I’ve been writing on deadline
recently to complete revisions on an article on M. A. Cassidy with graduate researcher
Lindsey DeVries. I was going to call it “Massillon Alexander Cassidy:
Progressive Schoolman,” but lately have been leaning more toward “A Southern Progressive:
M. A. Cassidy and the Lexington Schools, 1885-1928.” It will appear in the next
volume of the American Educational History journal.
I did my student teaching in 1972 at
Cassidy School, under the supervision of my predecessor, some 23 years later, Principal
Dorothy Friend. I always thought it was a great school. The kids were treated
with respect. When I moved my family to Lexington in 1985, I knew where I
wanted my own children to attend school. For almost two decades as the
principal of the school that bears his name, I was in possession of a quantity
of historical data about Cassidy. I have always wanted to learn more about the
numerous progressive initiatives of the hard-working school superintendent. He
is arguably the best example of how progressivism manifested itself in Kentucky’s
schools. As is frequently the case when reviewing school records retained by
the school, I read the good news – as opposed to all of the news.
Previously, I had been principal of
two schools whose names came from the communities where they were located; Ryland
Heights in Kenton County, and Meadowthorpe in Lexington. Both had the usual
local historical memorabilia; neither assembled into any kind of historical
account, as I recall. When the building was built, some names of teachers and
administrators, and a bunch of photos (perhaps a yearbook), news clippings…was
what one found.
But when I became the principal of Cassidy
Elementary, I inherited not only the school, but the man. A very large portrait
of the man still adorns the first floor hallway as a reminder to all of the wonderful
deeds of our namesake. Well, not really.
We weren’t exactly sure of just what those deeds were. But surely he
must have been wonderful to have merited such a remembrance. More impressive is
his tombstone in the Lexington Cemetery.
So, who was M. A. Cassidy? When I studied
the record, what would I find?
I will confess to a bias in favor
of effective school administration and Cassidy was very competent. He led
people. I respect that because it’s important work. Folks who do it well are
valuable.
Our review of school board records,
personal letters, newspaper and scholarly accounts paints a picture of a popular
superintendent who transformed the modest schools of Lexington from an
undistinguished collection of dilapidated common schools, into to a more
efficient system of graded schools, with improved buildings and better trained
teachers, while preaching the gospel of literacy and expanding equality of educational
opportunity, in a remarkably even-handed fashion for his time, to an increasing
number of children. Under his watch, the schools in Lexington grew to enjoy a
national reputation for quality. High praise, indeed.
Cassidy was one of a new breed of New
South superintendents who maintained the long-standing interest in moral and
civic training emblematic of 19th century schoolmen, but now saw the
school as a vehicle to solve social problems and advance national progress.
Upon reviewing the impressive list
of Cassidy’s progressive, child-centered initiatives, one might guess that he
was dispatched by John Dewey to bring Lexington into the 20th
century. But the data reveals a much more nuanced set of conditions which
portray Cassidy as a distinctively southern-style reformer who held
conservative and progressive ideals in equal measure.
Problematic is the proper casting
of the ex-Tennessean’s racial politics, which, while clearly racist, were
consistent with the vast majority of Lexingtonians early in the 20th
century. Cassidy moved to the north, and found a “southern” state where his
racial attitudes were a good fit with the white Democratic majority: at once,
progressive and paternalistic; concerned but condescending.
Conversely, the data present a
clear record of Cassidy’s staunch support for black education including cooperation
with black leaders, the establishment and improvement of schools for blacks,
and the creation of a black teacher association and teacher-training institutes. Cassidy distinguished himself, remarkably, by insisting that schools for black
children in Lexington would be up to the same standards as schools for whites.
In Golden Deeds, his nationally recognized book and character development
program, Cassidy shows no reluctance in praising Abraham Lincoln and other
heroes who were white, black, men and women. He believed that women should be educated as much as they want, but that their best purpose was in the home. The data illustrate a southern accomodationist’s approach to white supremacy.
Illustrative of the breadth of
miscegenation fears at the time was the U.S. Supreme Court’s acceptance of
white supremacy as a matter of “science” in Berea
College v Commonwealth (1908). Reasoning that interracial marriage would “destroy the purity of blood and the
identity of each [race],”
and that prejudice was simply nature’s guard against that unnatural
amalgamation, prohibitions
against miscegenation went
unquestioned by the court. The majority went so far as to argue that it was a credit to America’s
civilized society that “the stronger race” did not simply “annihilate the
weaker race” and in that way, the law that made it illegal for black and
white kids to go to school together, preserved the peace. (See upcoming article in the
Journal of Negro Education with Roger Cleveland and June Hyndman).
Cassidy belonged to that class of southern
accommodationist progressives who made education their career, utilized the expertise
of science and business to efficiently reshape civic life, and who saw
themselves as the teachers and guardians of subordinate African Americans in
whom they would cultivate some measure of collaboration and consent.
"If the evidence does not directly relate to your thesis, cut it out," Ms. Fahlbush tells one girl, who listens as she twists a strand of hair in her fingers. "Remember," the teacher says to a tall boy slouched in a nearby seat, "you are writing an argumentative essay. So you need to defend each of your points."
