A Hunger to Learn

Henry L. Stephens.

[Elderly black man with spectacles reading a newspaper by candlelight].

Watercolor, ca. 1863.

Prints and Photographs Division.

Reproduction Number: LC-USZC4-2442 (5-12)

Prior to the Civil War, slave states had laws forbidding literacy for the enslaved. Thus, by emancipation, only a small percentage of African Americans knew how to read and write. There was such motivation in the African American community, however, and enough good will among white and black teachers, that by the turn of the twentieth century the majority of African Americans could read and write. Many teachers commented that their classrooms were filled with both young and old, grandfathers with their children and grandchildren, all eager to learn. In this image, one aged man is reading a newspaper with the headline, "Presidential Proclamation, Slavery."