Noah Bartlett Cloud (January 26, 1809 – November 5, 1875) was an American educator, surgeon, and politician. He served as Alabama's "Superintendent of Public Instruction", the superintendent of public schools after the American Civil War; and served as a state representative for Montgomery County, Alabama, in 1873 in the

Alabama House of Representatives The Alabama State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency contai ...

. As Alabama School Superintendent he sought to establish a public school system in Alabama for both white and black students. He was labeled a " scalawag" by Southerners.

Biography

Noah B. Cloud was born on January 26, 1809, in Edgefield District (now Edgefield County), South Carolina. He graduated from

Jefferson Medical College Thomas Jefferson University is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. To signify its heritage, the univer ...

in Pennsylvania in 1835. He was a member of the Whig Party, the Union Party, and then a Republican. He moved to Macon County, Alabama in 1838. Cloud served as a surgeon in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). After the war he was appointed the first to be Alabama's "Superintendent of Public Instruction" (now Alabama State Superintendent of Education) for the

Alabama State Department of Education The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) is the state education agency of Alabama. It is headquartered at 50 North Ripley Street in Montgomery. The department was formed by the Alabama Legislature in 1854. The department serves over 740 ...

. On September 1, 1868, Cloud and University of Alabama's president

Arad Simon Lakin Rev. Arad Simon Lakin (May 10, 1810–January 22, 1890) was an American minister, and university president. He was a Methodist minister from New York state, sent to Alabama in order to reestablish the national Methodist Church in the state, and wa ...

were the subject's of a Klan cartoon published in the ''Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor'' (see image). The cartoon featured images of the two educators lynched and hanging from a tree in the "City of Oaks" (or Tuscaloosa), with a KKK-labeled donkey below them, walking away. He edited the ''Cotton Planter'' magazine (later known as ''

The American Cotton Planter and Soil of the South ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

)''. He married Mary M. Barton. He had a farm on Uchee Creek in

Russell County, Alabama Russell County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 59,183. Its county seat is Phenix City. Its name is in honor of Colonel Gilbert C. Russell, who fought in the wars agai ...

. Some of his correspondence as superintendent of education are extant.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cloud, Noah B. 1809 births 1875 deaths Confederate States Army surgeons Republican Party members of the Alabama House of Representatives Whig Party (United States) politicians Union Party (United States) politicians Jefferson Medical College alumni People from Russell County, Alabama