PRAGMATIC IDEALISM: INDUSTRIAL TRAINING, LIBERAL EDUCATION AND WOMEN'S SPECIAL NEEDS. CONFLICT AND CONTINUITY IN THE EXPERIENCE OF MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE AND OTHER BLACK WOMEN EDUCATORS, 1900-1930

In the decades following the Civil War, the education of black Americans became a major issue within the larger discussion of race uplift and the nature of black participation in democracy. Intense controversy ensued in the debate over industrial education versus liberal education for black Americans. By 1900, two positions had solidified and been promulgated in the schools of intellectual thought represented on the one hand by Booker T. Washington and his Tuskegee Philosophy, and on the other, by W. E. B. Du Bois and his theory of the Talented Tenth. Within this debate an additional issue arose: the special case of educating girls and women.;Pragmatic idealism combines Du Bois' theory of an enlightened leadership lifting up the masses, with Washington's philosophy of the leaders "casting down their buckets" where they stood among the masses. Also, it infers that woman's special nature fits her uniquely for her role, a Victorian attitude that dominated the general debate over the proper nature and end of female education.;Curriculum in seminaries, industrial institutes and liberal arts institutes for black women was founded upon the premise that vocational training had a place in all forms of female education--domestic training was the linchpin of pragmatic idealism. Pragmatic in that it taught both vocational skills and scientific methods of raising the living standards of black families; idealism because of the belief that educated woman held the key to race uplift and "the salvation of the race," on two fronts: as "intelligent wife and Christian mother" and as school teacher.;The educational career of Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) presents an extraordinary example of the complex workings of pragmatic idealism. Why Bethune emerged from this era as the appointed "Negro spokesman" for education, supported by influential black and white leaders, and the evolution of her own pragmatic idealism, are analyzed in the context of other black female educators.;This study examines the intersecting philosophical approaches to the education of blacks, specifically focusing on the experience of black women in secondary and higher education, 1900-1930. The hypothesis is that an educational philosophy best described as pragmatic idealism emerged from the overlapping influences of the Tuskegee Philosophy, the credo of the Talented Tenth, and "women's special educational needs.".