Josephine Turpin and Black Women Lead Freedpeople Education

Hundreds of Black women from the North volunteered as teachers in Freedmen's Bureau and missionary schools beginning in 1865–67. Figures including Edmonia Highgate, Sara Stanley, and Blanche Harris taught in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Virginia despite death threats and arson. Highgate wrote detailed reports of Klan intimidation while continuing to teach. Their work was foundational to Black literacy gains.