Sarah Raymond Fitzwilliams
Sarah Raymond Fitzwilliam was a community activist, pre-progressive educator and reformer, and leader in curriculum development.
She was born in 1842 in Kendall County, IL. She was the daughter of Jonathan and Catherine Raymond. Like her parents, she was a staunch abolitionist. Her family home was a “stop” on the Underground Railroad in Kendall County. Later in life, Sarah wrote that she was accustomed from early childhood to seeing “black fugitives off and on at my father’s residence until Lincoln’s Proclamation” (referring to the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863).
She taught school in Kendall County for several terms before enrolling in Illinois State Normal University when she was 17 in the fall of 1862 and graduated in 1866.
She began teaching in Bloomington Public Schools in 1868. She first taught second primary grade at the School No. 5 located at Walnut and West Streets). Because of her success in teaching there, she was made principal of that school after that first year. Sarah remained there until 1873 when she was chosen to be principal of the High School, which she served for one year.
During her tenure at School No. 5, the issue of segregation in schools came to a head. Children of color could only attend the segregated school, School No. 3, in the Bloomington School District, regardless of how far away it was from their homes. Sarah challenged the system and the courts by admitting the students to her School No. 5 and not requiring that they walk to the more distant segregated school. A local judge passed judgement that because Bloomington Public Schools had provided the necessary public buildings for school children in the city, the school board has the power to say where children should go. It would not be until 1874 when the Illinois State Supreme Court decided once and for all to outlaw school segregation.
In 1874, Sarah was appointed Superintendent of Bloomington Public Schools in 1874. She had an uphill battle to prove she was worthy of this position to members of the community, as she was the first woman superintendent of Bloomington Schools. She found herself faced with many challenges entering her tenure in office, in particular opposition to a woman being superintendent. However, Sarah met this challenge head on and proved all of them wrong.
Working with her close friend, Georgina Trotter (who was the first woman elected to the Bloomington Board of Education in 1875), the duo worked tirelessly to improve education for the students in Bloomington Public Schools. Their efforts increased the number of classrooms in schools, shortened the course of study in high school and assigned more courses to the earlier grades, and almost completely eliminated corporal punishment. And by 1881, the school district’s debt was completely gone.
After 18 years of service to the community, she resigned her position, citing the need to assist family in Boston as her reason for leaving. The Sarah E. Raymond School of Early Education, located in Bloomington, was named in her honor (which opened in 1887). She was a woman ahead of her time. Learning to dare, and daring to lead.