Joe Caver’s long-awaited history of Alabama State University fills a big need in our understanding of the history of black higher education in the South between Reconstruction and the 1920s. Full of rich detail, vivid portraits, and astute analysis, Caver’s study helps us understand the huge obstacles that existed, and were largely overcome, by determined African Americans in Alabama. Every reader will learn much from it.
author of Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington - Robert J. Norrell
Crisply written and attractively illustrated, From Marion to Montgomery is a sympathetic, even loving overview of the first sixty years of what is now Alabama State University. The determined labors of ASU’s early leaders, in the face of almost constant adversity, well deserve the recognition Joe Caver has given them, as well as our admiration.
Joseph Caver is an able archivist and historian who has unearthed evidence that Alabama State University in Montgomery is not the patronage of benevolent white legislators, but in fact the manifestation of the Lincoln School of Marion as conceptualized and incorporated by black plain folk. From Marion to Montgomery gives voice to the oft-ignored history of the true founders of Alabama State University, meticulously colorizing the whitewashed history of African American higher education in Alabama and the South. The most poignant takeaway of the volume is the intentionality with which Caver adds the names of recently freed enslaved men to the story. The book properly places their names—Parrish, Speed, Dale, Childs, Lee, Freeman, Levert, Harris, and Curris—alongside those of the founders of Harvard, Dartmouth, and Yale. These nine men led the black citizens of Marion to serve as the architects of their own destiny and the builders of a historically black research university. From Marion to Montgomery tells their story and gives them a voice. It is among the most important contributions to the history of black colleges in decades.
coauthor of Ebony Towers in Higher Education: The Evolution, Mission, and Presidency of Historically Black Colleges - M. Christopher Brown II
From Marion to Montgomery is a thoroughly compelling and important history of the difficult early development of Alabama State University. Joseph D. Caver eloquently explores the institution’s true origins, the political, social, and economic context, and the competing racial and religious ideologies that led to its creation, movement, and expansion.
author of Crossing Segregated Boundaries - Dionne Danns
Joseph Caver completed his master’s thesis in 1982 and dropped a bombshell about ASU. Before this time, we knew nothing of the nine formerly enslaved African American men who enduring monumental challenges incorporated the school that became Alabama State University. We commemorated 1874, not 1867, as the date of the school’s origin. And we celebrated the Scotsman William Burns Paterson as its founder. Neither did we know that our school was the oldest state-supported institution in America for preparing African American teachers and offering a liberal arts curriculum. Now in a fully expanded book, Caver provides a vivid account of the people and events that shaped one of America’s most significant black universities.
I love this book. It tells the story of the valiant band of missionary school teachers who came South after the Civil War to educate and make teachers of the freed African Americans who had been previously denied an education. The students they taught laid the foundation for the first generation of black scholars and intellectuals in America. I am proud that my brave and persistent great-grandparents, William Burns and Margaret Flack Paterson, were among the black and white advocates of university education for African Americans.
author of Sweet Mystery: A Book of Remembering - Judith Paterson
Joseph Caver is an able archivist and historian who has unearthed evidence that Alabama State University in Montgomery is not the patronage of benevolent white legislators, but in fact the manifestation of the Lincoln School of Marion as conceptualized and incorporated by black plain folk. From Marion to Montgomery gives voice to the oft-ignored history of the true founders of Alabama State University, meticulously colorizing the whitewashed history of African American higher education in Alabama and the South. The most poignant takeaway of the volume is the intentionality with which Caver adds the names of recently freed enslaved men to the story. The book properly places their names—Parrish, Speed, Dale, Childs, Lee, Freeman, Levert, Harris, and Curris—alongside those of the founders of Harvard, Dartmouth, and Yale. These nine men led the black citizens of Marion to serve as the architects of their own destiny and the builders of a historically black research university. From Marion to Montgomery tells their story and gives them a voice. It is among the most important contributions to the history of black colleges in decades.
coauthor of Ebony Towers in Higher Education: The Evolution
Joseph Caver is an able archivist and historian who has unearthed evidence that Alabama State University in Montgomery is not the patronage of benevolent white legislators, but in fact the manifestation of the Lincoln School of Marion as conceptualized and incorporated by black plain folk. From Marion to Montgomery gives voice to the oft-ignored history of the true founders of Alabama State University, meticulously colorizing the whitewashed history of African American higher education in Alabama and the South. The most poignant takeaway of the volume is the intentionality with which Caver adds the names of recently freed enslaved men to the story. The book properly places their names—Parrish, Speed, Dale, Childs, Lee, Freeman, Levert, Harris, and Curris—alongside those of the founders of Harvard, Dartmouth, and Yale. These nine men led the black citizens of Marion to serve as the architects of their own destiny and the builders of a historically black research university. From Marion to Montgomery tells their story and gives them a voice. It is among the most important contributions to the history of black colleges in decades. — M. Christopher Brown II, president of Kentucky State University and coauthor of Ebony Towers in Higher Education: The Evolution, Mission, and Presidency of Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Joseph Caver is an able archivist and historian who has unearthed evidence that Alabama State University in Montgomery is not the patronage of benevolent white legislators, but in fact the manifestation of the Lincoln School of Marion as conceptualized and incorporated by black plain folk. From Marion to Montgomery gives voice to the oft-ignored history of the true founders of Alabama State University, meticulously colorizing the whitewashed history of African American higher education in Alabama and the South. The most poignant takeaway of the volume is the intentionality with which Caver adds the names of recently freed enslaved men to the story. The book properly places their names—Parrish, Speed, Dale, Childs, Lee, Freeman, Levert, Harris, and Curris—alongside those of the founders of Harvard, Dartmouth, and Yale. These nine men led the black citizens of Marion to serve as the architects of their own destiny and the builders of a historically black research university. From Marion to Montgomery tells their story and gives them a voice. It is among the most important contributions to the history of black colleges in decades. — M. Christopher Brown II , president of Kentucky State University and coauthor of Ebony Towers in Higher Education: The Evolution, Mission, and Presidency of Historically Black Colleges and Universities Robert J. Norrell , author of Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington From Marion to Montgomery is a thoroughly compelling and important history of the difficult early development of Alabama State University. Joseph D. Caver eloquently explores the institution’s true origins, the political, social, and economic context, and the competing racial and religious ideologies that led to its creation, movement, and expansion. — Dionne Danns , Indiana University, author of Crossing Segregated Boundaries From Marion to Montgomery is a sympathetic, even loving overview of the first sixty years of what is now Alabama State University. The determined labors of ASU’s early leaders, in the face of almost constant adversity, well deserve the recognition Joe Caver has given them, as well as our admiration. — Edwin C. Bridges , director emeritus, Alabama Department of Archives and HistoryAlma Freeman , former dean of University College, Alabama State UniversityJudith Paterson , author of Sweet Mystery: A Book of Remembering From Marion to Montgomery is a valuable resource, which focuses on a crucial yet often overlooked early mission of black colleges: teacher education. The author acknowledges how Alabama’s racial culture limited the institution from offering university-level coursework, but emphasizes the founders’ and presidents’ commitment to fostering a strong black teaching force through the liberal arts. The six decades of teacher preparation described in this volume no doubt planted the seeds for Alabama State University’s role in the civil rights movement. — Christine A. Ogren , author of The American State Normal School: "An Instrument of Great Good"
