Albany / Enterprise Academy

Side A: The village of Albany was established in 1838 as a market center for the surrounding agricultural area, which saw its first white settlement in the early years of the nineteenth century. Education was always a major concern of Albany’s citizens. Since public schooling was minimal, private academies provided the community various levels of education from the 1840s to the 1880s. Anti-slavery sentiment also was strong in Albany, and many of its citizens participated in the “Underground Railroad.” Because of educational opportunities and sympathetic white neighbors, free African-Americans came to Albany, but most had moved away by the 1930s. After World War Two, the village lost its status as a center for commerce and business. Side B: Enterprise Academy, the first educational institution operated by African-Americans for African-Americans, was opened at Albany in 1864 after black students were refused further admission into nearby Albany Manual University. A stock company, heavily supported by whites, purchased twenty acres one-half mile east of this marker and built a brick chapel-academic structure and a large frame general-use building. By the 1880s, enrollment in and support for the institution began to decline, forcing Enterprise Academy to close. Since many of its students lacked schooling, much of Enterprise Academy’s curriculum was basic in nature. Yet it is accepted that most who attended the institution moved into a better position in life. Several persons, including Olivia Davidson, who became the second wife of Booker T. Washington, and Milton M. Holland, one of the first black Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, attained prominence in politics, business, and education.