Maurice L. Adkins

I am revising my dissertation into a book entitled “The Life and Works of Susan Wright Sampson: Race, Gender, and the Pursuit of Universal Education, 1850-1933.” The biography, part of a broader study on postbellum education development for African Americans, follows the life of Susan Wright Sampson (1852-1933). Born into a wealthy black slave-owning family in 1852, Susan became a teacher, playwright, and one of the first black women to lead a Peabody-funded school in Wilmington, North Carolina. This book will add to the literature on black women educators by looking at Susan Wright Sampson's life as an amalgam of feminism, entrepreneurship, self-help, and uplift, illuminating one woman's crusade to educate her people and create opportunities in an environment hostile to Black Americans.