AL: Tuskegee Institute Press, (1936). 9'' x 6''. Original dark red cloth, stamped in black to front board and spine. In original photographic jacket, no price (as issued). Illustrated in black-and-white. xiv, 170 pages. Inscribed by Campbell in blue to front fly leaf: "To my good friend / Mr. Reuben Brigham / From T. M. Campbell / Tuskegee Institute / March 22, 193[7]." Jacket with moderate wear, a few spots of dampstaining, chip to front panel. Book with some wear to boards, small abrasion to front pastedown, light foxing to endpapers. Else clean and sound.
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