Literacy Awareness Month – August 2025

Aug 13, 2025

This month the firm is celebrating Literacy Awareness Month, where we reflect the importance of reading and writing skills in our everyday lives. Literacy is a fundamental part of success in the modern world, and one’s ability to utilize it can affect practically every aspect of their life, including education, employment, personal relationships, and overall participation in society. This month we will be focusing on adult illiteracy, and to that end, this spotlight will delve into the history of adult illiteracy in the United States, as well as highlight some local organizations and businesses that are working towards combating illiteracy rates that you can support.

A Brief History of Adult Literacy in America

Literacy has been a part of the foundation of this country since the very beginning. Children’s education was established relatively early during the colonial period, but there was no similar standardized program for educating adults in the basics of literacy. Although data is limited, it appears most adults learned reading and writing skills on their own volition, and were primarily serviced by private tutors and small commercial schools. The first government effort to educate adults in literacy skills came during the Revolutionary War. General Washington, out of a desire to communicate to his troops through writing, directed chaplains at Valley Forge to teach soldiers in the Continental Army basic reading skills. This was a key event in the history of adult literacy that laid the groundwork for federal intervention in adult education.

It is important to acknowledge the proliferation of anti-literacy laws during this period. These laws made it illegal for slaves and free people of color to read or write, possess reading material, or even be taught to read or write. These laws were enacted by Southern states between 1740 and 1834, and many brave men and women took dire risks to make education available to African Americans. These include such people as Mathilda Beasley, who opened a secret school for enslaved and free children of color in Savannah, Georgia, and John Berry Meacham, who, after being forced by the city of St. Louis to close his church school, operated a steamboat school known as the “Floating Freedom School” on the Mississippi river in order to circumvent local anti-literacy laws.

The turn of the century saw an increased interest in eradicating adult illiteracy. Perhaps the most notable figure during this early period was Cora Wilson Stewart, a superintendent of public schools in Kentucky who pioneered a night program that used materials tailored to adults to teach them to read and write. The program’s success, and Stewart’s prodigious personal charisma, led to the establishment of the first state-run illiteracy commission in the country. And although her efforts were stymied somewhat by the advent of the Great Depression, Stewart’s work was instrumental as a framework for later post-war literacy programs.

Modern Literacy Challenges

Today, adult literacy has grown leaps and bounds in the US, with less people unable to read than at any point in the history of this county. However, there are still plenty of problems with the adult education system, the most notable being the lack of funding. Many programs are unable to find enough qualified instructors to meet demand, resulting in either too few people being serviced or too many people being stuffed into small classes with improper support. This leads to vast areas in different states becoming essentially literary deserts, lacking federally-funded adult education classes of any kind. Most of these areas tend to have low rates of literacy in the first place, leading to a compounding problem of adults of all ages unable to properly read or write. The linked article below contains a reference map that shows the literacy rates across every U.S. county. (https://www.propublica.org/article/literacy-adult-education-united-states)

Places to Support

Open Books – A nonprofit literacy organization based in Chicago that is runs a litany of programs dedicated to growing literacy in the downtown area and breaking down systemic barriers to reading and
writing. Of particular note is their Book Grants program, which distributes free books to educators and nonprofit partners and can be tailored to the age of the students. They also operate bookstores all over the city, so check one out! (https://www.open-books.org/ )

Literacy Chicago – Primarily focusing on adult illiteracy, this organization offers services primarily focused building practical literacy, such as GED and Citizenship preparedness, conversation and speaking skills, and basic tech literacy. (https://www.literacychicago.org/)

Chicago Public Library – In addition to being the second largest public library system in the city (next to the University of Chicago Library), CPL also partners with local colleges to offer numerous programs designed to boost adult literacy, such as GED and ESL classes. (https://www.chipublib.org/resources-for-adult-learning/)