REMEMBER THE DATE OF THE ALLIANCE MEETING AND FAIR THANKSGIVING DAY, NOV. 24, 1910 AT THE MANASSAS INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, MANASSAS, VA. [caption title]

[Manassas Industrial School]

Published by [Manassas, Va.], 1910

Broadside, 11 x 8 1/2 inches. Old folds. Center horizontal fold just starting to split at right edge. Light tanning and edge wear. Very good. An unrecorded flyer advertising Thanksgiving Day programming at the Manassas Industrial School (MIS) in Virginia. This flyer advertises a Thanksgiving meeting and fair in 1910, which is to include prizes for best livestock, vegetables, crochet, quilting, and written compositions for boys and girls. It goes on to firmly advise the reader not to "mind a little weather," as one "cannot afford to miss what will be said and done." The speakers at the event included Dr. Jesse Jones and Mr. Charles K. Graham - "they have something to tell you. Remember you cannot afford to miss them." Finally, attendees are urged to "bring along a coin or two for the Alliance. These meetings cost money." The Manassas Industrial School was founded in 1894 as a co-educational residential secondary school for African-American youths by Jane Serepta Dean. Dean was born into slavery in Virginia in the 1850s; after several years of teaching and advocating for Sunday schools, she established the MIS as a way to keep young Black students from the distasteful aspects of urban life. She was also an advocate of women's suffrage and became a friend and acquaintance of Emily Howland, who became a teacher at the school. Frederick Douglass delivered a speech at the school's dedication, and the Chairman of the Board was O.G. Villard, co-founder of the NAACP. For decades it stood as the only secondary school for African Americans in Northern Virginia, and was notably untethered to any particular religious group (despite a focus on traditional morals and general piety). While it finally closed its doors in 1959, the site of the school was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. An interesting piece of ephemera from a major African-American educational institution with strong ties to women's suffrage and the NAACP. Seller Inventory # WRCAM57399

Bibliographic Details

Title: REMEMBER THE DATE OF THE ALLIANCE MEETING ...
Publisher: [Manassas, Va.]
Publication Date: 1910