J. L. M. Curry was one of the most important educational reformers in the second half of the nineteenth century. He was born in Georgia, but moved to Alabama at age thirteen. Curry served as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the First Confederate Congress. He was also an officer in the Confederate army. He joined the faculty of Richmond College (later the University of Richmond) in 1868 and taught there until 1881. Once he left the school, Curry became an advocate for education in the South. He worked with the Peabody Education Fund and the John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen to promote industrial education for the region’s African Americans, and worked with state governments in the South to bolster their public education systems. Curry served as president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, as president of the National Baptist Sunday School Convention, as president of the Foreign Mission Board, and served as American minister to Spain. Although a native of Georgia and important citizen of Alabama, Curry’s connection to Virginia was strong and he was buried in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery. The University of Virginia‘s school of education is named for Curry.
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