The Rev. Morgan L. Latta was the founder and president of Latta University, located in Oberlin Village, which is now part of Raleigh, North Carolina. Born in 1853, he was enslaved on the Cameron Plantation in Durham County. Fifty years later (in 1903) Latta published his autobiography, which tells, among many things, about how he worked to obtain funding for the school.
The school is said to have been in operation from 1892 to 1920. The site of Latta’s home and the school is a Raleigh Historic Landmark and is officially named the Latta University Historic Park.
Oberlin Village is a community founded in 1866 when James E. Harris purchased 149 acres from Duncan Cameron, a large landowner who had held 1900 slaves. The area grew into an upscale neighborhood of well-off and well-educated black citizens, some of whom lived in large Victorian homes. In recent years, helped by the Friends of Oberlin Village, a number of the older homes have been restored and moved to one section of the village.
The home of Latta and his wife, Laura, was named a national historic landmark in 2002, but it burned down in 2007. However, the Raleigh park at the site marks the footprint of the Latta home and presents interpretive material about the school. The marker states that although it was called a university, Latta was “not a ‘university’ as commonly defined today. Rather it was a combination day and boarding school where students of all ages learned a variety of subjects.” [1]
A representative of the Latta House Foundation says, “According to photos and a Latta University catalog, the school offered technical skilled education as well as a classical education for those studying to become teachers. Rev. Latta recounted the founding of the university in his memoir The History of My Life and Work, along with his life in slavery, caring for his newly emancipated family, and attending Shaw University. The book, available online, also features several photos of Rev. Latta, his family and students, and Latta University.” (The photograph of Morgan and Laura Latta on this page, below, is from the autobiography.)
Morgan Latta and his university are, however, controversial. As an official of Raleigh’s Historic Sites Program said in an interview, “Morgan Latta was a complicated man in his time and complicated now.”
Contemporary newspaper evidence indicates that Latta was at odds with the black community in Oberlin. It also suggests that he may have fabricated information about his school to obtain funds from philanthropists in the North.
Two pieces of primary evidence support this interpretation.
- In 1891, a small front-page announcement appeared in a Raleigh newspaper, the Evening Visitor. Signed by 20 men, it said, “Therefore, we the undersigned Resolve that we disclaim having anything to do with the school, and that we have given no authority to the said Latta, and have not expressed any desire to have said school located in our midst.”
- An article in the Altoona (Pennsylvania) Times in 1909 reported that the Rev. Morgan Latta had appealed to blacks in Altoona for funds for his university over a number of years. A suspicious person wrote to someone in Raleigh, and “by return mail, he was told that the university existed only in name and that there was no sign of it doing any work for the uplifting for the poor colored people.”
The Raleigh Historic Sites Program and the Latta House Foundation are in the process of exploring the negative evidence about Rev. Latta. A representative of the Latta House Foundation points out, “To grow up and put himself through Shaw (there is a catalogue with his name in it), get his teaching credential at A. M. Barry’s school, and open his own school to uplift his community is a massive achievement.” (Barry’s College provided education for blacks after the Civil War. It was located in Anson County.)
In addition, the representatives note that newspapers during the Jim Crow era were often anti-black and that could have affected their coverage.
However, some secondary sources also say that Latta misrepresented his school. Education historian Harry Morgan wrote: “At a time when Latta had one teacher and few pupils, the founder and president published a 400-page booklet extolling the virtues of his institution as having 400 students and an elaborate campus. Before the scheme was discovered, large sums of money had been received primarily from two northern women.”[4]
Latta’s autobiography, The History of My Life and Work, was published in 1906. The 370-page volume is upbeat and eclectic. While it was used to publicize the school, it covered a wide variety of topics in a conversational and uplifting way.
