Photo Essay: African-Americans and American Indians, A Shared History

On April 13, 1878, an unprecedented event in American Indian education began in Virginia at the Hampton Institute, now Hampton University.  Capt. Richard Henry Pratt arrived on campus, bringing with him 17 American Indian prisoners of war from Fort Marion in
St. Augustine, Fla. Pratt believed in education for all, and began teaching the men how “to read, to count, about God, about justice and truth.” He wrote several agricultural and labor schools requesting admission for his charges, but Gen. Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, was the only person to honor Pratt’s request.