Emma E Akin

Gifts Emma E Akin

Emma E. Akin came to the oil Boomtown of Drumright, OK in 1920 to teach at the many elementary schools strewn about the oil patch. It wasn't until 1930 that she would be required to add the segregated school of Dunbar, named for the African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, to her roster. Prior to this assignment, Mrs. Akin had no interaction with the African-American race and was not overjoyed to find herself in this position. However, after a year of working with the faculty and students at Dunbar School, she fell in love with this community. Frustrated at the lack of educational materials that focused on the history and contributions of African-Americans, Emma took on the task of writing a series of textbooks that depicted the children in the positive reality that she had come to know. After seven years of extensive work, The Negro American Series was published in 1938 and the books were distributed throughout the segregated schools of the south. The actual faculty, students and families of the Dunbar School are the subjects of these four pioneering academic ventures. In 1965, Emma established The Drumright Historical Society Museum and now, over 50 years since the museum's opening and 78 years since the first publishing, her contribution has been reintroduced to the world through this first reprinting of The Negro American Series.