Races, Negroes: United States. Virginia. Hampton. Hampton Normal and Industrial School: Agencies Promoting As[similation of the Negro]. Training for Commercial an[d Industrial Employment]. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va.: Primary School Garden. 1899 - 1900

Editor: This photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston shows students at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute working in a garden. It feels like such a hopeful scene, but also a little staged. What do you see in this image, and how do you interpret it? Curator: This photograph, like others in Johnston’s Hampton series, speaks volumes about the complex relationship between education, labor, and racial uplift during the Jim Crow era. Hampton Institute, while providing valuable vocational training, was also part of a larger project of social control and assimilation. Editor: Assimilation? Curator: Yes, the curriculum aimed to mold African American students into a workforce deemed "useful" by white society. Notice how the students are diligently cultivating the land, mirroring the historical reliance on Black agricultural labor. Consider who benefits from this "training." Editor: So, the image documents education, but also a form of social engineering? Curator: Precisely. It highlights the complicated role of institutions in shaping social mobility and the politics embedded in seemingly benign activities like gardening. Editor: That is a much more nuanced way to view this than I had originally considered. Thanks!