Abraham Lincoln School

For the social science school in Chicago, Illinois, see Abraham Lincoln School for Social Science.

For primary and K-8 schools with that name, see Lincoln Elementary School.

Abraham Lincoln School was for freedmen and opened on October 3, 1865, in New Orleans on the campus of University of Louisiana (predecessor to Tulane University) after the American Civil War. It was featured on the cover of Harper's Weekly.[1][2]

It opened under the supervision of Rev. Thomas W. Conway, an assistant commissioner of the Freedmen Bureau. Attendance was free at first and attracted some 750 students. At that time, the school had 14 teachers. When tuition charges were instituted, enrollment dropped by about half. About 75 percent of students were reported to be of "mixed blood".[3] Mr. E.F. Waven, a Yale graduate from New York was the school's first principal. He was succeeded by M.A. Warren.[3]

References

1. "The "Abraham Lincoln school" for freedmen, New Orleans, Louisiana". NYPL Digital Collections.
2. "Harpers Weekly: A Journal of Civilization". Living History, Incorporated. 24 February 1866 – via Google Books.
3. The New York Teacher. Joel Munsell. 24 February 1866 – via Internet Archive.