Institute for Colored Youth

The Institute for Colored Youth is one of the more famous stops on our tour, with a number of famous graduates and teachers. It was founded in 1837 with funds from Richard Humphreys, as Du Bois explains in ‘The Philadelphia Negro’:

The Institute for Colored Youth was founded by Richard Humphreys, a West Indian ex-slaveholder, who lived in Philadelphia. On his death, in 1832, he bequeathed the sum of $10,000 to the Friends, to found an institution, “having for its object the benevolent design of instructing the descendants of the African race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic arts and trades, and in agriculture, in order to prepare, fit and qualify them to act as teachers.”

At first it was located outside of the city, but relocated to the current location in 1866 with additional funding. Richard Humphreys is primarily remembered today as a Quaker and abolitionist, but it is interesting that in this quote Du Bois highlights his role as a former slaveholder. He was born on the island of Tortola (today an island in the British Virgin Islands) to slave-holding parents. At a young age, he went to Philadelphia to apprentice as a goldsmith and silversmith. Thus, while it seems he wasn’t a direct slaveowner for most (if any) of his adult life, it is still interesting that he certainly benefited directly from it in his childhood.

In 1866, at the same time as its relocation, Fanny Jackson Coppin was hired as the head of the girls’ departments while Octavius Catto was head of the boys’ department. They developed the school significantly into a very well respected institution of higher education at a time when schooling was overwhelmingly segregated and black youth and very few such opportunities. The school, in Humphreys’ vision, focused on teacher training, but also prepared students for many other roles.

While the Institute for Colored Youth is, today, the best known of the schools for Black students at the time and was the only non-primary school staffed by black Teachers. However, also Du Bois highlights numerous public primary schools both in the Ward and elsewhere in the city, many of which had even larger enrollment than the Institute for Colored Youth. See the images below for the lists of public (left) and charity (right) schools at the time, with their enrollments.

The school at this location was closed shortly after the writing of ‘The Philadelphia Negro’ in 1902 but was re-opened later as Cheyney University, which continues to exist as an HBCU in Pennsylvania. The building you see in front of you is actually condominiums now.