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Before their second session of the
Moonlight Schools, there was a Moonlight School Institute held for the teachers, according to Stewart it was "the first institute for night school teachers in America." By the second session the program had enrolled 1,600 students, 350 of whom learned to read and
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Teachers were asked to volunteer to teach at night and they also canvassed their districts to see who might need literacy instruction. There were no school books for adults who couldn't read, so a newspaper was published with a very small word list which had area news and also introduced a subtle
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had the
Commonwealth of Kentucky create the Kentucky Illiteracy Commission to extend this program statewide with an aim to end illiteracy in Kentucky by 1920. Counties had competitions to see which could wipe out illiteracy first, with bibles given to the students in the winning county which was
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Alabama and
Mississippi began their own Moonlight School programs shortly after Kentucky did, and by 1916 eighteen states had their own Moonlight Schools. Ten thousand adults were educated in North Carolina's Moonlight Schools in 1915. In 1922 Stewart—who was then Chairman of the Illiteracy
42:, then a superintendent in the Rowan County Schools. Adults would attend school at night in the buildings where children studied during the day. The school supposedly only operated on moonlit nights so people could get there and home safely which gave the project its name.
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element of competition between the area schools. Once students had mastered basic reading they could also learn other subjects which included "history, civics, English, health and sanitation, geography, home economics, agriculture, horticulture and good roads."
107:, and is a historic site now called the Cora Wilson Stewart Moonlight School. The Moonlight Schools Collection at Morehead State has collected oral histories and research concerning the history of the Moonlight Schools and the life of Cora Wilson Stewart.
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write. A home department was established who would visit people in their homes who could not get to one of the schoolhouses. Since the state still had legal segregation there were also 15 Colored
Moonlight Schools created in Kentucky by 1915.
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Commission of the
National Education Association as well as Chairman of the Illiteracy Committees of the National Council of Education—wrote a book about the program to "tell the story of the moonlight schools."
230:"Press reference book of prominent Kentuckians; contains portraits and biographical sketches of men prominent ... in the state of Kentucky; also pictures of state, municipal and other buildings"
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83:. Both books featured material of interest to adults, written for people with low literacy. Stewart became concerned during World War I when
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were a program of educational offerings for illiterate adults in
Kentucky in the early 1900s which spread to many other U.S. states.
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173:"The Project Gutenberg eBook of Moonlight Schools for the Emancipation of Adult Illiterates, by Cora Wilson Stewart"
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offered a
Moonlight School in every school district that served Black students. In 1915 Stewart published the
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led a fundraising and letter writing effort and ministers observed "No
Illiteracy Sunday" in their churches.
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The first
Moonlight School was created in September 1911, in Rowan County, Kentucky by
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One of the schoolhouses that was a
Moonlight School is on the campus of
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Kentucky Tourism - State of Kentucky - Visit Kentucky, Official Site
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determined that 700,000 men were illiterate, so she developed
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Moonlight Schools for the Emancipation of Adult Illiterates
254:"African American Schools - Moonlight Schools, Kentucky"
356:"Moonlight Schools Collection - Library and Archives"
130:(in Italian). McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.
127:Cora Wilson Stewart: Crusader Against Illiteracy
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386:by Cora Wilson Stewart, on Project Gutenberg
258:Notable Kentucky African Americans Database
392:at Camden-Carroll Library, Morehead State
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198:"The Great Purpose of the Newspaper"
61:Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs
16:Adult literacy program in Kentucky
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59:Tabor Hill, in Rowan County. The
228:La Bree, Benjamin (2022-01-14).
81:Country Life Reader: Second Book
77:Country Life Reader: First Book
283:"Kentucky's moonlight schools"
79:and in 1916 she published the
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390:Moonlight Schools Collection
281:Tabler, Dave (2017-12-21).
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360:Morehead State University
105:Morehead State University
89:The Soldier’s First Book
202:Lexington Herald-Leader
73:Mercer County, Kentucky
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307:"Wilson Stewart, Cora"
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95:Expansion and legacy
421:Schools in Kentucky
287:Appalachian History
40:Cora Wilson Stewart
124:Nelms, W. (1997).
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177:Project Gutenberg
137:978-0-7864-0334-9
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