Schools for Blacks:
J. Milton Turner
in
Reconstruction Missouri
BY LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN*
Organized efforts to educate black children in Missouri began
during the Civil War. The American Missionary Association, an
organization committed to Christianizing and educating blacks, cooperated with the Western Sanitary Commission, the United States
Army and black leaders in establishing a system of free schools in
*Lawrence O. Christensen, associate professor of History at the University
oi Missouri-Rolla, presented this address at the annual meeting of the State
Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, October 17, 1981. Dr. Christensen
received the B.S. Ed. and MA. degrees from Northeast Missouri State University, Kirksville, and the Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Research for this paper was supported by a University of Missouri-Rolla Summer
Research Grant and by a grant from the Weldon Spring Research Fund.
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