Separate and Equal: Jennie Davis Porter and Cincinnati's All-Black Harriet Beecher Stowe School, 1914-1935 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781476699264)

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, African Americans debated what would constitute the best type of education for their children. The issue of integrated versus segregated schooling became a point of discussion with the establishment of the all-Black Harriet Beecher Stowe School, with Jennie Davis Porter as its driving force and first principal. Unlike other segregated schools, it had highly qualified teachers, resources, and a modern building. This experiment in Black education demonstrated how a nurturing segregated environment could be beneficial to African American students.

As the first Black woman principal in the Cincinnati Public Schools and the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, Porter opposed the concept of mixed-race schooling that her peers were fighting for. This book studies her educational philosophy, her leadership of the Harriet Beecher Stowe School, and her role in shaping the future of hundreds of Black Cincinnatians.