Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools : Fighting for Literacy in America

Cora Wilson Stewart (1875--1958) was an elementary school teacher and county school superintendent in eastern Kentucky who, in the fall of 1911, decided to open the classrooms in her district to adult pupils. Convinced that education could eliminate the poverty that plagued the region, she founded the Moonlight School movement, ultimately designed to combat illiteracy. The movement's motto, "Each one teach one," characterized education as the responsibility of every literate citizen. Stewart's Moonlight Schools caught on quickly, and when the state legislature created the Kentucky Illiteracy Commission in 1914, they were operating throughout Kentucky as well as in other states. Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools examines these institutions and analyzes Stewart's role in shaping education at both the state and national level. Yvonne Honeycutt Baldwin offers a discourse on the problem of illiteracy, which, despite the efforts of Stewart and many who followed in her footsteps, continues to afflict the nation.