Justus K. Jillson
Justus K. Jillson was South Carolina’s first State Superintendent of Education for four terms from 1868 to 1876.
Jillson was a Massachusetts teacher who had come to teach in the educational branch of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
He was known as an intelligent man with his heart thoroughly in his work as an educator.
Jillson was committed to the creation of a modern school system open to all children at a time when class, race and prejudice made the task impossible. He persistently advocated for social equality and mixing schools for the two races.
Jillson did his best to carry out the educational provision of the Constitution of 1868, which provided a free school system for the people of the state, however, little progress was made during the first year due to delayed implementation.
No other official had more obstacles to overcome than Jillson.
One of his greatest difficulties was directing finances during his administration. Schools had no funds and teachers were paid poorly or not at all mostly due to a corrupt and fraudulent administration of the State’s educational system. Several members, except Jillson, of the executive and legislative departments of the State Government were found guilty of taking school funds and using them for other purposes.
Jillson’s last report as state superintendent revealed of his troubled administration for eight years and how he occupied the position of a helpless spectator of the misdeeds from the state government.
He died in Massachusetts.
He committed suicide.