Black woman leads Philadelphia boarding school founded in 1848 for poor white boys only

Black woman leads former whites-only Philly school

PHILADELPHIA — A private Philadelphia boarding school for underprivileged children that once excluded blacks and females is now being run by an African-American woman.

Thirty-seven-year-old Autumn Adkins is in her first year as president of Girard College. Despite the school’s name, it serves first- through 12th-graders.

The school was founded in 1848 with money from Stephen Girard, a shipping and banking magnate who died in 1831.

Girard’s will specified that the school serve only poor, fatherless white boys. Numerous legal challenges eventually forced the school to admit blacks and girls.

But until Adkins arrived, the school had been run exclusively by white men.

Adkins says the new civil rights struggle is to make urban education competitive with its suburban peer.