Benjamin F. Hubert
Benjamin F. Hubert | |
|---|---|
 Hubert pictured in The Hubertonian 1947, Savannah State yearbook | |
| President Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth and Georgia State College | |
| In office 1926–1947 | |
| Preceded by | Cyrus G. Wiley |
| Succeeded by | James A. Colston |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 25, 1884 Atlanta, Georgia |
| Profession | educator |
Benjamin Franklin Hubert (December 25, 1884 – April 29, 1958)[1] served as president of Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth continuing when it became Georgia State College]] from 1926 until 1947.[2] It is now Savannah State University.
Biography
According to his New York Times obituary, Hubert was born on December 25, 1884, to Zach and Camilla Hubert. His parents were African-American farmers who owned several hundred acres of land in the northern part of Hancock County, Georgia. The Huberts were surrounded by a dozen other black farm-owning families. Their small community, called Springfield, built a church, a general store, and a rudimentary four-year, elementary grade school.
To educate their children further, the Huberts sent the oldest children away to board in nearby schools. They sent all twelve of their children to college. After the oldest graduated from college, Zach Hubert called him home to expand and develop the local school to include higher grades, through high school. As the sixth child, Benjamin Hubert benefited from this expansion. Like his brothers, he attended Atlanta Baptist (later known as
Afterward, he enrolled in the agricultural science program at
For the rest of his life, Hubert was involved in the Country Life Movement, which sought to find ways to make rural life more attractive to young people. They were taught scientific farming, establishing cooperatives for the community and their economy, and improving rural social institutions. This movement later informed the early agenda of agricultural extension in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. White agents began agricultural extension work in 1902; black agents were hired beginning in 1915.
In 1912, Hubert took a position as professor of agriculture at
At the outbreak of World War I, Hubert served on the South Carolina Food Administration Board. He went overseas to help direct the agricultural reconstruction of Europe.
Upon returning to the U.S. in 1920, Hubert accepted the directorship of the Department of Agriculture at
President
In 1926 Hubert succeeded
Hubert used the college's relative proximity to Hancock County, Georgia, to attempt an experiment in rural community building, along the themes of the Country Life Movement. In 1928, he organized the Association for the Advancement of Negro Country Life. With backing from northern philanthropists, he worked to transform Springfield into a model black community, blending Butterfield's progressive rural idealism, the economic separatism of
In the end, these efforts were not enough to withstand the market forces that were pushing out small farmers. In addition, the educational success of students from this county led many of them to look elsewhere for work and opportunities. College graduates from Springfield began to look for professional employment in the cities, not on the farms. Many African Americans had already joined the
In 1947, Hubert retired from Georgia State College due to tensions over his autocratic administrative style. A couple of years later, he suffered a debilitating stroke. Hubert died on April 30, 1958.[4]
Legacy
The Benjamin F. Hubert Technical Science Center on the university's campus houses the school's chemistry, computer science, and engineering departments and classrooms.[2] His photograph accompanied by words of trobute appear in a 1939 Hubertonian yearbook.[5]
Suggested reading
- Hall, Clyde W (1991). One Hundred Years of Educating at Savannah State College, 1890–1990. East Peoria, Ill.:Versa Press.
- Schultz, Mark, "Benjamin Hubert and the Association for the Advancement of Negro Country Life," in Beyond Forty Acres and a Mule: African American Landowning Families Since Reconstruction. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012, 83-105.
- Schultz, Mark. "A More Satisfying Life on the Farm: Benjamin F. Hubert and the Log Cabin Community," M.A. thesis, University of Georgia, 1989.
References
- ^ Institute for Research in Biography (New York, N.Y.) (1948). World Biography. Vol. 1. Institute for Research in Biography. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
- ^ a b c d "New Georgia Encyclopedia". Retrieved 2007-08-31.
- ^ Schultz, Mark, "Benjamin Hubert and the Association for the Advancement of Negro Country Life," in Beyond Forty Acres and a Mule: African American Landowning Families Since Reconstruction. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012, 83-88; Schultz, Mark. "A More Satisfying Life on the Farm: Benjamin F. Hubert and the Log Cabin Community," M.A. thesis, University of Georgia, 1989, 1-47.
- ^ Schultz, "Benjamin Hubert and the Association for the Advancement of Negro Country Life," 88-105; Schultz, "A More Satisfying Life on the Farm", 47-161.
- ^ https://tigerscholarcommons.savannahstate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/ea83ca7e-dcde-47ea-bca1-50fc552a5089/content