Social Settlements: United States. Alabama. Calhoun. "Calhoun Colored School": Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training Negro Girls in Domestic Science. Calhoun Colored School, Calhoun, Ala.: Log Cabin School. 1901

Curator: This photograph, attributed to Frances Benjamin Johnston, captures a classroom scene at the Calhoun Colored School in Alabama. Editor: It’s a sepia-toned echo, isn't it? Instantly, I feel a quietness, a weight... all those young backs turned, facing forward, into what? Curator: The image speaks to the complex history of assimilation efforts in African American education. It's titled "Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training Negro Girls in Domestic Science." Editor: "Training"... that word stings. The light is soft, almost dreamlike, but the purpose feels so harsh, so… constricting. Curator: Absolutely. These schools were part of a broader social project. The photograph is a record of that, documenting its aims and the physical spaces where it took place. Editor: It is haunting how a photograph can hold both hope and oppression, isn’t it? Look at the details, the log cabin structure, the neatly arranged desks – it’s all a carefully constructed narrative. Curator: It's a narrative shaped by power, class, and racial ideologies of the time. Editor: Seeing this, I'm left wondering about the untold stories within those walls, the dreams that soared beyond the confines of "domestic science".