SCHOOLING AFRICAN AMERICANS
Reconstruction
Redemption
Booker T. Washington
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
Political Economy
RECONSTRUCTION:
 1863-Emancipation Proclamation announced the end of slavery
 1865-Congress passed the 13th Amendment freeing four million
slaves (3.5 million in South)
 1866-14th Amendment passed giving full citizenship to slaves
upon its ratification in 1868
 1867-North increased its influence in the South with the 1st
Reconstruction Act which gave Congress more control over the
Southern political economy
 1870- 15th Amendment established right for black males to
vote-made black men the majority voters in 5 southern states
 1877-Withdrawal of federal troops for the South and the end of
Reconstruction
Political Economy cont…
REDEMPTION:
 1877-marks beginning of the Period of Redemption
 Local white supremacy laws were passed to prohibit black
people from using public facilities such as parks, buildings,
cemeteries, railroad cars, rest rooms, etc…
 1890-Mississippi established literacy and poll tax requirementsdeprived most black people from voting and other states
followed this plan
 In Louisiana black voters were cut from 130,000 to 1,300 in a
six year period
 Successfully destroyed most of the advances made by AfricanAmericans during Reconstruction
Schooling
 After Civil War there were no laws requiring equal education for African
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Americans in the constitution.
During Reconstruction freed men and women constructed laws that included
decisive wording as shall regarding education.
1867-Alabama freed men and Republicans enacted constitutional laws
providing revenue for education
1868-1870-Reconstruction laws enabled blacks to make gains in public
education. Higher percentage of blacks than whites going to school, longer
school terns, higher teacher pay
1875-White Democrats began to take control of the black belt (Redemption).
Freed men were driven out of political offices. Governance of all schools
now in the hands of whites.
Black schools still developed with some success because of 2 key factors:
– Black people could still vote—dangerous to tamper with black public
education if you wanted (needed) the black vote
– Black education was protected because of level safeguards of equal
funding that freedmen had inserted in state constitution
Schooling continued
 1877-1887-percentage of black school age children
exceeded white and still longer school year (84-86 days vs.
71-82)
 1890- Alabama’s State Superintendent of Education Solomon
Palmer devised a plan due to 2 main complaints:
– 1. Black schools received nearly all the area’s school
funds while paying virtually no taxes
– 2. Black pupils were not mentally advanced to the point
where they needed as much education as white people,
and therefore didn’t need as much money for school funds
 1890-House Bill 504 passed (Palmer’s Plan)
– Required State Superintendent to apportion the public
school fund according to the school-age population.
Authorized township trustees to apportion funds as they
deemed “JUST AND EQUITABLE”
Schooling Continued
After 1890
-1887-1897-significant decline in education of blacks
General enrollment and school terms of black children as well
as average pay of black teachers came to a standstill or
decreased
-1915 -Enrollment of white children in public schools
exceeded that of black students
-Average monthly pay of white teachers doubled that
of black teachers
-Approximately 60% of black schools were privately
owned. Large amount of money was contributed by
blacks above what they paid in taxes
Booker T. Washington
 Most prominent black leader from 1895-1915
 Founded Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute after his graduation
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from Hampton Normal School
Strong believer in education
Emphasized pragmatic (oriented toward practical thought or action)
approach to work, traditional morality. And industrial education
Believed that hard labor and the accumulation of property
were the keys to resolving all social problems
Believed that respect and citizenship would come to blacks in
proportion to their accumulation of property, education, and
good jobs
Thought that if African Americans achieved economic
success, political and social gains would automatically follow
Washington cont…
 Believed in Darwin’s theory of biological evolution
 Thought teachers at the Normal School should remain free from
politics and the discussion of the race question and he publicly
advised the general black population to abstain from voting,
running for political office, or speaking out against racial
injustices
 His “Atlanta Compromise” speech called for the advancement
of public education as a means to bring blacks into useful
employment, and economic justification for education of blacks
and an argument aligned with the human capital theory
William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.)
Du Bois
 Born and raised in Massachusetts. He was one of 50 blacks
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living in a town of 5000. Did not experience much overt racism
Attended Fisk College (now University) in Tennessee where he
saw discrimination in forms he never dreamed of.
First African American ever to receive his Doctorate from
Harvard
Became professor at Atlanta University teaching history and
economics
Saw racism as institutionalization and oppressive in the US
Believed the race problem was one of ignorance. Wanted to
gain as much knowledge about this as possible as to form a
“cure” for color prejudice.
Thought assimilation(to take in and incorporate as one’s own)
should be achieved through self-assertion
Du Bois cont…
 Called for organized public protest, legal action against racist
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institutions and higher education for blacks
Believed in the higher education of a “Talented Tenth” who
could guide African Americans into higher civilization.
1906-1 of 25 members of the Niagara Movement. The
objectives of this group were to advocate civil justice and
abolish caste discrimination.
1909-Niagara Movement was forced down by opponents
(rumored Washington’s followers). 24 of the members merged
with some white liberals and formed the NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
Became editor-in-chief for 25 years of Crisis Magazine,
distributing the news of the NAACP and policies. Only wrote of
views that he felt could “Lift the coffin lid off his people.”
Ideology
 Conservative social philosophy which accommodated white
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supremacy and racial segregation
Belief that industrial education and skilled labor would serve as
a means to overcome racial and class discrimination
Darwin’s theory of biological evolution which provided a rational
explanation of the unequal class distribution of wealth and
political power among racial groups
Oppression thought to be the natural process of moral and
cultural evolution (based on Darwin’s theory of biological
evolution)
Black people had only evolved to a cultural stage that was
thousands of years behind whites thus their inferiority position
was the natural order of social evolution
COLD WAR ERA
1930’S TO 1960’S
Political Economy
Ideology
Schooling
James Conant
POLITICAL ECONOMY
1920’s
Businesses making large profits
Food, clothing, new advances
Agriculture, new low
Urban areas-Poverty increased
Racism continuing-Blacks denied decent livings, menial
and low paying jobs
1929-1934
Collapse of the Stock Market
¼ adult population unemployed/lost jobs
Wages slashed
Standard of living reduced
Wealthy became poor
Political Economy cont…
 1945
– End of World War II
– War had created many jobs
– More consumerism
 Demand for single family housing, cars, household
appliances
– Unemployment never exceeded 7% in 1950’s
– Little sympathy shown for poor or dispossessed
 Fear of Soviet Communism
– Afraid that communism would spread
– Threat of spread led to policy of containment
 Containment-US declared they would take any
economic and military means necessary
 Doctrine of First Use-Prerogative to initiate nuclear
bombing whenever enemy forces threatened
American military
Political Economy cont…
 1940’s-1950’s
– Fear of Soviet communism reached hysterical levels.
Joseph McCarthy accused people of belonging to the
Communist Party
 Mid 1950’s
– Less hysteria
– Foreign policy based on the ideological split between the
two superpowers
 Racism
– Since emancipation, African Americans had been
deprived of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
– Slow steps taken toward the elimination of discrimination
 Armed forces desegregated
 Brown vs. Board of Ed.
 Playwrights and film makers focused on discrimination
Political Economy cont…
– Resistance
 Parents of white children in some areas battled black
people and government authority to forestall
integration of public schools
 Zoning ordinances were devised to keep African
Americans out of white neighborhoods
 Banks redlined black business district
 Civil Rights Movement
– Affirmative Action helped to develop a new and larger
class of black professionals and entrepreneurs
– Public school officials called on schools to halt the
vicious cycle of poverty that plagued many African
American families
•Classic liberalism had given way in the Progressive Era to faith
in scientific methods
•Progress considered achievable through science and technolog
•Experts and centralized decision making was linked to progress
Workers were managed by a few elite
•Democracy had come to be regarded as a form of government
that was properly administered by experts
•Leaders from all walks of life assumed that only a few individua
had superior intellects and that the welfare of the
•US depended on locating these individuals—placing them in
positions of authority
•CLASSIC LIBERALISM VS. NEW LIBERAL CONCEPTIONS O
FREEDOM—CHART-PAGE 224
Schooling
 Support for Social Efficiency
– Social Stability
– Employable Skills
– Meritocracy
– Equal Education Opportunities
 GI Bill—read independently-p. 227
 James Conant
– Doctorate at 23 in chemistry from Harvard
– Instructor, then Professor and finally President of
Harvard University (after great depression)
– Great Universities must recruit researchers of the first
rank who were acknowledged experts in their field
– Felt Harvard’s mission was to educate best and brightest
students, regardless of their social or economic
backgrounds
Schooling cont
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 James Conant cont…
– Saw the need to develop a valid measure of
academic aptitude to ensure objectivity in
determining scholarship eligibility
 Wanted to eliminate barriers of only elite being
admitted
 Allow scholarship to those that were
academically gifted
 Decided on SAT (Mid 1930’s)
 Believed exams such as the SAT would be a
nearly fool proof method of ascertaining
academic promise
 Do you think the SAT would be a fool proof
method back then? Now?
Schooling cont
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 James Conant cont..
– Preached Meritocracy—advancement based on own
ability talent--– Favored Vocational Education
– Believed primary purpose of schooling should be not
the growth of every individual (Dewey), but instead the
national interest
 Modern comprehensive high school brought together all
students, vocational and academic, under one roof.
– Tracking system ensured that all students took courses
best suited to their needs
– Forge closer relationships among future professionals,
crafts persons, engineers, and labor leaders.
 Education must match talent to occupations. Through
testing, must select and sort students to prepare for
different occupational roles.
Schooling cont…
 Liberal Education suited only for a few students
 Conant compared goals of Vocational Education to
Gifted Education
 1957-Soviets launched Sputnik report alarming the
American Public
 1983-Nation at Risk equated a failure to teach math
and science as equivalent to universal disarmament
 Progressive Era’s focus of education being for the best
interests of the child and a curriculum to match, Conant
reformers moved back into schooling to be for the
political, economical and social stability of the country